Open Call Paper Sessions - Descriptions

When submitting to the MSS Annual Meeting, you will have an option to select from an open list of topics or from these open call paper sessions. When submitting your paper, please identify all categories and open sessions you feel your paper fits. Papers that are not accepted into these open call paper sessions will be placed in the general submission pool to be collected into new sessions.

Alternative Grading in Sociology Classes

Organizer: MaryAnn Kanieski, St. Mary's College

Traditional grading systems have been criticized for a lack of equity, for stifling student motivation, and for failing to account for student growth (see Clark and Talbert 2023 for an overview). Can alternative grading systems make a difference? The purpose of this paper session is to provide examples of how Sociology faculty have implemented alternative grading systems such as specifications grading, contract grading, ungrading, or other types of alternative grading. Possible paper topics include innovative implementations of alternative grading systems, discuss successes and/or pitfalls related to alternative grading, assessment of alternative grading systems, and student or administrator responses to alternative grading systems.  Participants will leave the session with a greater understanding of alternative grading and ideas for their classes.

The Artfulness of Everyday Life

Organizer: Dirk vom Lehn, King's College London, King's Business School

From Ryave and Schenkein's (1974) the art of walking and more recently Gary Alan Fine's (2003) study of "occupational aesthetics", the artfulness of the everyday (beyond the museum walls) has been a longstanding topic of interactionist theory and research. With this session, I invite papers that explore the "pragmatic aesthetic" (Knoblauch 1998) and "practical aesthetics" (Heath and vom Lehn 2004) through which aspects of our daily lives are brought about. I envision scholars will submit papers from different interactionist traditions, including ethnomethodology and conversation analysis and symbolic interactionism.

Authoritarian Nightmares: From Conspiracy Theories to Far Right Fables, and Other Irrational Beliefs

Organizer: Christopher Conner, University of Missouri - Columbia

In today's political landscape and unregulated online information ecosystem, conspiracy theories, far-right narratives, and various irrational beliefs have become pervasive in our daily discourse. Despite some dismissing beliefs like QAnon, notions of Lizard People, or The Great Replacement theory as fringe, their impact has proven substantial in the real world. This session delves into the origins and proliferation of these authoritarian nightmares, employing critical analysis to dissect their appeal and profound impact on contemporary societies.

Body Commodification in Late Capitalist Societies

Organizer: Jackie Hogan, Bradley University

Human bodies reveal the values, priorities, anxieties, and material realities of the societies in which they are situated. In late capitalist societies, bodies are molded by some of the defining characteristics of our time: scientific management, neoliberal self-optimization, healthism, and consumerism, among others. Bodies also carry the markers of social hierarchies based on categories such as gender, race, sexuality, and class. This session explores the many ways profits are extracted from human bodies in late capitalist societies in realms ranging from the medical-industrial complex and the beauty and wellness industries, to sex work, the media, sports and entertainment, to for-profit carceral and death care institutions.

Constructing Social Problems

Organizer: Nancy Berns, Drake University

Papers in this session will focus on how and why some conditions are constructed as social problems.

Critical Approaches to Mental Health

Organizer: Joel Crombez, Kennesaw State University

Unlike traditional approaches to the study of mental illness, which see it as something wholly internal to the subject, critical approaches recognize the role that social forces play in shaping our psychological states. This session invites theoretical and/or empirical papers that explore this interconnection. Topics of interest include the effect of politics, economics, climate change, technology, and other macro-level social issues as they relate to individual and collective mental health.

Critical Criminologies

Organizer: David Criger, Coastal University

This session is designed to highlight criminological research that focuses on political and economic structures, culture, identity, oppressive ideology frameworks, and the dehumanizing relations in society that foster marginalization and alienating forms of social inequality.

Cultural Capital, Habitus, and Deviance

Organizer: Stephen Hagan, McKendree University

A session to explore the intersections of Bourdieu's work on cultural capital/habitus and the sociology of deviance. Any topics that examine norms and deviance through the lens of cultural capital or habitus would be a great fit as well as other adjacent areas.

Cultural Competency in Health Care

Organizer: Lacey Ritter, Mount Mercy University

Research and theory on the importance of cultural competency among patients and their providers in our global world will be the focus of this session.

Decolonialisms, Postcolonialisms, and Neocolonialisms: Contemporary Views of Modern Day Conditions of Exploitation

Organizer: Amaury Rijo Sanchez, University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign

The afterlives of a colonial past and an imperial present have unfolded in intricate webs of decolonial, postcolonial, and neocolonial theories. As subaltern populations seek liberated futures, these theories provide a critical lens on modern-day exploitation. How colonial legacies continue to shape contemporary understandings of race, gender, class, and sexualities, among other intersections reflect the infrastructures that uphold a globalized present. This session examines how these dynamics manifest in economic, social, and cultural spheres, perpetuating inequality and marginalization. As we navigate an increasingly interconnected world, the conversation highlights the tensions between globalization and imperialism, scrutinizing the persistent power imbalances. What is the impact of coloniality and its afterlives on marginalized populations? What do globalization-from-below perspectives envision as plausible alternatives? By addressing these questions, the paper session aims to foster a deeper understanding of ongoing colonial influences and inspire innovative pathways towards justice and equity.

