Dear SSS Members,
It was wonderful to see so many of you at SSS 2025 in Charlotte! We are sharing some important updates with you as we transition into an exciting new year for the Southern Sociological Society. This email contains important information on the following:
- Message from Outgoing Executive Officer
- Reflecting on SSS 2025
- Awards and Honors
- Message from Past-President Dawn Robinson and Past-Program Chair Lisa Walker
- Conference Satisfaction Survey
- Looking towards SSS 2026 (including an announcement of President Kendra Jason’s theme)
- Upcoming Elections
Cameron Lippard, Executive Officer
Upali Bhattacharya, Assistant Executive Officer
Message from Outgoing Executive Officer
SSSers! It was so wonderful to see so many of you at SSS 2025 in Charlotte! I can’t believe that our recent conference was my 13th and last one as your Executive Officer. While there is so much to say, so many people to thank, and so many emotions attached to this fact, I will keep it short and focus on a longer set of reflections and acknowledgements at a later date. Until then, please know, without a doubt, that it has been one of the significant honors of my career thus far to have had the opportunity to serve as the Executive Officer of the Southern Sociological Society. I look forward to Jacksonville, FL and SSS 2026 as my first meeting in a very long time where I can attend the conference as a participating member and see our wonderful organization from that vantage point! See you soon!
David Brunsma, Past SSS Executive Officer
Reflecting on SSS 2025: The Future of Sociology and the Sociology of the Future
As the final day closed on Dawn Robinson’s SSS 2025 in Charlotte, NC, it was clear that SSS is now back to pre-pandemic numbers and continuing to grow in every way. We ended up registering 1026 people for SSS 2025 and ended up with some 1063 memberships. These represent our post-pandemic numbers and an indication that we are back to where our numbers were in 2019 right before the pandemic hit. Let’s make 2026 even stronger.
Awards and Honors
In case you were unable to catch the Honors Convocation and Presidential Address on Friday evening of SSS 2025, here are the amazing SSSers who were acknowledged for their contributions to our organization and our discipline. First, Daniel Farr (Kennesaw State University) won the 2025 SSS Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award. Second, our SSS Junior Scholar Award was awarded to Trenton Mize (Purdue University). Third, Reilly Kincaid (Purdue University) won the Odum Award for Best Graduate Student Paper for her paper, “Time is Money? Differences in First-Order and Third-Order Beliefs about How Gender Should Shape Parents’ Work-Family Priorities.” Fourth, the Odum Award for Best Undergraduate Paper was given to Isabella Bahamon (Southwestern University) for her paper, “‘Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Choice: American Attitudes about Abortion Rights in the United States.” And, finally, our first-ever Best Poster Award was given to Raea Tyson (North Carolina State University) for her poster, “A Longitudinal Study of Food Insecurity in Alamance County, North Carolina.”
Congratulations to all the winners! And, thanks to Matthew Ward (University of South Mississippi) and his Honors Committee for their work on this year’s awards!
Message from Past-President Dawn Robinson and Past-Program Chair Lisa Walker
SSS 2025 is a wrap. For those who were able to make it to Charlotte, it was every bit as nourishing to see and learn from you as we hoped. The meetings were so full of exciting projects, new findings, new ideas for pedagogy and for social action, networking opportunities, and opportunities to spend time with each other and recharge. Thanks to all who participated.
Our heartfelt thanks to the outgoing Southern Sociological Society team — Dave Brunsma (Executive Officer), Elizabeth Roberts (Assistant Executive Officer), Rhiannon Leebrick (Recording Secretary), Jacob Robinson (AV/Tech Support & Registration Coordinator) for the amazing job they did making this conference a success – and supporting the organization more generally. We are also grateful to Brad Smith for his continued efforts to support SSS with the MeetingSavvy platform – making it even better this year. We are honored to have been part of the team that brought us together in 2025.
Moreover, we are so looking forward to seeing what President Kendra Jason and the new SSS team – Cameron Lippard (Executive Officer), Upali Bhattacharya (Assistant Executive Officer), Elizabeth Culatta (Recording Secretary) will have in store for us this coming year.
Dawn T. Robinson (Past-President) and Lisa Slattery Walker (2025 Program Chair)
Conference Satisfaction Survey
If you attended SSS 2025, please take a few minutes to complete this post-conference survey about your experiences: https://appstate.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5j74ZrN6pdpVzLM.
Looking towards SSS 2026
The 2026 Annual theme, Empowered Sociologists: Agency and Action towards Social Change, is a call to action for empowered thought leaders who have the agency to uphold the ethical mission of the Southern Sociological Society. Sociologists are well positioned to lead through times of rapid social change with our collective action. In a time where many feel disempowered, the call serves to remind us of the strength of sociology and of sociologists. It is also a reminder of the Society’s mission to apply our sociological knowledge to societal problems, and hopefully help solve them.
Our social reality is shaped by continuous change and shifts in power. Historically, we have been fraught with the struggle for power and control on socio-political levels in organizations and workplaces, within communities, and interpersonally managing tensions between us/them, haves/have-nots, and outsider/insiders. In recent years, we have experienced dramatic changes in higher education with the institutionalization of Artificial Intelligence (AI), staffing shortages, organizational reorganization, and loss of funding. Employment patterns have shifted as older workers delay retirement, the gig economy is growing exponentially, and secure jobs and employee benefits become more elusive. Health disparities are widening while healthcare access is shrinking as community-based resources lose traction in markets and trade. Power shifts have altered the social organization of politics, transportation, the physical environment, economy, immigration, family structures, identities, crime, technology, medicine, and so much more.
Sociologists are on the frontlines of these rapidly changing social forces that shape our everyday lives. Our theoretical, methodological, pedagogical, and practical knowledge is necessary for a more precise understanding of the human condition and societal problems, more informed policy and practice, and a stricter upholding of the ethical standards of social science. Sociology is a powerful resource for making sense of rapid social change as we analyze history, inform the present, and envision the future. Sociologists have the knowledge and tools to make the invisible, visible, to acknowledge those who have “been disappeared” or erased from history, to support organizing, and to disrupt. Sociologists are vital thought leaders in the classroom, in their communities, and in society. We are a formidable force as a discipline and agents of influence and action.
The 89th Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society calls sociologists to empower each other to deepen critical thinking, engaged research, effective mentoring, enriched pedagogy, viable interventions and action plans across multi-layered social dimensions as we navigate an interconnected and interdependent global world. The 2026 Annual Conference welcomes and values your research, perspective, and pedagogy that empowers you to shape the future of sociology.
Kendra Jason, PhD
SSS President
Upcoming Elections
It is nearly time to vote for our 2026-2027 elected offices. You can learn more about the candidates through the guide to candidates and their diversity statements by clicking here.
You must be a current member to vote. You can check the status of your 2025 membership by visiting your membership portal here. You will be able to renew your 2025 dues there should you need to.
Voting will open on May 1st and remain open until midnight on May 31st (EST). Ballots will be sent via email to all current members on May 1st, 2025. Please check your spam/junk folders for an email containing a link to the ballot if you do not see the ballot after May 1st. Contact webmaster@southernsociologicalsociety.org for additional support.