Specific call for section, “The Women’s Experience”: “The Women’s Experience section seeks rigorous, thoughtful, and evidence-based analyses that examine gender equity, intersectionality, and the evolving role(s) of women in society at the present moment. In our specific climate, when reproductive rights are being rolled back, fields dominated by women are being “deprofessionalized,” women’s and gender studies programs are being targeted, trad wives and diet culture are going viral, submissions are invited that explore how women are coping with, countering, and/or shaping discourses about women and gender.”

Other thematic sections, instructions and contact details, and more information are in the attached PDF and in a post on LinkedIn.

Key Dates:
Proposal Submission Deadline: April 15, 2026
Notification of Acceptance: By May 15, 2026
Full Chapter Submission Deadline: July 1, 2026

Both Inside Higher Ed and WLRN Public Media from South Florida reported in recent weeks on a newly revised version of a textbook for the Introduction to Sociology course that is apparently being mandated for use at some Florida public colleges and universities.

According to IHE, “Compared to the original 669-page textbook, the new version is just 267 pages. Unlike the original, the state-approved version doesn’t include chapters on media and technology, global inequality, race and ethnicity, social stratification, or gender, sex and sexuality. It also scraps a section on the government-led genocide of Native Americans. And while the original uses the word ‘transgender’ 68 times and ‘racism’ 115 times, the former term appears only once in the new textbook and the latter six times.”

The WLRN article adds that, “The state decided to create the new textbook—edited by staff of the Board of Governors alongside a work group of sociologists—after the Board of Governors, which oversees higher education in Florida, determined that all of the books being used for Introduction to Sociology courses violated new academic restrictions imposed by state law.”

The WLRN article quotes Dawn Carr, a sociologist at Florida State University who participated in the state work group, as calling the textbook a “stop-gap solution. … either sociologists sat at the table to help create a new textbook, or colleges and universities across the state would be forced to remove Introduction to Sociology as a core course offered to incoming students.”

ASA Vice President Victor Ray posted an interview on his blog with Florida International University sociologist Zachary Levenson about “state censorship, how faculty are coping (or not), and how the uncertainty around what can be safely taught is designed to put faculty on edge.” (Part 2 of that interview is here.)

Another FIU sociologist, Katie Rainwater, joined Levenson to author a commentary for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, “Florida is replacing free inquiry with political indoctrination.” 

(See a DCSS news item on this topic from February 2024.)

Information about these notices was provided by IPUMS at the U of Minnesota

[See a related news item: "Data Checkup framework for assessing the health of federal data collections"]

Federal Register Notice: American Community Survey (ACS) and Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS)

The Department of Commerce is gathering comments on proposed changes to the ACS and PRCS through next Tuesday, February 17. The changes include the introduction of an internet self-response option for the PRCS (as is already used in the ACS) and the implementation of modernized race and ethnicity standards. The updated race and ethnicity standards are set under Statistical Policy Directive 15. The Census Bureau provides a page outlining its extensive research on race and ethnicity and its testing to develop the updated standards.

[See also, "Take Action: American Community Survey" from dataindex.us]

Federal Register Notice: MEPS-Household Component (MEPS-HC)

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is accepting comments via the Federal Register through March 2 about changes to the MEPS-HC. The notice references minor changes to question phrasing, a change to the respondent sex question, and the removal of questions about counseling and treatment, birth control, aspirin use, and gender. The notice also reports the discontinuation of two supplements: (1) the Diabetes Care Supplement (DCS), which was fielded annually for 2000-2025 (we do not expect the 2023-2025 data to be released) and (2) the Medical Care Self-Administered Questionnaire (ESAQ), which was slated for a single year of data collection in 2024, with no data yet released. Those interested in these components of the MEPS-HC data for their research may want to respond. If your work is not affected by these changes, you may also use this opportunity to describe the general importance of MEPS-HC data for your research agenda.

Federal Register Notice: Contingent Worker Supplement

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is accepting comments through April 13 via the Federal Register about proposed changes to the Contingent Worker Supplement of the Current Population Survey. The proposed changes will update the collection of digital platform work in the supplement scheduled for July 2026.

"Last week, the dataindex.us team launched the Data Checkup, a comprehensive framework for assessing the health of federal data collections.

"Going beyond simple availability checks, the Data Checkup evaluates datasets across six dimensions of risk, from data quality and statutory context to staffing, funding, and policy pressures. Each dataset is assigned a clear status so users can quickly understand where risks exist, and why.

"Built with input from 30+ data experts, the Data Checkup is designed for researchers, journalists, advocates, litigators, and policymakers who rely on federal data.

"By surfacing risks before data disappears or degrades, the Data Checkup helps protect the data we all depend on."

Explore the framework: dataindex.us/collections

[Ed. note: users of federal data will likely be concerned to see so many key data collections flagged as "high risk."]

Call for a special issue of The British Journal of Sociology
“The New Sociology of Propaganda”

Guest Editors: 
Freeden Blume Oeur (Tufts University, USA)
Fiona Greenland (University of Virginia, USA)

"Propaganda is among the most pervasive and vexing social problems today. In the age of big data and given the tight grip that traditional, social, and new media have on our lives, a crowded field — states, governments, news outlets, civil institutions, and experts — has fought to control, filter, and censor information and its ideological messaging. ... The time is right for social scientific research that updates and advances understanding of propaganda. ... This special issue welcomes sociological research from all subfields and all methodologies, covering any corner of the globe, which bears on questions of modern propaganda. Our hope is that such a special issue will help set the social scientific agenda on propaganda as we enter the second quarter of the 21st century. We encourage empirical articles as well as those more historical in focus and those dedicated to building more theoretical understandings of propaganda."