Documenting and Theorizing Resistance

Organizer: Stacey Hannem, Wilfrid Laurier University

This session engages researchers who are studying with subaltern and marginalized groups to consider the various dimensions (micro/interactional, meso/organizational, and macro/structural) of resistance to hegemony, repression, and oppression in a variety of social settings. Papers that engage with both the practical and theoretical aspects of resistance are welcome.

Environmental Sociology

Organizer: Harland Prechel, Texas A&M University

The session on environmental sociology examines the ways in which human activity transforms the natural environment and the consequences. Potential topics include climate change, toxic emissions, the politics of environmental policy, the threats human societies pose to the carrying capacity of ecosystems, and environmental sustainability.

Exploring Pornography in Social Interaction

Organizer: David Wahl, McMurry University

This MSS conference session delves into the multifaceted dimensions of pornography. It examines the social impact of pornography on culture, ethics, social normativity, shared meanings, and in the shaping of sexual behaviors and identity. This session aims to foster an informed, nuanced dialogue on a controversial and impactful subject. 

Families and Substance Abuse

Organizer: Susan Stewart, Iowa State University

People use mood-altering substances in various family contexts. The papers in this session will focus on relationships between family structure, dynamics, and well-being and substance use, including alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs. Potential papers might examine differences in substance use among adults and children living in different family structures (e.g., single parent, cohabiting, multigenerational), how parent-child or sibling relationships affect children's and adults' substance use, and the roles of family conflict, stress, caregiving, and mental health in family members' use of substances. Alternatively, papers might examine how substance use impacts the dynamics within, and the well-being of, families, such as how substance use disorders affect union dissolution and family cohesion. Papers that include intersections with gender, sexual identity, race/ethnicity, and other variables will be favorably considered.

From the Mouths of... Research from and about College Students

Organizer: Lacey Ritter, Mount Mercy University

This session will focus on research papers based  on college students, whether the data comes from students themselves or projects are created by students. Hearing directly from the next generation will help faculty and administration learn more about the groups they educate.

Gender, Sexuality, and Law

Organizer: Sarah "Frankie" Frank, University of Wisconsin

This is a session devoted to both empirical and theoretical papers focused on gender, sex, and sexuality topics in the law, either in the U.S. or worldwide. Papers will include topics relevant to citizenship, civil rights, legal inequalities, legal consciousness - all grounded in gender/sex and sexuality identities and inequalities. 

History of Sociology in the Midwest

Organizer: Susan J. Ferguson, Grinnell College

As we grapple with how to apply C. Wright Mills understanding of sociology in 2025, we need to follow his example and have a better grasp of the historical roots of sociology in the United States and how has the discipline changed since the first "sociology" course was taught at Yale in 1875. Alan Sica (2017) argues that we tend to focus on the big three historical programs started by Albion Small at Chicago, Charles Horton Cooley at Michigan, and William Graham Sumner at Yale. Instead, we need to document and archive historical accounts of our discipline's past at different colleges and universities, especially the many programs began here in the Midwest. As Sica challenges us: "Who helped to legitimate the upstart field [of sociology] a century or more ago" (2017:20)? For example, we know the first Sociology Department was founded at the University of Kansas 1889, and the first graduate program of sociology at the University of Chicago in 1892. Grinnell College's sociology program of the early 20th century had significant ties to the Social Gospel movement and to settlement house sociologists. This session invites sociologists to present research on early sociological history and roots at Midwestern colleges and universities.

Leadership in Times of Change

Organizer: Chad Anderson, Incheon National University

Dramatic changes in society are underway in the context of current social crises. What is the role played by effective, ineffective, and alternatives to leadership in addressing and negotiating current changes.

Living on the Edge: Risk as a Culture Industry

Organizer: Michael O. Johnston, William Penn University

The risk society, developed by Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens, is a theory that is used to explain the transition from a modern industrial society to a new era of technological hazards. The modern industrial society consisted of natural disasters that could not be easily prevented. The new era of risk society is different because technological hazards are fully preventable. Both natural hazards and technological hazards are social forms. The difference, however, is that technological hazards are produced by society. This means that technological hazards can be intensified or mitigated by creating social, economic, political, and cultural systems. This session revisits the concept of risk society. Manuscripts submitted to this session will be about (in)voluntary pursuits made by humans to adopt (produce and consume) potentially hazardous technology as part of their lifestyle. 

