Mary Douglas Prize for Best BookCommittee members: Gabriel Abend (Chair), Fabien Accominotti, Karida Brown, Meredith Hall, Gemma Mangione, Amy Singer, Michael Vaughn Co-Winners: The New Noir: Race, Identity, and Diaspora in Black Suburbia by Orly ClergéThe New Noir is an excellently researched and exquisitely rendered work. Coupling detailed socio-historical analysis and ethnographic study of black diasporic suburbs of New York City, Orly Clergé challenges the … Continue reading SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE AWARD SUMMARIES 2020

Tad SkotnickiUniversity of North Carolina at Greensboro In a world lousy with crises from the spectacular to the mundane, we often glimpse an immense infrastructure of humanitarian nongovernmental organizations seeking to relieve human suffering. But as Shai Dromi reveals in Above the Fray – an intricate sociological history of the Red Cross – the organization’s astounding success in the second half of the nineteenth century … Continue reading Above the Fray: The Red Cross and the Making of the Humanitarian NGO Sector by Shai Dromi. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020.

Jun FangNorthwestern UniversityWebsite: http://www.philipjunfang.comEmail: junfang2015@u.northwestern.eduDissertation Title:When China Meets Hollywood: Global Collaboration and State Intervention in a Creative IndustryAs a sociologist of culture, markets, and globalization studying China’s engagement with the West,Fang broadly addresses how the contrasting forces of nationalism and globalization shape processes ofcreative production. His dissertation is an ethnography of how Chinese conglomerates and Hollywoodstudios co-produce films and navigate state censorship. It argues that … Continue reading Job Market Profiles

Research disrupted. That extra labor to hone that zoom pedagogy. An unthinkable job market. The stress of (surprise!) homeschooling your kids. The looming cloud of pestilence. Threats to our democracy. The ongoing crisis of racial injustice. And. And. And. With all this going on, I expected to hear crickets when I asked for volunteers to serve on committees for the section. Instead I was overwhelmed … Continue reading Letter From the Chair, Fall 2020