Department of Sociology Newsletter Vol. 9 - 2016 Inside This Issue: Every year, the Department of Sociology engages in dynamic research initiatives and professional work. As the 2015-2016 academic year comes to a close, there is Faculty Members Receive Local & 2 much to celebrate in terms of achievement: National Awards national awards, media recognition, Public Sociology at Work: Receives 5 fellowships, grants, publications and more. Regional Honors Beyond these accolades, this year marks the Sociology Welcomes New Faculty! 6 end of Bandana Purkayastha’s appointment as Head of Sociology. Bandana’s work over the past five years has shown her passion for advancement Department Head Transitions 8 within both the field of Sociology and at UConn. Join us in acknowledging these accomplishments by taking a look at our 2016 Newsletter! Publications 11 Sociologists in the News 13 UCONN Professor Receives Graduate Student Highlights 15 Prestigious Jessie Bernard Award Students Launch Interdisciplinary 19 Symposium Nancy Naples, Professor of Sociology and Director of the New Cohort Announcement 21 Women’s, gender, and Sexuality Studies program at UCONN, was Undergraduates Achieve Success 23 selected to receive the 2015 Jessie Bernard Career Award from the And more! American Sociological Association (ASA). In 2014, Nancy was award- ed the Lee founders award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP). Department of Sociology University of Connecticut About the award: The Jessie Bernard Award is given in Harry G. Manchester Hall recognition of scholarly work that has 344 Mansfield Road, Unit 1068 enlarged the horizons of Storrs, CT 06269 sociology to encompass fully the role of women in society. It is presented for sociology.uconn.edu significant cumulative work done Phone: (860) 486 4422 throughout a professional career. Fax: (860) 486 6356 2016 Sociology Department Newsletter Awards, Grants, Fellowships, and Honors 2015 - 2016 Faculty Book Award Faculty Fellows & Visiting Scholars Matthew Hughey’s book, The White Maya Beasley has been appointed a Fellow at Savior Film (Temple UP) the Center for American Progress and will be received the 2016 “Outstanding working on their Progress 2050 campaign. Publication Award” from the Ruth Braunstein has been invited to join the Southwest Sociological Association. Yale University Center for Cultural The White Savior Film was also Sociology as a Faculty Fellow. selected as a 2015 Finalist for the Peter C. Rollins Book Prize. Matthew Hughey has been invited to be the Charles Phelps Taft Memorial Fulbright Announcement Lecturer for the 2016-2017 academic year at the University of Cincinnati. Bandana Purkayastha has been awarded a Fulbright Nehru Senior Research Excellence award for 2017. She Matthew has also been selected as a Visiting will be in India working on her project on Water, Scholar with the Center for the Study of Inequalities, and Rights. Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University for 2016-2017, and he will be Visiting Profes- Grants & Fellowships sor of Race and Research Ethics at the Universiteit Van Die Vrystaat (University of the Free State), in Bloemfontein, South Af- Elizabeth Holzer continues to work on her NSF PIRE rica for a week in September 2016. grant on water in Ethiopia; Bradley Wright continues to work on his Templeton grant on Bandana Purkayastha has been invited to be spirituality. a Fellow to the Institute for Advanced Studies, JNU, in India. Three faculty members received funding from UCONN’s Scholarship Facilitation Fund (SFF): Upcoming Award Announcements** Ruth Braunstein, “Progressive Religion and Social **Details and pictures will be featured in next year’s newsletter Activism: New Approaches to Understanding Faith and Politics in America.” Mary Bernstein will receive the Christin Munsch, “The Interaction of Masculine Status 2017 Simon-Gagnon Lifetime and Masculinity Threat on Compensatory Attitudes and Achievement Award. Behavior.” Ruth Braunstein will receive the 2016 Clifford Geertz Award for Best Daisy Reyes, “Disparate Lessons: How Stratification in Article Award. Higher Education Shapes Latinos.” Matthew Hughey will receive Two faculty members were awarded 2016-2017 the 2016 Helena Znaniecki Lopata UCHI PDP Fellowships from the Humanities Institute: Mentoring Excellence Award. Matthew Hughey, “White identity, organizational Bandana Purkayastha will homogeneity, and interpretations of racial stratification receive the 2016 Asia and Asian and redistributive polices for African Americans and America Contribution’s to The Field Latinos.” Award. Daisy Reyes, “Student protests against racial microaggressions and for inclusion on campuses.” 