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Newsletter for the Section on Teaching and Learning Newsletter of the ASA Section Evolution, Biology & Society Volume 14, Number 3 - Winter 2019 2020 Officers and Council Members Thoughts from the Chair Russell Schutt – University of Massachusetts, Chair Boston Russell K. Schutt, University of Massachusetts- Boston - 2020 Chair-Elect Rosemary L. Hopcroft, UNC Charlotte - 2020 Past Chair Dudley L. Poston, Jr. Texas A&M University - 2020 Secretary/Treasurer Hexuan Liu, University of Cincinnati - 2022 Council Members Dear Members of the Evolution, Biology and Society Kenneth C. Land, Duke Univeristy – 2020 Section of ASA: Joseph C. Dipping, UNC Charlotte – 2021 Kevin John McCaffree, IUPU-Fort Wayne – 2021 As I prepared to give a talk on evolutionary biology and Dawn T. Robinson, University of Georgia – 2021 sociology to David Sloan Wilson’s interdisciplinary Matthew E. Brashears, University of South Carolina- course at Binghamton University in March 2018, I Columbia – 2022 decided to check on the treatment of evolution and Rengin Bahar Firat, UC, Riverside – 2022 biology in introductory sociology texts. Simply swiveling Newsletter Editor around in my office I pulled off the shelf the four recent Anne F. Eisenberg – [email protected] Introduction to Sociology texts I owned. Not much of a sample, but all from major publishers and in common Webmaster use. While disappointing, but not surprising, I found that Daniel Durrill, UNC Charlotte none of the texts had a separate chapter on evolution, sociality, or biology and only a rare index entry on these topics. There were occasional references to Darwin, the TABLE OF CONTENTS connection between biology as related to crime, or the evolution of emotions in support of group life. Officers and Council Members………………. 1 Thoughts from the Chair………………………. 1-2 Of the four texts, only one acknowledged some relevance EBS at ASA 2020 ………….. ……………………… 2-3 of biology and evolution to contemporary social life, but Call for Nominations for Section Awards 3-4 even this acknowledgment was qualified in a way that Call for Newsletter Submissions …………… 4 suggested that it made sense to “deny the importance of EBS Highlights ……………………………………. 4 [including in this book any serious consideration of the role of] nature.” This point is further highlighted by the Kent State’s Neurosociology Lab…. 4-5 fact that when I asked the 24 students in my senior Graduate Student Profile…………….. 6 seminar on EBS this semester about their prior exposure Chair’s Challenge…………………………. 6-7 Book Review………………………………………… 7-10 to the issues that comprise the core of EBS concerns, I EBS Members’ News and Updates…………. 10 found that they had had none. This dearth of attention to such issues in the discipline is reflected in our membership data. So – let’s look at the numbers. 1 Although EBS membership actually rose by eight in the years and to place on probation—and ultimately close— past year, our 2019 total of 104 still leaves us as the sections that do not sustain a membership of at least 200. smallest of ASA’s 52 sections. Nor is this a one-time fluke: And it’s not a problem for another day. This is the year membership in EBS has declined in most years since a that EBS is to be reviewed by ASA Council, so it’s hard to high of 203 in 2008. Our decade-long decline of 49% envision a section more at risk of the ignominy of places us in a virtual tie for the bottom with only one probation. Given the decade of decline, it’s also hard to other section (Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco lost a avoid worrying that the next review will be our last. And comparable fraction of 51%, but still has 140 members), lest you think that the next generation will save us, with just one more section (Ethnomethodology and there’s yet more bad news from the section data: EBS is Conversation Analysis) even approaching our pace of tied for last place in terms of student membership (16%) decline (down by 39% to 115). and almost in first place in emeritus membership (15%). To be Darwinian about it, we are failing in the struggle More to the point – survival of the section requires for existence. We can learn even more from section that EBS broaden its appeal across the discipline, membership data about the small environmental niche including sparking interest among those who have that our section occupies. Compared to the other sections strongly argued that there is no place in sociology for that focus on issues with an intrinsically biological any form of evolutionary science, biology and element, our 49% membership decline over the past neuroscience. decade is much worse: Animals and Society (-15%), I believe our program for the 2020 ASA Annual Meeting Sociology of Emotions (-10%), Medical Sociology (-8%), is an important step toward a more evocative, Sociology of Body and Embodiment (unchanged). welcoming, and inclusive vision of sociology (as so ably Compared to other sections whose focus has intersected represented by the work of Will Kalkhoff’s with EBS topics and issues, we are also in poor shape: Electrophysiological Neuroscience