Conflict Social Action and Change. Spring 2024. Division Newsletter of Conflict, Social Action, and Change, Society for the Study of Social Problems. Division Chair: C Michael Awsumb. Newsletter Editors: Openings for Volunteers. Division Council: C Michael Awsumb, Open Seat, Open Seat. Spring 2024 Volume 23 Issue 2. Contents. Message from the Chair, Page 1. Division Announcements, Page 2. SSSP Announcements, Page 3. CSAC Division Business, Page 4. 2024 Member Survey, 2024 Business Meetings. 2024 Graduate Student Paper Award, Page 5. Winner: Kanoko Kamata, Page 6. Overcoming a Protest-phobic Culture through Cultural Countermeasures: The Flower Demo Movement Against Sexual Violence in Japan. Honorable Mention: Sadie Dempsey, Page 7. Mobilizing Potential: Pathways to Engaged Citizenship. Honorable Mention: Jillian LaBranche, Page 7. Macro-Micro Interaction in Knowledge Construction: Structural and Communicative Memory in Rwanda and Sierra Leone. Member News, Page 8. Amin Ghaziani, Diana Therese M. Veloso, Jesse Yeh. Features Call, Page 9. Message from the Chair. Hello Conflict, Social Action, and Change Division members! I am getting this issue of our newsletter out much latter than anticipated - apologies. There is great news and important announcements to share, though! Please give this one a read. I hope you enjoy. Apologies for the belated publication. Annual Meeting. The 2024 SSSP Annual Meeting is in August. I hope to see many of you there. This kicks off a great deal of division business, too (e.g., business meeting, planning sessions, awards, etc.). We have excellent sponsored sessions scheduled for the meeting. I will highlight these in our next newsletter and a virtual division meeting prior to the annual meeting. Division Business. The summer is a busy time for division business. Please see the included announcements and links for: our pre-annual meeting virtual Zoom and in-person division business meetings, the Doodle Poll for scheduling our virtual meeting, and the links for the member survey. Grad Paper Award. I encourage to all to read the feature about our 2024 Graduate Student Paper Award competition, this year’s winner, Kanoko Kamato, and our two honorable mentions, Sadie Dempsey and Jillian LaBranche. Congrats to all! Building the Division for the Times. I am hoping in the summer months, together with our division meetings, the annual meeting, and the division survey, to develop a plan and program for continuing to build our division — for ourselves and for those who our work serves and empowers. I truly encourage you to engage me — and I will be engaging as many of you as I can — with your insights and goals for meeting the moment. Warm regards; - C CSAC 23(2) Page 2. CSAC Division Announcements. 2024 Annual Meeting. Preparing to Join Us at the Annual Meeting. The 74th annual meeting of the SSSP is coming up August 9-11 in Montréal, Canada! I hope to see you at the annual meeting. Make sure to check-in with all the upcoming registration, hotel reservation, and travel accommodation deadlines and/or planning — August will be here soon. Division Events in Montréal. Our division has a number of really awesome sessions and events planned for the annual meeting, too (e.g., our division is participating in the division sponsored social, we will hold a division meet and greet, we will have an in-person division business meeting). SSSP published the Preliminary Program — look for a rundown and highlights for CSACD’s sessions and activities in the meeting program in our next pre-meeting Summer Newsletter in early July. (Link: https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/988/2024_Preliminary_Program/). Grad Paper Award. Graduate Student Paper Award Winner and Honorable Mentions! We accepted submissions for our annual Division Graduate Student Paper Award and have selected our winner, Kanoko Kamata, and two Honorable Mentions, Sadie Dempsey and Jillian LaBranche. Learn about our our honorees and their papers below in this newsletter. Thank You to Paper Reviewers! Our Grad-Paper Award would not have been possible without our two fanatic Paper Award Committee Reviewers: Dr. Emily Schneider and Dr. Ezra Temko. Thank you for your dedication and service, Emily and Ezra! Division Zoom Meeting. Pre-meeting Division Business Meeting via Zoom in June. While I will hold an in-person division business meeting during the annual meeting, I want to also hold a Zoom pre-annual meeting division business meeting for anyone not attending in-person. Doodle for Zoom Meeting Schedule. Please complete this Doodle poll (link: https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/e7WJNK8e) for scheduling the planned Pre-meeting Division Business Meeting via Zoom. Submit Items for Consideration to the Agenda. If you would like to have an item included on the meeting agenda, please email your proposal and relevant information to: csac.sssp@gmail.com. Division Survey. Survey for Division Membership Feedback. I created a survey for feedback on how better to serve our members and develop the division. Please complete this survey by following the Google Form Link: https://forms.gle/6WHpE5gr28jbCJF47. Our Division Needs You! Volunteer and Help Lead the Division. Looking to get more involved with our division? We have lots of opportunities! Email me to discuss how you can become more invaded with the division: csac.sssp@gmail.com. CSAC 23(2) Page 3 SSSP Announcements. Renew Your Membership for 2024 (LINK: https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/427/fuseaction/ssspmember.portal/userid/6896). For over seventy years, the SSSP has provided a supportive, inviting, and respectful space for those wishing to change the world we study. The strength of our organization rests on the diversity of our membership and ideas — and a steadfast commitment to collectively making a difference. Join today and bring your unique contribution to the SSSP. Consider gifting a SSSP membership (LINK: https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/880/fuseaction/ssspmember.giftMembershipSelect/userid/6896) – perfect for friends, students, and colleagues alike – or support us with an online donation. Your donations are tax deductible and help support the SSSP’s vital work. Together, we can make a difference. 