Memory, Identity, and Material Culture

Organizer: Sydney Hart, Wilbur Wright College

Memory often becomes solidified in objects, from a grandmother's quilt to a national monument. Our personal, group, and cultural memories form a foundation for our identities. Material culture is understudied in sociology. This session allows us to explore objects and their use in the context of memory and identity.

Movies and America: The Last Picture Show

Organizer: Michael Altimore, Temple University

For more than one hundred years Movies and America have had an agonistic relationship: intimate and enduring, yet full of tension and mistrust. "Hollywood" is the epitome of American glamor; "Hollywood" is an epithet describing decadence and political subversion. Despite enormous changes in both America and the movies, e.g., demographics, the rise and fall of the studio system, the ascension of Wall Street's influence, the triumph of generic blockbusters, often based on comics, over adult films, and the threats of streaming and AI, Movies and America remain together. But it is much more than art imitating life, as Jim Kitses put it: "The Wild Bunch IS America". Nearly thirty years ago Neal Gabler, in "Life: The Movie," argued that Entertainment has conquered reality, that success and esteem in America are based on celebrity unmoored from accomplishment. The consequences are ironic and unsettling. Politicians feared cinema because it was the "democratic art form," resistant to elite control. But that was long ago. Is it really The Last Picture Show? In this session we will explore the link between movies and American Society.

New Approaches to the Secular, Religious, and the Spiritual

Organizer: Karen Bradley, University of Central Missouri

This session invites papers that discuss new edges of faith, religiosity, or spirituality.  We look for contemporary places where the secular, spiritual, and/or religious are emerging in new ways or are co-existing in relation to each other.

New Directions in the Sociology of Indigeneity and American Indian People

Organizer: Enid Logan, University of Minnesota

This paper session will emphasize research pertaining to the construct of indigeneity in the U.S. and the lives of American Indian people; topic areas of interest include but are not limited to racialization, gender, sovereignty, identity, demography, cultural revitalization, social movements, politics, and the criminal legal system.

No Public Health Without Planetary Health: Personal Troubles & Social Change in Anthropocene

Organizer: Monica Snowden, Wayne State College

Many in the scientific community contend that we are living in a new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene is seen as fundamentally altering the relationship between earth systems and social systems, intensifying and accelerating feedback loops between them. A defining feature of the Anthropocene is climate change. The need to address the public health impacts of a rapidly warming climate is garnering greater global attention. How can sociological research and theory help in framing the personal troubles of the Anthropocene as a social issue? How might sociology contribute to creating systemic change to create a net zero carbon future, and a future in which humans will not only survive, but thrive? This session is open to a wide range of empirical and/or theoretical sociological work that address the reciprocal impacts of public health and planetary health.

The Politics of Race, Gender & Age in the 2024 Presidential Election

Organizer: Enid Logan, University of Minnesota

The 2024 electoral contest is bringing into sharp focus important conversations in our society about age and aging,  gender & political power, masculinities, race and racism and intersectionalities. This session will discuss the politics of race, gender & age in the 2024 presidential race.   Papers may examine these issues with regard to the characteristics, rhetoric or cultural style of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates;  appeals to, beliefs of or voting patterns among members of key demographic groups; or the broader cultural, economic and social issues implicitly or explicitly implicated in the electoral contest.  We expect that research and writing on these topics will be ongoing and in-progress at the time of the 2025 MSS, and will consider any papers with working arguments, themes, research questions, sources of data or preliminary findings that are particularly strong, compelling, timely, or important.  

The Professions and Institutional Change

Organizer: Judson Everitt, Loyola University Chicago

The goal of this session is to bring together scholars who examine the complex ways in which the professions, and their institutional environments, are changing. Professional work itself has changed in recent years, as has the sociological definition of what ‘counts’ as professional. In addition, the institutional arrangements that structure professional work have also changed. Education, health care, governance, tech, manufacturing, and transportation industries have all undergone change in various ways over the last 10+ years. How are these structural changes affecting day-to-day work experiences of professionals operating within these sectors of the labor market? How are professionals making sense of these changes in active, dynamic ways? How are people contributing to institutional change in creative ways as they figure out their preferred ways of engaging in professional work practice? How are coupling relationships between people’s everyday work, organizations, and institutional structures changing in the current environment? This session seeks to showcase empirical work that engages with these types of topics and questions.

Qualitative Criminology

Organizer: Joel Powell, Minnesota State University 

Empirical, qualitative research in various areas of criminology and criminal justice.

Presented by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.