2016 Sociology Department Newsletter 2 Nancy Naples, Chair, Section on Race, Gen- der and Class (2016-2017), and Chair Elect Editorships (2015-2016) Bandana Purkayastha, ASA’s Representative to the International Sociological Association, Matthew Hughey (with Carson Byrd, U of Louisville) has (2014-2018) guest-edited a special issue entitled “Race, Racial Inequality, and Biological Determinism in the Genetic Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) and Genomic Era” in the journal The ANNALS of the Manisha Desai, Co-chair, Publications American Academy of Political and Social Science. Committee Christin Munsch, Chair, Career Our faculty continue to serve in different editorial Development Committee capacities, including Ruth Braunstein (The Immanent Frame (TIF)), Simon Cheng and Manisha Desai, (Ed. Society for the Study of Social Problems Board, American Sociological Review), Andrew Deener (Ed. (SSSP) Board, Contemporary Sociology), Manisha Desai (Ed. Matthew Hughey, Co-Chair, Division of Boards, Feminist Formations, Societies Without Borders: Hu- Racial and Ethnic Minorities (2015-2017) man Rights and the Social Sciences, International Feminist Nancy A. Naples, Chair, Editorial and Journal of Politics, Women, Gender, and Families of Color, Publications Committee (2013-2016) and the Gender & Sexuality Section of Sociology Compass), Mary Fischer (Ed. Board, Sociology Stratification Section of Sociology Compass), Matthew Hughey (Associate Editor of Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Associate Editor of the Invited Talks & Lectures Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Ed. Boards, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Social Problems, and as Deputy Editor, Ruth Braunstein was the invited guest Humanity & Society), Matthew Hughey and Christin speaker at the April 2016 meeting of the Munsch (Ed. Board, Social Psychology Quarterly), Bandana Storrs/Willimantic branch of AAUW. The Purkayastha (Ed. Boards, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity discussion was centered on her research on and the Journal of South Asian Diasporas), Daisy Reyes (Ed. the Tea Party and faith-based community Board, Sociology of Education), David Weakliem (Editor of organizing. During 2014-2015, she was an Comparative Sociology). American Fellow of AAUW. Ruth also spoke at numerous occasions throughout the academic year: Appointments Panelist: “Making Sense of the Topsy Turvy 2016 Presidential Race,” orga- Davita Silfen Glasberg has been reappointed CLAS nized by UConn Alumni Association Associate Dean of Social sciences and Undergraduate At the Mark Twain House and Education at University of Connecticut. Museum. (12/2/2015) “Putting Faith (in Democracy) in Ac- Several faculty members have been appointed to serve tion in the Tea Party and Faith-based in prominent positions in the discipline Community Organizing,” at the Ur- ban Ethnography Workshop at the American Sociological Association (ASA) University of Pennsylvania. (2/12/16) Andrew Deener, Chair of Membership Committee, Section on Community and Urban Sociology Panelist: “Volatile Junctures’: Map- Manisha Desai, Section Council of the Section on ping Writing Disciplines, and the Sociology of Development (2017), and Chair, Section on Public,” Closing Reception of the 11th Human Rights (2015-2016) Annual Conference on the Teaching Matthew Hughey, Member, Committee on Publications of Writing at UCONN. (3/25/16) (2016-2017) (Continued on next page) 2016 Sociology Department Newsletter 3 Manisha Desai was invited to present at the Expert Workshop on Human Rights organized by New York University and the University of Antwerp. Manisha’s Public Sociology presentation was titled: “Beyond Vernacularization and Localization: Human Rights Struggles in the U.S.” Connecting Theory & Practice Manisha was an invited speaker at two more events Phoebe Godfrey’s co-founded non-profit during the 2015-2016 academic year. The title of her talks CLiCK continues to grow and to successfully were: receive both local and federal grant funding “Towards Epistemic Justice: Feminist, Subaltern, to further its mission of working towards a Postcolonial and Decolonial Approaches” at the more just and sustainable local food system Hawaiian Sociological Association. (2/19/16) through the incubation of small food “Beyond Beijing Plus Twenty: Changes in the In- businesses, the implementation of local food ternational Women's Activism at the UN” on In- processing and health and nutrition ternational Women's Day at Eastern Michigan education. University. (3/8/16) This connects Bandana Purkayastha was invited to give the academic with the work keynote address on Intersectionality and Power at the Black Phoebe has done Law Students Association’s annual Night of Inspiration this past Spring, held at the UCONN Law School. (2/18/16) in which she completed two co- e d i t e d volumes both of Conference Participation which challenge and inspire readers to foster