2024 Annual Meeting. Join us for the 2024 Annual Meeting in Montréal. Register now and make your hotel reservation at the SSSP conference hotel (LINK: https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1695912671035&key=GRP&app=resvlink). Meeting Registration. Discounted “Early Bird Registration” continues until June 1. Meeting “Pre-Registration” runs from June 2 till July 18. On-site Registration will be available. Refer to the 2024 Annual Meeting Information webpage for more information (LINK: https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/962/Annual_Meeting_Information/). Meeting Hotel Reservations. Make your hotel reservation at Le Centre Sheraton Montréal Hotel (LINK: https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/969/Hotel_Reservation_Information/). Our single/double room rate is $280 (CAD) plus tax, per night. Book your room here (LINK: https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1695912671035&key=GRP&app=resvlink). You may also call the hotel toll-free at 1-800-325-3535. Be sure to request the SSSP 2024 Annual Conference room rate. Reservations must be confirmed by July 8, 2024 to guarantee our negotiated group rate. Reservations received after or if the room block is filled prior to that date, are subject to availability or increased rate. 2025 SSSP General Election. Nominations are open for candidates to run in the 2025 General Election. Consider nominating a colleague or yourself. SSSP is a forward-looking organization; this means at its core is a commitment to mentoring younger members. As an essential part of this commitment, we encourage and support graduate students along with established scholars, practitioners, and advocates to run for elected offices. We will be electing members to serve in the following roles: President-Elect/President
Vice-President-Elect/Vice-President
Regular and Student Members of the Board of Directors
Anti-Harassment Committee
Budget, Finance, and Audit Committee
Committee on Committees
Editorial and Publications Committee
Membership and Outreach Committee Nominees must be a current member and have attended at least one annual meeting. Nominations should include a brief description of the nominee’s SSSP involvement and other relevant experiences. All nominations must be received by June 15, 2024. Please consider volunteering your experience and expertise by nominating yourself, and consider nominating a colleague. You may nominate as many people as you like by using the online nomination form (LINK: https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/pageid/2178). If you have questions, contact Giovanna Follo (giovanna.follo@wright.edu), Chair, Nominations Committee. CSAC 23(2) Page 4 2024 CSAC Division Member Survey. Please complete this quick survey. Heading into the 2024 Annual Meeting and the next academic year, I hope to use this member feedback to better develop the division and our activities to meet the needs, interests, and goals of our members. I will use this survey in coordination with our business meetings in June and August. Encourage you to share your thoughts: let me and others in the division know more about what you would like (or not like) from the divisions. The survey consists of four questions on membership status, six questions on division engagement, seven questions on satisfaction with and goals for the division, and spaces to leave open-ended feedback, comments, suggestions, recommendations, etc. All responses are anonymous. I thank you in advance for participating in this member survey. Google Form available here: https://forms.gle/6WHpE5gr28jbCJF47. Any questions, concerns, additional feedback, etc. you can leave anonymously with this survey or email me, Clay, at (csac.sssp@gmail.com). 2024 Division Meetings. June Virtual Zoom. TBD via Doodle Poll. Complete Doodle Poll to schedule virtual division meeting: https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/e7WJNK8e. August In-Person Meeting. August 10 10:30am — 12:10pm. Ballroom West. Saturday during the 2024 SSSP Annual Meeting in Montréal, Canada. Division business meetings. These meetings provide a place to: suggest sessions for next year’s annual meeting, plan division activities, discuss sponsored awards, recruit members for the division and the Society’s leadership, plan publishing projects, and discuss division's budget. Virtual and In-Person. I decided to hold two division business meetings for us this year: (i) a virtual meeting prior to the annual meeting and (ii) an in-person meeting during the 2024 SSSP Annual Meeting. Agendas for each meeting will be sent to members 7 days prior to the meeting. June Virtual Zoom Meeting Prior-to SSSP Annual Meeting. Please complete the Doodle Poll for scheduling this meeting: Doodle Poll: https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/e7WJNK8e August In-Person Meeting at 2024 SSSP Annual Meeting. Saturday August 10 at 10:30am till 