Revisiting the Frankfurt School: Critical Theory in Contemporary Contexts

Organizers: Christopher Conner, University of Missouri - Columbia, and Oliver Kozlarek, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo

The Frankfurt School's legacy in critical theory continues to be a cornerstone in social theory. This session aims to explore the Frankfurt School's enduring relevance, particularly the rise of right-wing radicalism and other pressing issues around the world. Scholars are invited to reevaluate the Frankfurt School's insights and methodologies, considering its historical critiques of authoritarianism, antisemitism, and neoconservatism. Moreover, participants are encouraged to apply the Frankfurt School's interdisciplinary approach to contemporary issues such as capitalism, digital surveillance, neoliberalism, populism, and climate change. By doing so, this session seeks to revive critical theory's capacity to understand today’s complex social and political landscapes.

Self and Identity in the Digital Age

Organizer: Fangheyue Ma, Florida Gulf Coast University

Symbolic interactionists have long been interested in the topic of self and identity, but what about individuals’ sense of self in the digital age? For instance, previously, we constructed and shaped our identity and self through the imagination of how others see us, whereas, in the social media era, this form of imagination is confirmed and materialized by the number of likes and comments we receive. As a result, our corporal experiences and gazes are deeply influenced by the interaction and connection in the virtual world. How does the presentation of self stretch and expand identity theories when it occurs not only during physical interactions but also in the digital world? To put it more broadly, how might exchanges in the digital world reshape traditional sociological theory?

Social Movements, Gender, and Intersectionality

Organizers: Amaury J. Rijo Sánchez, University of Illinois, and Sarah "Frankie" Frank, University of Wisconsin

Social justice movements in the United States concerning gender and sex often focus on civil rights and inequities across other social intersections, including race, ethnicity, (dis)ability, sexuality, religion, class, and education. Often, social justice movements and their leaders must confront the ways in which their projects and goals exclude and marginalize those who participate in the movement(s) from different social locations and viewpoints. How do social movement leaders and adherents make sense of identity amongst leadership and followers? How are social movement symbols and messages potentially at odds with some of their own collectives and/or coalitions? In what ways do activists and movement adherents integrate, ignore, and/or challenge intersectionality in their movements?  

Symbolic Interactionist Research and Theory

Organizer: David Schweingruber, Iowa State University

This session is for papers related to symbolic interactionism, including empirical papers and theoretical papers.

Presented by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.

Theory as a Method

Organizer: Pamela Emanuelson, North Dakota State University

Theory is the method a science uses to produce knowledge. The purpose of this section is to discuss the use of theory as a method. 

Towards a Global Sociology of Health, Illness, and Medicine

Organizer: Alyssa Lynne-Joseph, Wichita State University

Recent scholarship has confirmed the ongoing dominance of the U.S. as a research site in the sociology of health, illness, and medicine, despite longstanding calls to expand the field’s geographic focus. This session invites papers that address this lacuna by exploring key concepts in the field - including, but not limited to, the social construction of illness, patient-doctor interactions, and patient activism - through analyses based outside of the U.S. Such work may highlight the ways in which theories from the U.S. context, though often treated as universally applicable, are limited in their capacity to explain phenomena in other cultural contexts. Empirical or theoretical work is welcome. We are especially interested in papers that take up questions about medicine in Global South contexts, as well as papers adopting a transnational focus on healthcare across world regions.

Understanding the Social World Through Music

Organizer: Christopher J. Schneider, Brandon University

This session invites papers that help us understanding the social world through music subcultures. This might include intersections of gender, race, and class, with the aim of reflecting on broader social issues.

Urban Scenes and Urban Development

Organizer: Chad Anderson, Incheon National University

Urban societies generate their own scenes, creating community, and driving different kinds of development.

When Democracy Fails: Articulating a New Vision for the Future

Organizer: Christopher Conner, University of Missouri - Columbia

All around the world, anti-democratic regimes are gaining traction. In the United States, various institutional shortcomings have led some to question the efficacy of democracy. The papers in this session employ immanent critique (see Bob Antonio, 1981, British Journal of Sociology) to pinpoint the sources of frustration within democratic societies. These papers also aim to propose alternative visions to counter those who seek to undermine our democratic principles.

The Work and Politics of Care

Organizer: Michael Haedicke, University of Maine

Caring is laborious. We are encouraged to care for ourselves, to care for others, and to care about the issues of the day, but we often find that these forms of care work compete with one another - consider the caregiver who postpones exercise to visit an ailing relative or the insomnia that results from late-night doomscrolling of news headlines. Moreover, caring is political. As feminist researchers have demonstrated, questions about who should give care, who should receive care, and who is worthy of care are enmeshed in relationships of power and inequality. Finally, caring is potentially transformative, as demonstrated by social movement efforts to expand cultural understandings of care to encompass historically excluded peoples and beings. Papers in this session will engage these complexities by analyzing discourses and practices of care in contemporary society and/or by considering modalities of care in sociological teaching and practice.