Fall 2012 Medical Sociology Section of the Asa a Publication of the a Publication
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VOLUME 49, ISSUE 1 MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY NEWSLETTER FALL 2012 MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY SECTION OF THE ASA A PUBLICATION OF THE A PUBLICATION INSIDE THIS ISSUE: NOTES FROM THE NEW CHAIR BY ALLAN V. HORWITZ NOTES FROM THE NEW CHAIR 1-2 2012 ELECTION The upcoming months will be exciting ones considerable public controversy and media RESULTS 2 for medical sociologists. One of the central attention regarding issues such as what is 2013 ASA issues in the impending national election mental disorder? Are mental disorders con- SESSIONS DESCRIPTION & 3-4 will be the fate of the Affordable Care Act, tinuous or categorical? Should definitions CALL FOR PAPERS the most significant piece of social legisla- of mental disorder be broad or narrow? tion in the United States over the past for- What are the consequences of labels of 2012 SECTION AWARDS 4-5 ty years. The positions of Barack Obama mental illness? These concerns, which are 2012 RAFFLE and Mitt Romney represent starkly differ- of central interest to medical sociologists, REPORT 6 ent perspectives on the value of this legis- have rarely generated such intense interest ANNOUNCEMENT lation, which has come to signify not only in public forums. OF ODIN ANDER- 6 SON MANUSCRIPT the relative value of public- and private- centered solutions to social problems but Another trend of great significance to our CAREER & EMPLOYMENT 7 also more general social attitudes toward section is the ongoing transformation of COLUMN health inequalities. The fate of this legisla- thinking about the relationship of genes TEACHING TIPS COLUMN 8 tion is certain to have a major impact on and diseases. Genetic researchers are in- the social factors that influence the utiliza- creasingly coming to realize that environ- STUDENT REPORT tion of medical services as well as the de- mental exposure profoundly impacts the FROM US-UK 9 CONFERENCE terminants of health and illness and the extent to which genes affect health out- shape of medical care systems. comes. Indeed, purely genetic influences STUDENT NEWS & 10 VIEWS COLUMN might be more of the exception than the OFFICERS OF THE A second important event for medical soci- rule regarding the emergence of most dis- SECTION 11 ologists will be the impending publication eases. This revolution in the prevailing ge- (currently scheduled for May 2013) of the netic paradigm of health and disease REMINDERS newest edition of the American Psychiatric should afford many opportunities for medi- Associations Diagnostic and Statistical cal sociologists to explore the mutual and MSN Winter deadline Manual (DSM-5). The processes surround- interactive impacts of social and biological January 7, 2013 ing the development of this classificatory factors on relevant outcomes. 2013 ASA Annual Meeting manual of mental disorders have led to (continued on page 2) August 1, New York City 2014 ASA Annual Meeting August 16-19, San We have a critical need for new members of Francisco the section—Please keep signing up students & colleagues! See the call on page 6. MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY NEWSLETTER Page 2 MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY SECTION 2012 ELECTION RESULTS Congratulations to our incoming section officers and Council members! The Nominations Committee extends a sincere thank you to all section members who agreed to run for office. Renee Anspach, Chair, ([email protected]), Laura Carpenter, incoming chair ([email protected]), Richard Carpiano ([email protected]), Michelle Frisco ([email protected]), and Kathy Lin ([email protected]) Section Chair Elect: Chair, Membership Committee: Susan Bell, Bowdoin College Molly Martin, Pennsylvania State University Secretary-Treasurer Elect: Chair Elect, Nominations Committee: Karen Lutfey, New England Research Institute Rene Almeling, Yale University Council Member at Large, Regular: Members, Nominations Committee, Regular: Dawne Mouzon, Rutgers University Elizabeth Armstrong, Princeton University Council Member at Large, Student: Kerry Dobransky, James Madison University Chioun Lee, Rutgers University Member, Nominations Committee, Student: Chair, Health Policy and Research Committee : Vanessa Munoz, Brandeis University Jennie Kronenfeld, Arizona State University NOTES FROM THE NEW CHAIR (continued from page 1) prominence of the section. All of us are especially grateful to Eric Wright for his outstanding leadership Our section day for the 2013 meetings in New York as section Chair over the past year. In addition, Sara City will be the first day, August 10. The annual Shostak (Council Member-at-Large), Renee Anspach Business Meeting, Awards Ceremony, and Chuck (Chair, Nominations Committee), Richard Carpiano Bosk’s