12:10pm during the 2024 SSSP Annual Meeting in Montreal, Canada. Meeting will convene in the Ballroom West of the conference hotel. Agendas. These meetings will review our division budget, our division awardees, planning sessions and awards for the 2025 meeting, our division survey, SSSP elections, and other items of interest within the division. To submit items for consideration to the agenda, please email your proposal and relevant information to: csac.sssp@gmail.com. CSAC 23(2) Page 5 2024 Graduate Student Paper Award. Division Sponsored Graduate Student Paper Award. Corresponding with the 2024 SSSP Annual Meeting call for papers, our division sponsored another annual Graduate Student Paper Award. With this annual paper award competition, students are encouraged to submit empirically-based papers with a theoretical contribution addressing topics pertaining to collective conflict, action, and change. The winner receives a $200 cash award, a one-year student membership to SSSP, conference registration fees, and a plaque commemorating their superb achievement. Submissions meeting the requirements for consideration were evaluated through a double-blind review process by the award committee reviewers. Reviewers’ evaluations and rankings of papers were guided by four criteria: (i) the connection of the research question and/or problem with CSACD literatures, (ii) the use of theory and method in the research design, (iii) the contribution(s) to CSAC scholarship, and (iv) the general quality of the paper. Along with qualitative remarks from reviewers, each paper was scored on each criteria on a scale of: “excels,” “high," or “meets.” 2024 Award Committee. The Conflict, Social Action, and Change Division held our 2024 Graduate Student Paper Award Competition with great success! Much thanks and appreciation to our reviewers. Recognizing the great work of these graduate students would not be possible without your volunteerism, professionalism, and service to the division. Please join me in thanking our reviewers: Dr. Emily Schneider, Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Northern Arizona University. Dr. Ezra Temko, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. 2024 Award Winner and Honorable Mentions. The committee is excited to announce this year’s winner and two honorable mentions. Please join us in congratulating and recognizing these excellent submissions and great scholarship! Find our more about their respective papers and these scholar in the following pages. 2024 Graduate Student Paper Award Winner, Kanoko Kamata, University of Pittsburg. Overcoming a Protest-phobic Culture through Cultural Countermeasures: The Flower Demo Movement Against Sexual Violence in Japan. 2024 Honorable Mentions Sadie Dempsey, University of Wisconsin - Madison. Mobilizing Potential: Pathways to Engaged Citizenship. Jillian LaBranche, University of Minnesota. Macro-Micro Interaction in Knowledge Construction: Structural and Communicative Memory in Rwanda and Sierra Leone. CSAC 23(2) Page 6. Winner CSACD Graduate Student Paper Award. Kanoko Kamata. Kanoko is in her 5th year of the Sociology PhD program at the University of Pittsburg. Her research focuses on what historical mechanisms have made Japanese people politically passive and what motivates Japanese people to take action and to be a part of social movements. Kanoko’s paper is based on her dissertation research, which explores barriers to social movement participation in Japan, and how the Flower Demo movement overcame cultural barriers to mobilization. The paper focuses on the Flower Demo movement, a movement in Japan where women publicly share their experiences of sexual violence. Kanoko has been trying to understand how and why the Flower Demo movement has been so successful. Her history and connections meant she was able to get access to movement organizers. Kanoko describes her research interests as “originat[ing] from my own challenges as an organizer.” She continues: “[b]efore starting the PhD program, I had been an activist/organizer on gender issues, especially gender-based violence, and also trained Japanese people based on community-organizing frameworks through a nonprofit organization in Tokyo. I am currently studying about the anti-sexual violence protests in Japan, which have spread to all of the country's prefectures. I’m particularly focused on what practices facilitate participation in the movement.” Kanoko plans to defend her dissertation in the next academic year — 2025. Overcoming a Protest-phobic Culture through Cultural Countermeasures: The Flower Demo Movement Against Sexual Violence in Japan Kanoko Kamata, PhD Student. Department of Sociology, University of Pittsburg. kak375@pitt.edu. Abstract: The cultural impact on social movements has been a well-researched topic, but there's a notable gap when it comes to understanding culturally motivated quiescence and how social movements can effectively combat it. The Flower Demo (FD) movement, a Japanese anti-sexual violence initiative, provides a compelling case study where activists successfully employed cultural countermeasures to confront a culture hostile to social movements. Interviews with 72 FD participants reveal the movement's strategies for overcoming Japan's protest-phobic culture. First, they countered negative protest stereotypes by creating a protest space that was welcoming to women and young people through the use of specific objects and tactics. Second, to address an apolitical social norm, FD emphasized inclusive goals and messages that required minimal political commitment and knowledge. Finally, to