Laboratory, described in Race, Gender, and Class (up 1%), Racial and Ethnic his article in this newsletter). Three open sessions will Minorities (up 7%), Sociology of Sex and Gender showcase research in neurosociology/social (unchanged), and History of Sociology itself (unchanged). neuroscience (organized by Rengin Firat), research There is also an instructive comparison to be made with about biomarkers (organized by EBS members Bridget the sections whose focus reflects current controversies Goosby and Jacob Cheadle, but technically only a Medical in evolutionary biology: Rationality and Society (-20%), Sociology session), and papers that debate and analyze Sociology of Culture (-19%), Altruism, Morality, and theoretical alternatives in EBS (organized by Matthew Social Solidarity (up 71%). Brashears), as well as a special 60-minute session There is one last, telling point about the niche that EBS cohosted with the sections on Medical Sociology and occupies within the social environment of the ASA. As of Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity focused on new the latest 2018 data available on the ASA website, we research and books on human nature (organized by have the distinction of being the ONLY section whose Dawn Robinson). membership as self-reported in that year is exclusively I also plan to launch a dynamic EBS website, establish a white. Specifically, while 63% of ASA members self- consultant’s bureau, increase our connection to other identified as white in 2018, the corresponding ASA sections to encourage their members to join EBS, percentage of EBS section members was 81.25—the and increase the section’s connection with the Evolution highest among all 52 sections—and the percentage who Institute’s rich network of researchers. Throughout the did not identify their race/ethnicity was 18.75—the year, we all need to rededicate ourselves to publicizing highest percent “missing” among the sections. That the section and providing gift memberships to students leaves 0.00% of section members in 2018 self-identified and others. as African American, Asian/Asian American, Hispanic/Latino(a), Native American, Other, and I and the other EBS officers and council members Multiple. The comparative picture with regard to gender welcome your ideas for engaging with our discipline and is also troubling. In an association in which 54% of growing our membership (see the Challenge on pp. 6-7)! members identify as female, EBS’s 31% was higher than only four other sections: History of Sociology (30%), EBS at ASA 2020 - San Francisco Rationality and Society (27%), Marxist Sociology (25%), and Mathematical Sociology (24%). Invited Session Have I got your attention? I hope so, because I think I Organizer: Dawn T Robinson, University of Georgia would not be doing my job as this year’s chair if I didn’t “On Human Nature: New Approaches in the 21st Century” alert members to these uncomfortable facts about our ongoing failure to appeal to a larger and wider segment Since moving beyond the nature versus nurture debate, of the ASA membership. The ASA policy is to review sociological research into the biological bases and membership numbers and section activity every three consequences of social behavior has generated new insights about human nature. A distinguished panel of sociologists 2 will discuss the newest efforts to conceptualize human historical and contemporary developments and help to create nature, drawing on the latest research and two new a new foundation for connecting sociology and evolutionary comprehensive books: Jonathan Turner’s The Sociology of biology—with compelling examples from recent Human Nature and Nicholas Christakis’s Blueprint: The sociological research using such techniques as social Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society. The discussion will network analysis and multilevel modeling—while also focus on recent theoretical arguments regarding the co- highlighting challenges that remain. evolution of genes and culture and also highlight recent empirical research on how social conditions become Open Papers Session III biologically embedded in individuals, emphasizing the Organizers: Bridget J. Goosby and Jacob E. Cheadle, interaction between environment and genetics in relation to University of Texas at Austin (for Medical Sociology health, well-being, and prosocial behavior. This panel section) discussion is jointly sponsored by the ASA sections on “Expanding Diversity of Biosocial Research: Opportunities & Challenges” Evolution, Biology and Society, Medical Sociology, and Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity. The use of biological data in sociological research has Panelists: diversified greatly over the years to the point where various Marion Blute, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto measures can now occupy different places in our theoretical Ronald L. Simons, Distinguished Research Professor, models. With this diversity social scientists are now studying University of Georgia how "what is under the skin" (e.g., genetics, microbiome) Jonathan H.
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