Arizona State Professor Voted Secretary
Newswise — WASHINGTON, DC, July 17, 2012 — Annette Lareau, Stanley I. Sheerr Professor of Social Sciences in the University of Pennsylvania’s sociology department, has been elected President of the American Sociological Association (ASA) and Mary Romero, Professor of Justice Studies and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University, has been voted Secretary. Lareau and Romero will begin their terms in August 2013, following a year of service as President-Elect and Secretary-Elect respectively.
“It is an honor to be elected President of the American Sociological Association,” said Lareau, who will succeed Stanford University’s Cecilia L. Ridgeway and chair the 2014 Program Committee that will shape the 2014 ASA Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
Lareau, whose research areas include: social stratification, family, education, and ethnographic methods, plans to spend her year as President working to ensure that sociologists are better represented in the public debate and helping to ease sociology students’ transition into the workforce.
“Since the crash of 2008, two enduring challenges for our discipline have become increasingly salient,” said Lareau, who received her PhD from the University of California-Berkley and has taught at Temple University, the University of Maryland, and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. “First, sociologists do not have a sufficient voice in public debate, even though there are many pressing policy issues which would benefit from sociological insights. Second, job prospects for young scholars are limited.”
As Secretary, Romero will serve as an advisory and recording officer of the Association, and as liaison between the ASA President, Council, and Executive Office.
“I am honored to have been elected ASA Secretary and look forward to working with the Executive Office, President, and Council,” said Romero, who will succeed Skidmore College’s Catherine White Berheide. “I transition into this position more confidently having been on the Council in the past and knowing how amazing the ASA staff is.”
Romero, whose areas of specialization include: gender and racial justice in the U.S.; gender, race, and work; critical race studies; ethnography, narrative, and qualitative methods; and Latina/o and Chicana/o studies, hopes to spend her three year term as Secretary supporting the ASA and its various initiatives.
“I plan to continue ASA initiatives to improve membership representation, public understanding of sociology and sociological research, and media presence,” said Romero, who earned her PhD from the University of Colorado-Boulder and has taught at a number of colleges including: the University of Oregon, San Francisco State University, and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
During their distinguished careers, both Lareau and Romero have held a variety of leadership positions within ASA and have been dedicated to advancing the Association and the discipline of sociology as a whole.
Lareau has served on the ASA’s Committee on Committees and chaired both ASA’s Sociology of the Family and Sociology of Education sections, while Romero has served as an ASA Council Member-at-Large and chaired ASA’s Race, Gender, and Class Section as well as its Latino/Latina Sociology Section. Romero is the first former ASA Minority Fellow to become Secretary of the Association.
Some of Lareau’s other leadership positions include: Vice-President of the Eastern Sociological Society, Deputy Editor of Sociology of Education, and Panel Member for the National Science Foundation. Romero was also the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies’ Secretary and Editorial Committee Chair and a member of the Society for the Study of Social Problems’ Board of Directors.
“We are excited that Annette Lareau and Mary Romero will be joining ASA’s leadership team,” said ASA Executive Officer Sally T. Hillsman. “Both Lareau and Romero are talented sociologists who have made many important contributions to the Association and to the discipline. We are confident that they will be vibrant and innovative leaders.”
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About the American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (www.asanet.org), founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society.
This press release was written by Arielle Baran, ASA Office of Public Affairs and Public Information.
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