challenge the perception of conventional activism as high-risk and low-impact, FD offered low-cost, effective actions and collective empowerment, helping participants to overcome cultural and historical barriers. CSAC 23(2) Page 7. Honorable Mention. Sadie Dempsey. As a political sociologist, Sadie studies democracy, social movements, and civic life. Sadie’s dissertation is an ethnography of engaged citizenship that interrogates two interwoven paradoxes: why do engaged citizens increasingly distrust political institutions and the people in them and (ii) why do they continue to participate in a system they do not trust? Sadie’s research has been supported by the Russel Sage Foundation and the Institute for Humane Studies. Sadie is also an active community engaged scholar whose work has been recognized numerous times, including the inaugural Sociology Graduate Student Service Award and a UW Madison Graduate Student Service Award. Mobilizing Potential: Pathways to Engaged Citizenship. Sadie Dempsey, PhD Candidate. Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison. smdempsey@wisc.edu. Abstract: How do people become engaged citizens, even in the absence of prior politicization? To answer this question, I draw on 30 months of ethnographic fieldwork and 45 interviews with engaged citizens in Wisconsin. I make three key contributions to the literature on mobilization and political inequality. First, I identify three mobilization pathways that citizens follow to become engaged citizens: the politicized pathway, the issue pathway, and the indirect pathway. In doing so, I integrate theories of mobilization with our understanding of motives to examine how different types of incentives mobilize different types of people across these pathways. Second, and most importantly, I demonstrate how people are mobilized without prior politicization or issue commitment. Third, I demonstrate how citizens can be politicized through political participation, not before. I also demonstrate the role of civic associations in mobilizing the public and how they can strategically leverage different types of incentives to bring people who are normally excluded from formal politics into the democratic process. This has important implications for efforts to close persistent participation gaps, broader political inequality, and democracy. Honorable Mention. Jillian LaBranche. Jillian’s research uses comparative methods to examine how knowledge is constructed at the intersections of collective memory, violence, and education. Her dissertation research seeks to understand how societies that recently experienced large-scale political violence educate younger generations about that same violence. Her research has been funded by the NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship, ASA DDRIG, US Fulbright Student Program, and internal grants at the University of Minnesota. Macro-Micro Interaction in Knowledge Construction: Structural and Communicative Memory in Rwanda and Sierra Leone. Jillian LaBranche, PhD Candidate. Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota. labra032@umn.edu. Abstract: Scholars have investigated how state narratives about mass violence produced at the macro-level shape education. This article instead examines the micro-level and its interaction with macro-level narratives. It explores how parents who have experienced mass violence teach newer generations about their nation’s history of violence, partly within the parameters set by macro-actors, while also touching on the role of schoolteachers. Rwanda and Sierra Leone, two countries with contrasting political regimes, serve as case studies. Parents in both contexts negotiate state-sponsored narratives of violence with their own experiences of genocide and war, respectively. Yet parents in both countries face distinct challenges related to an authoritarian versus a more liberal political context. Informed by 100 interviews with parents, supplemented by observation in schools, this article first demonstrates interactions between structural memory (imposed from above) and communicative memory (at the level of social interaction) in the intergenerational transmission of knowledge. It secondly shows how structural memory sets parameters within which communicative memory evolves. Simultaneously, however, the latter feeds back into structural memory, as parents instill historical consciousness within newer generations. This article extends previous scholarship that views structural and communicative memory as (relatively) isolated spheres of knowledge, and it explores the intergenerational transmission of knowledge across political regimes in nations with recent episodes of mass violence. CSAC 23(2) Page 8. Member News. Amin Ghaziani. Dr. Amin Ghaziani’s book, Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution, from Princeton University Press, is out now! LGBTQ+ bars have undergone a steep and startling decline globally over the past 20 years. More than half of London’s LGBTQ+ venues closed between 2006 and 2016, and the in the U.S. an average of 15 gay bars closed every year from 2008 to 2021. "Save your tears, because queer nightlife is alive and well," writes the New York Times in its review of Dr. Amin Ghaziani's new book, Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution. "In fact, it's even better than ever, having evolved into a more progressive, sophisticated form." In this exhilarating journey into underground queer scenes, Ghaziani unveils a joyous revolution revitalizing urban nightlife. Far from the gay bar with its largely white, gay male clientele, here is a dazzling scene of secret parties—club nights—wherein culture creatives, many of whom are queer, trans, and racial minorities, reclaim the night in the name of those too long left out. Episodic, nomadic, and radically inclusive, club nights are refashioning queer nightlife in boundlessly imaginative and powerfully defiant ways. In describing this transformation, the New York Times remarks: "The sociologist Amin Ghaziani wants to turn a funeral into a party." And in his effort to do so, "Ghaziani shines as an academic.” Ghaziani, Amin. 2024. Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution. Princeton University Press. Available at Princeton University Press: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691253855/long-live-queer-nightlife. Diana Therese M. Veloso. Dr. Diana Therese M. Veloso PN(Res) was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor 6 at the Department of Sociology and Behavioral Sciences of De La Salle University in the Philippines. She was an awardee during the February 2024 Research Recognition Rites of the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation of the said university. She received a Certificate of Recognition for the following article: Veloso, Diana Therese M. 2023. “The Experiences of Currently and Formerly Incarcerated Women in a Time of Pandemic: Implications for Life-Giving Communities.” Acta Theologica Supplementum 35: Towards Life-Giving Communities in a Post-Pandemic World: Asian Feminist Theological Perspectives. https://doi.org/10.38140/at.v35i1 In addition, Dr. Veloso received a Plaque of Appreciation from the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) for her long-term volunteer work for the benefit of women who are persons deprived of liberty (PDL) at the said facility. The award was given on 24 October 2023, in celebration of the 29th National Correctional Consciousness Week. Dr. Veloso is currently on her second year as a Board Member of the Philippine Sociological Society. She recently participated in the mobilization exercise of the Philippine Navy and completed the Leadership Training for Enlisted Reservists. She also participated in the Gender and Development Awareness and Indoctrination Drive for reservists in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). CSAC 23(2) Page 9. Member News. Jesse Yeh. Dr. Jesse Yeh, Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Center for Legal Studies at Northwestern University, recently had an article published in the American Journal of Cultural Sociology. Abstract: Throughout his campaigns and presidency, Trump repeatedly flouted the norm prohibiting racially derogatory appeals, leading many to wonder if modern racial norms against explicit racism had eroded. Despite the centrality of the normative prohibitions against explicit racism in the scholarship of modern racisms, few examined how these racial norms operate as norms. This paper foregrounds two interventions. First, I emphasize that studies of racial norms must interrogate not only parameters of acceptable behaviors, but also mechanisms for sanction. Second, I highlight that, as all norms are simultaneously cooperative and coercive, how social actors construct the meanings of the norm itself shapes its enforcement. This paper draws from interviews with a multiracial group of 65 liberal and conservative activists to answer how they understand the acceptability of Trump's remarks and how they reasoned the actions they did or did not take as a result. I find that even enthusiastic Trump supporters recognize Trump's remarks as unacceptable. Yet, both liberals and conservatives express unwillingness to sanction Trump's behavior. This is especially the case among the understudied conservatives of color. I highlight that both liberals and conservatives refrain from sanctioning Trump and his supporters by constructing racial norms as coercive. Yeh, Jesse. 2024. “Can He Say That? Who’s Going to Stop Him?: Liberal and Conservative Racial Norm Enforcements against Trump’s Racial Derogations.” American Journal of Cultural Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41290-024-00211-1. Have something you want featured? Essays. Welcome essays from our division members on wide-ranging topics relevant for sharing with our division membership. These are short essays less than 3000 words. Review and acceptance via the newsletter editorial team. Interviews / Spotlights. I am interested in featuring the work of our division members as a part of our newsletters. I have thought one way of doing this is to conduct short interviews — on your current/past work, thoughts on our area of scholarship, insights for other scholars, spotlights on our award winners and other accomplishments. Excited to hear your ideas. Graduate Student Focused Section. I’m also interested in carving out a features sections for our graduate student members. I can see this as a place for sharing work, resources, information, and announcements. I also expect this would evolve to fit the needs of our graduate students — again, excited to hear ideas. Email me with thoughts, ideas, submissions: csac.sssp@gmail.com. Essays Welcome. Have a short essay you’d might like to have in our next newsletter? Feature Your Work. Reach out to me if you’d like to be interviewed about your current work and have this interview summary shared in our newsletter. This can be about your research, publications, teaching, service, etc. Graduate Students. Let me know how our division can create spaces for you, your work, and questions. Interested in helping create this space?… Email: csac.sssp@gmail.com.