Several DCSS members and friends attended the March 9 performance of Tempestuous Elements, a world premiere play that brought the life of Anna Julia Cooper to the Arena Stage. Tempestuous Elements deals with a moment in 1905 when Cooper, as Principal of the M Street School in DC, the most advanced secondary school for African Americans in the country, fought for the right of African American students to have the option of following either a vocational curriculum or the classical college-preparatory curriculum. In a scandal orchestrated by the government, her tenure as principal is sabotaged by her colleagues and neighbors leading Cooper's professional and personal relationships to become fodder for innuendo and social ostracization.

Anna Julia Cooper’s contributions to social theory, education, and the long struggle for civil rights in Washington, DC, are described in “A Washington Life: the Sociology of Anna Julia Cooper” by Patricia Lengermann and Gillian Niebrugge-Brantley (The Sociologist, May 2016). DCSS established the Anna Julia Cooper Award for Public Sociology by a Community Organization in 2019.

Tempestuous Elements references topics from the legacy of slavery through the unfinished work of Reconstruction to the troubled history of segregated education. It is no exaggeration to say that the issues confronting the characters on the stage in 1905 are all very much still part of our ongoing quest for democracy and justice. Numerous luminaries from the historical struggle for civil rights, including Mary Church Terrell and W. E. B. DuBois, join Cooper in advocating for educational equity for her students.

Read "Anna Julia Cooper’s Courageous Revolt: The History Behind ‘Tempestuous Elements’ at Arena Stage" by Emma O'Neill-Dietel on the WETA Boundary Stones website and "How the Black female head of a top D.C. school was ‘punished for leading’ " by Shirley Moody-Turner in The Washington Post opinion section.

Tempestuous Elements, written by Kia Corthron and directed by Psalmayene 24, would fit well in the syllabus of courses on the sociology of education or the history of civil rights or Washington, DC. Perhaps this new dramatization will generate interest in organizing an academic conference “in the spirit of Anna Julia Cooper.” If you would like to report on your teaching or scholarship on these topics or have thoughts about how we might present them to the DMV sociological community, please let us know at dcsociologicalsociety@gmail.com.

Image courtesy of Sally Hillsman

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is the host for the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education. "Making higher education a more safe, inclusive, and respectful place where everyone can work and learn." The Action Collaborative brings together leaders from academic and research institutions and key stakeholders to move beyond basic legal compliance to evidence-based policies and practices for addressing and preventing all forms of sexual harassment and promoting a campus climate of civility and respect. 

Information about organizational membership, events, and resources is on the National Academies website.

Registration for the 2024 Annual Meeting is open. Visit registration information for details on rates and policies. All participants on the Annual Meeting program are required to register.

The Annual Meeting will be held August 9-13, 2024 in Montreal, Canada. ASA President Joya Misra has chosen the theme “Intersectional Solidarities: Building Communities of Hope, Justice, and Joy.”

The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) has released its annual College and University Rankings for Federal Social and Behavioral Science R&D, which highlight the top university recipients of research dollars in the social and behavioral sciences.

COSSA's website also features a rankings dashboard with an interactive map of recipients of social and behavioral science R&D funding so you can see how your university stacks up among U.S. institutions.

The University of Maryland ranked 4th, Johns Hopkins University 49th, George Washington University 52nd, and George Mason University 59th.

Join the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) on April 8-9, 2024 in Washington, DC. Advocacy Day brings together social and behavioral scientists and science advocates from across the country to engage with policymakers.

Note that 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. DCSS is not a COSSA member organization.

For complete information, see the registration page online.

The Sociologist is the public magazine of the District of Columbia Sociological Society (DCSS). The February 2024 issue is now available of the TS website; you can go directly to that issue or learn more about TS via its page on the DCSS website.

Issue Contents

• Interview With ASA Immediate Past President Prudence Carter
• Intersectional Solidarities: Building Communities of Hope, Justice, and Joy
• Remembering a Scholar, Mentor, Colleague, and Friend (Esther Chow)
  
• Remembering John P. Drysdale
• A Researcher’s Story on Uncovering the Truth Behind WIC
• Documentaries in Sociology
• Harold Cruse, Black Intellectuals, and Reconstructing Black America
• Revisiting Transracial vs. Transgender Identity
• Ask a Sociologist: Racism in the Courts
• Ask a Sociologist: Who Are You?

Graduate students in the Washington, DC metro area are invited to submit papers for consideration for the Irene B. Taeuber Graduate Student Paper Awards. This competition for best paper is open to all graduate students enrolled in Virginia, Maryland, and District of Columbia colleges and universities. The winning authors each receive a $200 cash award and will be recognized at the annual DCSS award event.

Submissions must be solely authored papers on a sociological topic, and they must be the individual work of the author. Previously published papers (or those accepted for publication) are not eligible for consideration. Both M.A. and Ph.D. students are encouraged to apply. Please note your degree program with the submission since separate awards will be made to one M.A. student and one Ph.D. student. Papers should be under 50 pages in length (total number of pages including figures and references, double-spaced) and should not be full theses or dissertations. Papers should be submitted as Word documents.

Submissions should be sent to Dr. Michelle Newton-Francis (mnewtonf@american.edu) by March 1, 2024.

For a collection of original essays on the theme of “the campus crisis toolkit,” volume editors Lisa Di Bartolomeo and Kevin Gannon invite expressions of interest from authors. Essays accepted for inclusion in the volume will combine grounded perspective on campus crises with actionable strategies for combating attacks (in all their various forms) on higher ed.

Please submit your proposal by March 15, 2024.

The complete call is available via Google Drive

Qualitative Health Research announces a call for papers for a Special Issue: Culturally Responsive Qualitative Health Research. This special issue invites authors to contribute manuscripts that explore culturally responsive qualitative research (CRQR). CRQR is a research methodology that includes qualitative designs and qualitatively dominant designs and centers culture.

Early submissions are welcome; final deadline for submission: July 1, 2024. Anticipated publication of Special Issue: March 2025.

See the complete call online.

The American Political Science Association seeks an Executive Director to serve as the chief executive officer of the Association beginning in or around August 2024. Following more than two successful five-year terms as Executive Director, Steven Rathgeb Smith’s long-planned departure from the role is set to immediately follow the 2024 APSA Annual Meeting in September 2024.

The Executive Director is the chief executive officer of the corporation and an ex officio member of the Council. The executive director reports to the Council and works closely with the President and other APSA officials. 

The announcement is posted on the APSA home page, including a link to the full job description and application portal. Review of applications will begin on March 8.