mss
Midwest Sociological Society * 429 24th St. N. * La Crosse, WI 54601 * (608) 787-8551
This page was last updated: July 7, 2010
Welcome to the
Midwest Sociological Society website!
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Who We Are
The Midwest Sociological Society, founded in 1936, is a professional membership organization of academic and applied sociologists as well as students of the discipline. Nearly 1200 scholars, students and practicing sociologists in universities, government and business belong to the organization. Known for its accessible but rigorous annual meetings, the MSS encompasses nine states - Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Kansas, South Dakota and North Dakota. However, membership is open to anyone; and more than one-third of the members are from other parts of the nation and the world.
Join MSS
or renew here!
MSS 2011 Annual Meeting
Dates: Thurs, Mar 24 - Sunday, Mar 27, 2011
Place: Hilton at the Ballpark, 1 South Broadway, St Louis, MO
Call for Session Organizers
Plans for the 2011 MSS annual meetings are getting underway. Our theme, The Dynamics of Inequality, responds to a central challenge of our discipline: to understand how inequality works in all its various forms and trajectories. This includes understanding the mechanisms through which differences become inequalities, how inequalities change and persist over time, the dynamics of multiple and intersecting inequalities, resistance to inequalities, processes of inclusion and exclusion, institutional inequalities and the critical role of state policy regimes and global systems of resource allocation—and many more equally interesting and important questions and issues.
My challenge to the membership is to help us build a program that is stimulating and rewarding and addresses the entire spectrum of possibilities for exploring this fundamental issue. [YES, you MUST be a member to participate. If not already a member, please join us at the 'JOIN OR RENEW' page.]
Send us your session proposals now! The process to propose a session begins when you enter our MSS 2011online portal. You will be asked to enter the proposed session title as well as the format and preferred sub-disciplinary category. Session formats for 2011 include: formal paper sessions, paper roundtable sessions, panels, workshops and author meets critics sessions. [Click here for definitions of these session types.]
Plenary speakers and thematic sessions are being developed by the program committee, although suggestions are always welcome. Please use the online portal to submit your session proposal; if you have other comments, questions or suggestions, please send them to us by email.
The deadline for proposals is August 31, 2010. We look forward to hearing from you.
Mary Zimmerman, 2011 Program Chair
Pooya Naderi, Student Director & 2011 Assistant Program Chair
During the 2009-10 year, the MSS Board of Directors undertook a long-range planning process to analyse the current state of MSS and its membership, annual meeting and other programs; and to craft a strategic plan for MSS's future.
Review the preliminary document resulting from the first phase of the planning process, here.
Has your DEPARTMENT
-Revitalized curricula?
-Established research development opportunities?
-Created vibrant service learning initiatives?
-Developed faculty teaching/learning skills?
Attention:
Teachers &
Department Chairs
THEME: The Dynamics of Inequality
The analysis of social inequality may well be our discipline’s most distinguishing—as well as its most distinguished—hallmark. But, surprisingly, few MSS meetings have explicitly named inequality as their theme. Now that time has come! I invite you to engage this topic for our 2011 meetings with new efforts to both broaden and deepen our analyses. When the Call for Organizers goes out in June, please send me your ideas and suggestions for sessions, workshops and other ways we can explore the many pathways and nuances of this most fundamental element of social life.
Those of us who entered Sociology in the 1960s and 1970s were able to formulate and launch our sociological understandings in the context of a great societal awakening to the multiple and intersecting inequalities of race and class and, finally, gender and sexualities. Some of our teachers failed to grasp the significance of these times, holding fast to seductive notions of “value free” scholarship, but others drew upon lived experiences during the Great Depression, World War II, and Holocaust as a connecting point to the chaotic and sometimes violent intersections of politics and scholarship during those years. At that time, many in our discipline were concerned with exploring and understanding the meanings and patterns of inequalities “on the street,” in personal, interpersonal and community terms. We produced wonderful and poignant scholarship. Yet, our macro analyses remained removed. Policies and policy regimes, rather being conceptualized theoretically as systems of stratification, were viewed as the pedestrian stuff of “applied” fields such as social work and public administration—beyond acceptable boundaries for enlightened graduate students and young sociology scholars. True, activists such as Stokely Carmichael had helped us understand “institutional racism,” but the “woman-friendly state” and “intersectionality theory,” along with “global South and North” and the Washington Consensus were light-years away.
Three decades later, social inequalities are recognized as systematically global, as pronounced and pernicious as ever and possibly even more entrenched. We have seen extreme processes of exclusion in the aftermath of 911 and Katrina, yet the promise of inclusion in what appears to be a monumental health policy change. One of the central challenges to Sociology is to keep the dynamics of inequality at the center of the discipline and to expand and develop our intellectual understandings of how they work:
the mechanisms through which differences becomes inequalities,
the mechanisms through which differences becomes inequalities, how inequalities change and persist over time,
how inequalities change and persist over time, the dynamics of resistance--trajectories and consequences,
the dynamics of resistance--trajectories and consequences, multiple and intersecting inequalities,
multiple and intersecting inequalities, processes of exclusion and inclusion in relation to inequality,
processes of exclusion and inclusion in relation to inequality,institutional inequalities and inequality across the scope of social institutions,
institutional inequalities and inequality across the scope of social institutions, the critical role of state policy regimes and global systems of inequality,
the critical role of state policy regimes and global systems of inequality, global governance structures in relation to inequality,
global governance structures in relation to inequality, cultural images and the meanings of inequality,
cultural images and the meanings of inequality, media and inequality,
media and inequality,inequalities through the life course and their consequences over time,
inequalities through the life course and their consequences over time, hate, crime, violence and surveillance in relation to inequalities,
hate, crime, violence and surveillance in relation to inequalities,international and comparative studies of inequalities…and many more.
