read more

Paula Chambers, Versatile PhD

In the November 2010 issue of Footnotes, ASA Executive Officer Sally Hillsman noted a long-term decrease in academic hiring and urged the discipline to broaden its vision of sociological careers to include applied practice in business, government, and nonprofit settings—in accordance with the ASA mission, which explicitly includes practitioners. She described the dilemma faced by graduate students who may be interested in applied careers but are afraid to say so for fear of being viewed as “second-class citizens.”

While not a sociologist, I can testify that it is much the same in the humanities. Graduate students often receive the message from their professors and departments that the only respectable employment outcome for a new PhD is an academic position. Hence students interested in applied practice are effectively discouraged from pursuing that interest. Those who do ask about non-academic careers are seldom provided with ideal support, as most professors and departments are ill-equipped to provide that type of professional development. It’s quite unfortunate because these days, most new PhDs will end up outside the academy at some point anyway whether they are prepared and supported, or not.

Join the NESA group on LinkedIn.

Poverty and Inequalities: Implications, Policies and New Perspectives

Saturday, November 6, 2010 9:00AM-4:00PM

UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE Durham, NH

New! Proposal Deadline: October 15, 2010

Submission: Please submit proposals with full paper title and 100 word abstracts to NESA President Bruce Day at dayb@mail.ccsu.edu

You may identify additional variations on the following themes and/or suggest others. Undergraduate students are welcome to present posters or to co-present with sponsors. Proposals for panel sessions are also welcome.

• Impact of Poverty on Children
• Health and Well Being
• Wealth disparities
• Education and Poverty
• Intergenerational Poverty / Social Mobility
• Employment and Workforce
• Global poverty and inequality
• Race and gender disparities
• Does place matter?
• Urban and Rural
• Emerging theories
• New research approaches
• Informed approaches to addressing poverty and inequalities
• Policies addressing poverty

The conference will be held on Saturday, November 6, 2010 from 9 AM to 4 PM on the campus of the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH. The proposal deadline for papers is October 1, and pre-registration for the conference is October 31. Please see the Fall 2010 conference page for documents and details. Again, the following are the important dates for the Fall 2010 Conference:

October 1

• Links (below, on the right) have been updated and alphabetized. Kindly inform us if your institution is not listed correctly.
• The Awards page has been updated.
• The About page has been updated.
• The Conferences page has been updated, and a page has been added for the Fall 2010 Conference, to be held at UNH on November 6.
• The Contact page has been updated.

Please join us!

“For the past seven years, Jennifer has served in a variety of roles on the Executive Council of the New England Sociological Association (NESA). In these positions, Jennifer has demonstrated outstanding service to the broader community of sociologists by organizing conferences, facilitating communication with association members, and coordinating several executive council functions.”

Don’t forget to register early for NESA’s Spring Conference!

read more

The 2010 Conference will be held on April 30 on the campus of Bryant University in Rhode Island

If you have students who are completing a presentation-worthy project, or who have completed one in the past and would like to present it at the conference, please encourage them to submit their proposal. Submission is easy: simply send in a 100-200 word abstract from the Conference Web site. Individual or group presentations are welcome.

Please encourage your students to submit a proposal by the submission deadline: Thursday, April 15th

This notification was sent by the organizer of the 2010 Conference. You can contact him directly at Fraleigh@bryant.edu, or call 401-232-6317. The mailing address is:

Michael Fraleigh
Bryant University
1150 Douglas Pike
Smithfield, RI 02917