"If you are interested in submitting a manuscript for this special issue, please send initial information to the Guest Editor, Dr. Freeden Blume Oeur (freeden.blumeoeur@tufts.edu), by Monday, March 16, 2026. By Monday, March 30, 2026 the Guest Editor will let all prospective authors know if they are invited to submit a manuscript for consideration in the special issue."

Read the complete call on the journal website.

"If you rely on federal statistical data in your work--from Census data to BLS employment figures to NCHS health statistics--SSRS wants to hear from you. SSRS is a survey research firm and part of a consortium of partners to create the Emergency Mobilization for Essential Research and Government-Data Equivalents (EMERGE) Initiative. Through a grant from the Knight Foundation and with advisory support from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) and the Association of Public Data Users (APDU), SSRS is conducting a brief survey (less than 5 minutes) to understand how recent changes to federal statistical agencies have impacted professionals across sectors.

"Why this matters: Recent disruptions at the 13 federal statistical agencies--including staff reductions and budget cuts--are creating potential gaps in the data infrastructure that researchers, policymakers, journalists, state administrators, and business leaders depend on daily.

"Your responses will directly inform the development of the EMERGE Initiative to explore independent solutions for maintaining access to reliable, publicly accessible statistical data."

Take the survey: ssrspanel.com/wix/4/p868434879294.aspx?ORG=1

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has archived the program page for  the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants, apparently marking an end to this funding, at least for the foreseeable future. (Although the directorate page for the dissertation grants still lists several funding opportunities for specific disciplines, these appear to have been archived.)

The American Anthropological Association sent a letter to Congress on January 21, 2026, urging a restoration of these programs. The Society for Applied Anthropology has also apparently written Congress. The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) has created an action item to enable social scientists to contact Congress directly, as well. 

This change may be related to NSF's recently announced reorganization and changes to the merit review process for proposals. For more context, see the NSF section of our 2025 resources page and scroll to the bottom of the NSF section. (The 2025 resources page has been archived.)

Several news items released this week signal potentially significant changes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities:

“Limit on multiyear funding of NIH grants is a sticking point in Senate budget talks” STAT News 1/16/26 (subscription) In 2025, NIH “funded fewer research projects than in years past because of a budgeting strategy mandated by the White House Office of Management and Budget. Called multiyear funding, it allocates funds for a grant in full during the year the grant is awarded, rather than on a yearly basis.” Shifting to this funding model means that fewer projects are funded, even while spending remains stable or even increases. This could be especially challenging for early-career researchers.

“Exclusive: key NIH review panels due to lose all members by the end of 2026” Nature 1/22/26 (subscription) “Crucial grant-review panels for more than half of the institutes that make up the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) are on track to lose all their voting members within the year. Federal law requires these panels to review applications for all but the smallest grants before funding can be awarded, meaning that the ability of those institutes to issue new grants could soon be frozen. … At the advisory council for the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the final voting members’ terms end next month. Without extraordinary action, the council will have no members by its May meeting, when it is scheduled to review grant applications submitted as early as last September — meaning those applications would be effectively frozen.” (Also covered in STAT News)

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO, who is the Ranking Member of the US House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, “introduced the Follow the Science Act to shield the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from political interference and protect the integrity of America's biomedical research.” (“DeGette Introduces Bill to Protect NIH From Political Interference” 1/21/26)

“Again Defying Trump, Congress Proposes Increasing NIH Budget, Maintaining ED” Inside Higher Ed 1/20/26 “The House and Senate appropriations committees have jointly proposed legislation that would generally maintain the Education Department’s funding levels, plus increase the National Institutes of Health’s budget by more than $400 million this fiscal year. It’s the latest in a trend of bipartisan congressional rebukes of President Trump’s call to slash agencies that support higher ed.”

For context on actions affecting NIH during 2025, see our 2025 resources page, which has now been archived.

Please consider nominating a colleague or yourself for one of the following DCSS 2026 awards. Nominations will close on March 2. Complete descriptions and nominating information are on the Awards page of the website, where you will also find links to lists of previous winners.

Graduate Student Paper Awards: Separate awards are made for one M.A. student paper and one Ph.D. student paper; each winning author will receive a $200 cash award and will be recognized at the annual DCSS awards event. Graduate students enrolled in colleges and universities in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia are encouraged to submit; you need not be a member of DCSS to submit a paper for consideration. See complete details on the Awards page.

The Stuart A. Rice Merit Award for Career Achievement is presented to a distinguished senior member of the Society who has made a significant contribution to the discipline. Nominees will be judged on their collective accomplishments over a professional career of at least 25 years.

The Morris Rosenberg Award is presented for outstanding sociological achievement during the past three years by any member of DCSS. Achievements may include—but are not limited to—scholarship, teaching and mentoring, use of sociology in public policy analysis, contributions to professional organizations, advancement of public awareness of sociological practice, or leadership in the use of sociological knowledge in non-traditional settings.

The Anna Julia Cooper Award for Public Sociology by a Community Organization is given to a community group using the methods and insights of sociology in its work to improve life in the DCSS service area.

The Executive Committee is currently making plans for an awards event to be held in late spring. Watch this space for more information coming soon!

"COSSA's Social Science Advocacy Day is back! Join COSSA on March 23-24, 2026 in Washington, DC! Advocacy Day brings together social and behavioral scientists and science advocates from across the country to engage with policymakers.

"This opportunity is available to individuals affiliated with a COSSA member organization. If you are a member of or employed by one of COSSA’s member organizations, you are eligible to participate." (Note that DCSS is not a COSSA member organization, but ASA is and some area universities are.)

For more information and to register, see the COSSA website.