• Source: American Sociological Association

The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fifty people, the first president of the association would be Lester Frank Ward. Today, most of its members work in academia, while around 20 percent of them work in government, business, or non-profit organizations.
ASA publishes ten academic journals and magazines, along with four section journals, including the American Sociological Review and Contexts.
The ASA had 9,893 members in 2023, as an association of sociologists even larger than the International Sociological Association. It is composed of researchers, students, college/university faculty, high school faculty, and various practitioners The "American Sociological Association Annual Meeting" is an annual academic conference held by the association consisting of over 4,000 participants.




History






= Founding

=
In the summer of 1905, George Washington University professor C. W. A. Veditz began a discussion among sociologists throughout the United States, writing to several dozen people to gauge the need for or interest in forming an sociological organization. Sociologists debated whether there was a need for a separate organization from the American Economic Association, American Political Science Association and the American Historical Association, which most sociologists at the time were members of. Ultimately, a consensus was reached that the time had come for a society of sociologists in the U.S.
In early December, Veditz and eight others wrote to about 300 people inviting them to a special session during the American Economic Association (AEA) and American Political Science Association meetings later that month to discuss the potential formation of a sociological society.
On December 27, approximately 50 people, including one woman, gathered in McCoy Hall at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and, by its end, the group would motion to form a new society of sociologists. Though there would be debate as to integrating this new society with an existing organization, such as the AEA, the group would ultimately decide that the new society ought to be an independent entity.



The committee

At the end of the day of the initial meeting, those gathered at the meeting formed a five-person committee to develop a plan for the new society and how it should be governed. The committee members would re-convene the next afternoon to review the proposed structure of the society. Council members would include Edward A. Ross, W.F. Wilcox, Albion Small, Samuel Lindsay, D. C. Wells, and William Davenport.
The following men would be elected officers of the new society:

Lester Frank Ward, president
William Graham Sumner, first vice president
Franklin Giddings, second vice president
C.W.A. Veditz (the professor), secretary and treasurer
When the committee left Baltimore, the birth of the American Sociological Society was complete, a Constitution had been adopted, officers were elected, and plans were made for the second annual meeting of the new society.




= 1905–1980

=
In 1981, in celebration the association's 75th anniversary, Lawrence J. Rhoades prepared a 90-page publication entitled A History of the American Sociological Association, 1905-1980, commonly referred to as the "1981 Rhoades History." The publication provides a brief overview of the founding and early years of the association, as well as highlights of key activities and events in the decades since.
In 1953, during the annual meeting in Berkeley, California, each of the (living) past presidents of the society would compose a voice recording to address the coming generation of sociologists.




= 1981–Present

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ASA membership peaked at almost 15,000 in 2007 before declining to its current level below 10,000. The trend led to the formation of a Task Force on Membership in 2016, with recommendations released in 2019, addressing issues of community, cost, and value.



100-Year Anniversary

In 2005, in celebration of the association's 100th anniversary, ASA published a 201-page book entitled A History of the American Sociological Association, 1981-2004. The publication picks up where the 1981 Rhoades history concludes, continuing the story and capturing the association's history from 1981 through 2004. It was the culmination of over two years of detailed research by Katherine J. Rosich.



The "ASA Wikipedia" Initiative

In the fall of 2011, the ASA launched its "Sociology in Wikipedia" initiative. Erik Olin Wright, President of the ASA, called for improvement in sociological entries in Wikipedia. He asked that professors and students to get more involved by having Wikipedia-writing assignments in class. The basic goal set forth by the initiative would be to make it easier for sociologists to contribute to Wikipedia, and for sociologists to become better involved in the writing and editing processes to ensure that social science articles are up-to-date, complete, accurate, and written appropriately.
In conjunction with the Wikimedia Foundation and a research group at Carnegie Mellon University, the ASA developed its Wikipedia Portal in an attempt to achieve the initiative's goal through providing tutorials on how to contribute; video discussions of norms and procedures; and lists of articles and subject areas that need improvement. The Portal would also provide instructions for professors on how to use Wikipedia writing assignments for academic courses.




Code of Ethics


The ASA is governed by a code of ethics, which has been revised since 1970, with the first ASA code of ethics being written in 1970. ASA members are bound by the code of ethics. The association also has codes for meeting behavior, disclosure, award revocation, and removal from leadership positions.




Publications






= ASA Style Guide

=

ASA style is a widely accepted format for writing university research papers that specifies the arrangement and punctuation of footnotes and bibliographies. Standards for ASA style are specified in the ASA Style Guide, which is designed to aid authors in preparing manuscripts for ASA journals and publications.