Reeder Lecture will all be held on this day. (Nominations Committee Member), Michelle Frisco The Medical Sociology sessions for the 2013 meet- (Nominations Committee Member), Kathy Lin ings, which are described in more detail in the call (Nominations Committee Student Member), Sydney for papers in this newsletter, reflect a number of Halpern (Chair, Health Policy Committee), Rachel emergent trends in our field. They include a session Kimbro (Chair, Membership Committee), and Christy on the DSM-5, jointly sponsored with the ASA Men- Erving (Student Council Representative-at-Large) tal Health Section, Bio/Social interactions, Emer- have all done excellent jobs during their two year gent Medical Epidemics, the Sociology of Diagnosis, terms in their respective positions. Immigration and Health, and Roundtables in Medi- cal Sociology. The ASA will circulate paper guide- I’m looking forward to another stimulating year of lines in its “Call for Papers” online in late October section activities and to seeing all of you in New (http://www.asanet.org/AM2013/index.cfm). All York City next August. The Section’s listserv will also papers must be submitted through the ASA’s online be active during the entire period – send relevant submission system, which will open on December materials for posting to me at: 7, 2012 and close on January 9, 2013. [email protected] Best wishes for a healthy and productive year, Finally, I would like to thank our outgoing officers Allan V. Horwitz who have done so much to maintain the quality and VOLUME 49, ISSUE 1 Page 3 2013 ASA PROGRAM: SUBMIT YOUR PAPERS! All sessions are open sessions this year. health conditions that are considered new and/or 1. Sociological Perspectives on the DSM-5 (Jointly contested, whether communicable or non- sponsored with Sociology of Mental Health). Over communicable. It will consider questions such as: the past thirty years, the Diagnostic and Statistical How do conceptualizations or uses of the epidem- Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has become ic matter for disease classification, diagnostic tremendously influential in all facets of mental measures, understandings of disease patterns health - from research to clinical practice, from in- and risk, or lived experiences of disease? In what surance reimbursement to institutional practices, ways do emergent epidemics interact with or influ- from the development of psychoactive drugs to pa- ence institutions or public policies and with what tient identity and mobilization. The DSM- 5 Task social, moral, or political dimensions and conse- Force has proposed dramatic revisions that have quences? What social processes underlie the produced created great controversy both within emergence of new epidemics? psychiatry and the popular press that raise funda- Miranda R. Waggoner, Office of Population Re- mental issues about our culture's approach to men- search, Princeton University, tal illness. This session invites papers on the DSM- [email protected] 5 (i.e. the revision process itself or its impact on 4. Sociology of Diagnosis: Diagnosis takes place specific diagnostic categories) that explore such at the junctures between health and illness, lay topics as the ramifications for (over)medicalization, and professional definitions, and institutions and professional politics, the social construction of men- agents. It serves as an important device for study- tal illness, and/or the sociology of mental health. ing sociological concerns in medicine. This panel Session Organizer: Owen Wholley, Department of will cover a range of topics of interest to a sociolo- Sociology, University of New Mexico, gy of diagnosis including (but not restricted to) the [email protected] social framing of diagnostic classification, the pro- 2. Emergent Research in BioSocial Interactions. cess of diagnosis, and the social consequences of Sociologists are just beginning to explore the rich diagnosis. intersections of how social and biological factors Session organizer: Annemarie Jutel, Graduate jointly produce health outcomes. This panel will School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Victoria; explore how social factors “get under the skin” to University of Wellington. shape health outcomes through examination of [email protected] topics such as gene and environment interactions, 5. Immigration and Health: Immigration often has psychophysiological experiments, and the use of profound consequences for many issues of con- biomarkers as outcomes in sociological research. cern to medical sociologists. These include, but Session Organizer: Kristen W. Springer, Department are not limited to, the impact of immigration on of Sociology, Rutgers University, health, changing health status among the children [email protected] of immigrants, the health of host populations, the 3. Emerging Medical Epidemics utilization of health services, and changing styles