international and comparative studies of inequalities…and many more. The well-recognized inequalities of race, class, gender, sexuality and age require more in-depth exploration and analytic understanding in current contexts. And, we need to think more about other inequalities—for example, those shaped by citizenship and religion—and to better map the structures, ideologies, synergies and regimes that encourage or possibly discourage them.
Inequality is fundamental to our teaching and research. Please join me next year in St. Louis as we consider its many facets. I look forward to learning from all of you!
Mary K. Zimmerman
MSS President-Elect and 2011 Program Chair
DEFINITIONS of the Types of Sessions
Formal Paper Session: Completed papers of scholarly work organized around a common theme, typically presented (not read) in 15-20 minutes in a formal setting with an audience. The papers are followed by comments from a discussant and/or the audience.
Panel: Prepared presentations on thematic topics; typically 3-4 invited panelists followed by discussion with a moderator and/or audience.
Paper Roundtable (Faculty/Graduate Student)
Completed papers of scholarly work organized around a common theme, typically presented (not read) in 15-20 minutes in an informal setting with presenters and attendees seated around a table. Papers are followed by group discussion.
Paper Roundtable (Undergraduate Student)
(same as above)
Workshop:
Workshops are learning sessions focused on specific topics or techniques, designed and facilitated by one or two scholars with full active engagement by audience in discussion, activities, and products.
Undergraduate Student Poster:
Student research projects presented visually on poster boards for viewing during a specified time period.
Author Meets Critics
The author of a recent book of interest responds to 2 or 3 scholars who present prepared remarks on various aspects and implications of the book.
Other
Choose this category if you’re proposing something that doesn’t seem to fit into any of the session types, above. And then send us an email to describe your proposed session.
MSS Long-Range
Planning
MSS Seeks Next Editor for TSQ
The MSS seeks an individual with a distinguished scholarly record and previous editorial experience to be the next editor of the society’s journal, The Sociological Quarterly. Since 1960, the contributors, peer-reviewers, advisory editors, and readers of TSQ have made it one of the leading generalist journals in the field. Editing TSQ is a unique, rewarding, and important professional responsibility that brings visibility and distinction to a department and university.Read more.
Midwest Sociological Society Seeks Editor for The Sociological Quarterly
The Publications Committee of the Midwest Sociological Society (MSS) is initiating a search for the next editor of the society’s journal, The Sociological Quarterly. Since 1960, the contributors, peer-reviewers, advisory editors, and readers of The Sociological Quarterly have made it one of the leading generalist journals in the field. Editing TSQ is a unique, rewarding, and important professional responsibility that brings visibility and distinction to a department and university. The editor is appointed by the MSS President with consent of the board upon recommendation of the Publications Committee for a four-year, non-renewable term.
The editor is responsible for soliciting, reviewing, and making decisions about all manuscript submissions. Four issues of the journal are published annually, with each issue typically containing seven to nine articles. The editorial office, organized around an efficient and productive web-based submission and peer review system, ScholarOne Manuscripts, is responsible for overseeing and managing the review process and for proofreading material provided by the publisher in accordance with standard publishing expectations. The new editor will be expected to open an editorial office by March 1, 2012. The first issue produced by the new editor will be the Winter issue of 2013, Vol. 54, Number 1. The new editor will be responsible for Volumes 54 through 57. All members of the MSS are encouraged to apply and/or to nominate candidates. Preference will be given to applicants within the nine states that make up the MSS region - Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
The MSS seeks an individual with a distinguished scholarly record and previous editorial experience. Past experience can come in the form of a previous journal editorship, deputy/associate editorship, or book review editorship. The applicant should possess strong organizational and management skills, the ability to work well with others, and a commitment to the mission of The Sociological Quarterly.
The MSS provides generous support to the editorial office with an annual budget that funds the salary of a managing editor and provides the editor with a stipend, course release, and travel expenses. One of the expectations of the MSS is that the editor’s host institution will also provide support, which might come in the form of office space, utilities, the use of computers and other office equipment, financial support for student workers, faculty release time, and/or other basic expenses. The precise scope of institutional support will be negotiated by the finalist and the Publications Committee.
Applicants should submit a C.V., along with a letter outlining their qualifications, their experience, and their vision for The Sociological Quarterly. The review process will begin Feb. 1, 2011. Finalists should be prepared to be interviewed during the MSS Annual Meeting, March 24-27, 2011, at the St Louis Hilton at the Ballpark. Applications, nominations and requests for additional information should be sent electronically to the MSS Publications Committee through Lauren Tiffany, MSS Executive Director, via email to: MidwestSS@centurytel.net. Please put “TSQ editor application” in the subject line of your email.
Questions? Contact the Midwest Sociological Society Executive Office by email:
or by telephone: 608.787.8551.
