Earlier this week, sociologists from all over the world met in Chicago for the 120th annual conference of the American Sociological Association (ASA), centered on the theme "Reimagining the Future of Work.” The national event spanned multiple days and featured over 600 programmatic sessions, with nearly 100 sessions featuring members of the U-M Sociology community. 

In addition to this widespread participation, the University of Michigan distinguished itself as the most awarded university at the conference, earning an impressive 19 awards in total. Of these, 15 were featured in the official conference program—including 11 received by members of the U-M Department of Sociology. For context, the University of Chicago received 10 program awards, UC Berkeley garnered 9, and both Harvard and Princeton were recognized with 8 each. This achievement highlights not only the academic excellence of the U-M community, but also its far-reaching influence in shaping the field of sociology on national and disciplinary levels.

Below is the list of this year's ASA award winners from U-M Sociology and the larger university.

 

ASA AWARD WINNERS

  • Mary Shi, “Settlers’ Republic: Land, Infrastructure, and the Emergence of New Technologies of Government in the United States, 1789-1862”
    • 2025 ASA Dissertation Award 
  • Miriam Gleckman-Krut, “The Rainbow Nation and The Gays it Excludes: South Africa’s Management of Sexuality and Migration (1913-2020)”
    • Honorable Mention for the 2025 ASA Dissertation Award
  • Davis Daumler 
    • 2025 ASA Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants (DDRIG) Recipient

 

ASA SECTION AWARD WINNERS

  • Jane Furey, “The Consequences of Racialized Education Careers: How Education Upgrading Maintains Black-White Economic Inequality”
    • Graduate Student Paper Award, 2025 Section on the Sociology of Aging and the Life Course
    • Graduate Student Paper Award, 2025 Section on the Sociology of Race, Gender, and Class
    • Graduate Student Paper Award, 2025 Section on the Sociology of Population
  • Joyce Ho, "The Limits of Indemnity: Compensating Loss After Climate Disaster"
    • Honorable mention for the 2025 Environmental Sociology Student Paper Award
  • Chelle Jones, "Outsider Exemption: Transgender Migrants and Gender Accountability in South Korea"
    • Best Graduate Student Paper Award, 2025 Section on the Sociology of Sexualities
  • Sandra Levitsky, Jesse Yeh, and Elizabeth A. Armstrong: “Litigation Politics: Social Movement Activity in Campus Sexual Assault Litigation”
    • Distinguished Article Award, 2025 Section on the Sociology of Law
  • Mary Shi, “Settlers’ Republic: Land, Infrastructure, and the Emergence of New Technologies of Government in the United States, 1789-1862”
    • Theda Skocpol Dissertation Award, 2025 Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology
  • George Steinmetz
    • Ibn Khaldun Career Award, 2025 Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology
  • Mo Torres 
    • Honorable Mention for the Junior Theorist Award 
  • Jun Zhou, “Boundary labor: Performing Work-family Separation in Blurred Workplaces”
    • Sally Hacker Award, 2025 Section on the Sociology of Sex and Gender 
  • Jun Zhou, "Who is Real? Authenticity Regime and the Unequal Reception of AI in the Creator Economy”
    • Best Student Paper Award, 2025 Section on the Sociology of Communication, Information Technology, & Media

 

MORE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ASA AWARD WINNERS:

  • Neal Krause (School of Public Health)
    • Matilda White Riley Distinguished Scholar Award, 2025 Section on the Sociology of Aging and the Life Course
  • Arthur (Skip) Lupia (Vice President for Research and Innovation) and Diana Mutz, as founders of the Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS)
    • Innovation Award, 2025 Section on the Sociology of Methodology
  • Richard Miech (Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research)
    • Senior Scholar Award, 2025 Section on Drugs and Society
  • Pablo Mitnik (Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research), Victoria L. Bryant, and David B. Grusky: "A very uneven playing field: Economic mobility in the United States.” American Journal of Sociology, 2024.
    • Honorable Mention for the Devah Pager Outstanding Article Award, 2025 Section on the Sociology of Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility
  • Apryl Williams (Communication and Media Studies), “Not My Type: Automating Sexual Racism in Online Dating.” Stanford University Press, 2024.
    • Distinguished Book Award, 2025 Section on the Sociology of Sexualities 

 

Congratulations to all the winners and attendees, and Go Blue!