It has been a real honor and privilege to serve as Chair of the Sociology of Culture Section. One of the greatest pleasures has been seeing the commitment and generosity with which so many people dedicated their time and efforts to serve on our multiple committees. We all have many pressures on our time, and it would be all too easy to prioritize many of those pressures over the (generally invisible) committee work that happens in the Culture Section throughout the year. But I saw the opposite, so many people putting in hard work and making it look like it wasn’t. We will be reporting on and celebrating all the important and exciting work our committees have done at our Business Meeting in Philadelphia. Please come and join us!

The 2023 ASA Annual Meeting is less than a month away. We have a full Section conference program, with a slate of exciting Section sessions thanks to incoming Chair Monika Krause and Programming Committee members Fabien Accominotti, Guillermina Altomonte, Omar Lizardo, Jaimie Morse, and Derron Wallace. We also have a new installment of our successful Early Career Professionalization Panel. And of course the Culture Section Roundtables. Our Business Meeting will be on Sunday, August 20, 9-9:30am. We will be celebrating all the Section award winners, as well as all the work our
committees have accomplished this year. We hope to see many of you at our Section events.

Last but not least, our Culture Section Reception! Our off-site joint Culture-Theory Reception will be on Sunday, August 20, 6-8pm, at Ladder 15 (1528 Sansom Street), a short walk from the Pennsylvania Convention Center. There will be an open bar and free food, and interesting people to talk with. Please come join us! We all owe a big thank you to our Reception Committee members Cresa Pugh (Chair) and Alexander Hoppe for finding the site and making all the arrangements. 

ASA Annual Meeting Sociology of Culture Section Sessions

Information about our Section sessions and activities is below. For full conference program information, please visit the online program on the ASA website. We hope to see many of you at our Section events!

Early Career Professionalization Panel: From Dissertation to Book (Invited Session), Sunday, August 20, 8-9am, Marriott Philadelphia Downtown, Level 4, Franklin Hall 4

Organizer: X. Amy Zhang, George Madison University

Section on Sociology of Culture Business Meeting, Sunday, August 20, 9-9:30am, Marriott Philadelphia Downtown, Level 4, Franklin Hall 4

Comparative and International Perspectives on Race and Culture (Invited Session, co-sponsored by Sociology of Culture and Race, Gender, Class), Sunday, August 20, 10-11:30am, Marriott Philadelphia Downtown, Level 4, Franklin Hall 8

Organizer: Derron Wallace, Brandeis University         

Cultures of Expertise: Mediating Global Challenges, Sunday, August 20, 2-3:30pm, Marriott Philadelphia Downtown, Level 4, Franklin Hall 7

Organizer: Monika Christine Krause, London School of Economics

Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtables, Sunday, August 20, 4-5:30pm, Marriott Philadelphia Downtown, Level 5, Grand Ballroom Salon E

Organizer: Guillermina Altomonte, New York University

Sociology of Culture-Theory Joint Reception, Sunday, August 20, 6-8pm, Ladder 15 (1528 Sansom Street)

Modeling Cultures (co-sponsored by Sociology of Culture and Mathematical Sociology), Monday, August 21, 8-9:30am, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 100 Level, 103C            

Organizers: Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra, University of California-San Diego and Ronald L. Breiger, University of Arizona

Culture and the State, Monday, August 21, 10-11:30am, Marriott Philadelphia Downtown, Level 4, Franklin Hall 13

Organizer: Fiona Greenland, University of Virginia

The Sociology of Art and Art Institutions, Monday, August 21, 12-1:30pm, Marriott Philadelphia Downtown, Level 4, Franklin Hall 13            

Organizer: Patricia A. Banks, Mount Holyoke College

Our previous Newsletter was less than two months ago, but there is always new Section work to report on. Our Membership Committee (Marshall A. Taylor (Chair), Thomas Davidson, Asia Friedman, Khoa Phan Howard, Samantha Leonard, and Amy Zhang (council liaison)) has finalized forming this year’s mentoring pods for our Mentorship Program. Marshall Taylor has written a thorough and interesting report on it for this Newsletter.

Our Dissertation Improvement (Mohr) Grant Committee (Tania Aparicio (Chair), Joshua Doyle, Jelani Ince, Mehr Latif, Chanel Prince, and Craig Rawlings) has received many applications for the grant (more than last year!) and will be selecting two award winners before the ASAs. We will share the announcement and celebrate the winners at our Business Meeting. Thank you Tania for all your work on shepherding this committee!

Our always hard-working Newsletter Editors and Newsletter Committee have put together another fantastic issue. Our “Four Questions with…” Series has Jennifer Dudley (Newsletter Committee) interviewing Mario Small about qualitative research and public-facing sociology. Joselyne Quiroz reviews Alka Menon’s Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards (University of California Press). We have a report on our latest Culture and Contemporary Life (CCL) Series panel, “Theodicy and the Problem of Meaning,” by Manning Zhang (to watch this panel, or any previous CCL session, click here). Nathalie Heinich has written a piece for the Newsletter on “Taxing and the Boundaries of Art.” The report on the Mentoring Program by Marshall A. Taylor (Membership Committee Chair), and a set of announcements sourced by Hannah Wohl (Communications Committee Chair) close the issue. Thank you to the lead Editor for this issue, Manning Zhang, the Newsletter editorial team, our webmaster Derek Robey, and the Newsletter Committee for preparing a great issue.

Putting together four newsletters in a year is a whole lot of work. I want to thank our fantastic and hard-working Newsletter editorial team, Elizabeth Trudeau, Man Yao, Manning Zhang, and webmaster Derek Robey for making it happen. The Newsletter Committee was newly created this year, and it has proved to be a great addition to support the work of the editorial team. Thank you, Hannah Wohl (Chair), Lisa McCormick, Ann Mullen, Jennifer Dudley, Anne Marie Champagne, and Derek Robey for all your work!

I would also like to thank departing council members Karida Brown, Japonica Brown-Saracino, and Amy Zhang for their service to the section. A big thank-you is owed to our departing COO, the incomparable Clayton Childress. Unfailingly helpful and detailed, and the most supportive and cheerful team member one could ask for. Last but not least, I want to welcome incoming Chair Monika Krause and Chair-Elect Clayton Childress, COO Ming-Cheng M. Lo, and council members Michaela DeSoucey, Laura K. Nelson, Natasha Warikoo, and Yesenia Vargas. 

Serving as the Sociology of Culture section Chair has been a tremendous honor. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.