= ASA Academic Journals and Magazines

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The association publishes the following academic journals and magazines:

The ASA also publishes Footnotes, a newsletter aimed at the association's members. Footnotes was established in 1979 and is published five times per year.




= Presidents

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The following persons have been presidents of the American Sociological Association:




Meetings


The Annual Meeting of the ASA is held each August to provide opportunity for sociologists to share research, develop professional networks, give awards, and hold committee meetings. The 2023 meeting had 4,802 attendees and featured 3000 research papers.




Awards


Every year, in August, the ASA presents awards to individuals and groups deserving of recognition. The awards presented are:

Distinguished Scholarly Book Major ASA Award
Dissertation Major ASA Award
Excellence in the Reporting of Social Issues Major ASA Award
Jessie Bernard Major ASA Award
Cox-Johnson-Frazier Major ASA Award
Award for the Public Understanding of Sociology Major ASA Award
Distinguished Career Major ASA Award for the Practice of Sociology
Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Major ASA Award
W.E.B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award
Additionally, the Sections of the ASA administer separate multiple awards, which are presented each August during the annual meeting.




Controversies






= Jailing of Rik Scarce

=
In 1993, then-doctoral student Rik Scarce was jailed for more than five months as a result of following the ASA's code of ethics. Scarce's Ph.D. research was on the radical environmental movement. Based on an FBI investigation of an Animal Liberation Front break-in, federal prosecutors argued in court that Scarce may have engaged in conversations with individuals believed to be involved with the incident. Prosecutors demanded that Scarce testify to a federal grand jury about those conversations, but Scarce refused to answer three dozen questions, citing the ASA Code of Ethics and the First Amendment as his reasoning for remaining unresponsive. Scarce's refusal to answer resulted in a contempt of court citation and 159 days spent in jail. He was never suspected of wrongdoing and—in keeping with contempt of court practice—he was never read his Miranda rights, arrested, or tried.




= Frances Fox Piven and Glenn Beck

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In early 2010, ASA publicly expressed outrage over a controversy involving Frances Fox Piven and Glenn Beck, asking Fox News to stop Beck's comments. An article written by Piven concerning mobilization of unemployed individuals had spurred the commentary by Beck. ASA suggests in their public statements that the line should be drawn at name calling and that political commentators should instead rely on gathering evidence related to the topics and then drawing the proper conclusions.




= The Belfast Project

=
In January 2012, a United States district court ordered Boston College to turn over material from the "Belfast Project", an oral history project pertaining to the violence in Northern Ireland. Boston College filed an appeal in February 2012, challenging the district court's decision. ASA became involved in the case to help protect human participants from the subpoena of confidential project research data. The statement by the ASA council cited the potential damage this ruling would have on social science research by stifling the ability to study controversial topics. ASA is looking for an affirmation by the court for confidentiality in research.




= Sociologists for Palestine resolution

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From 2023 to 2024, in response to the war in Gaza sociologists organized to request that the American Sociological Association establish a stance calling for a ceasefire and pursuing divestment from arms. In December 2023, a letter signed by 125 sociologists including six former ASA presidents, asked for a statement in support of ceasefire. In February 2024, the association released a statement focusing on "deep concern and dismay regarding the loss of civilian lives in the context of continued violence in Gaza and Israel as well as other contexts of conflict and suffering unfolding across the globe.” In March 2024, ASA rejected a resolution forwarded by a group known as Sociologists for Palestine which called for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza". After this initial resolution was rejected, enough signatures were collected to support a ballot initiative calling for a ceasefire and divestment from military technologies, however the ASA council edited the request for divestment from the resolution claiming that investment represented an "operational issue" which members could not vote on. The Sociologists for Palestine group responded to this by declaring that the council's removal of the divestment request from the resolution was "fundamentally undemocratic". In May 2024, 59% of voting ASA members approved the Resolution for Justice in Palestine and it was adopted.
Beyond calling for "an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza", the adopted resolution specifies that the association "supports members’ academic freedom, including but not limited to defending scholars’ right to speak out against Zionist occupation."




Critique


Within the Environmental sociology section of the ASA, in 2016 an ad hoc Committee on Racial Equity investigated racial and ethnic diversity within the section in response to critique that the section was overwhelmingly white. Their assessment of the professional climate for scholars of colour concluded that the section was a 'white space' characterized by the overwhelming presence of whites and dominated by white leadership. They concluded that this situation acts as a barrier to inclusion of people of colour in the field, and that the field of environmental justice was likewise marginalised.




See also


List of sociological associations




References






External links


Media related to American Sociological Association at Wikimedia Commons
Official website
North Central Sociological Association website

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