2008 JUNIOR THEORISTS SYMPOSIUM

The Theory section every year organizes a Mini-Conference at the ASA meeting. Since 2005, the section has also organized a Junior Theorists Symposium. The Junior Theorists Symposium is a special one-day conference for up-and-coming theorists, organized by the Theory Section of the American Sociological Association. This conference features scholars at a relatively early stage in their careers, and brings together young sociologists who are engaged in original theoretical work as part of their ongoing research..  It's a wonderful chance to spot budding talent among upcoming theorists as well as to hear some of the emerging debates in the discipline. The symposium is open to all ASA members and there is no registration needed.

• Junior Theorists Symposium: x2008 |x2005 | 

2008:  The second Junior Theorist Symposium will be held on July 31, immediately prior to the 2008 ASA meetings at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. Junior theorists will be presenting a broad range of exciting work over three sessions: “Legitimate Knowledge and its Discontents,” “Selves and Social Situations,” and “Institutions and Organizations: New Theoretical Developments.”  Commentary by Jeffrey Alexander (Yale University), Anne Rawls (Bentley College), and Randall Collins (University of Pennsylvania) will follow. The Theory Section will be providing breakfast, lunch, coffee, and a closing reception for the 2008 Junior Theorists' Symposium. The complete schedule is below. You may also download a pdf version of the schedule, as well as of the full program with abstracts. 

Location:  The Junior Theorist Symposium will be held at the Harvard Business School, Hawes 101 (directions, map).

We ask that you please register for the JTS by downloading this form and emailing it to eeffler@nd.edu by June 25.

"Thus there are ways of acting, thinking and feeling which possess the remarkable property of existing outside the consciousness of the individual. Not only are these types of behaviour and thinking external to the individual, but they are endued with a compelling and coercive power by virtue of which, whether he wishes it or not, they impose themselves upon him. Undoubtedly when I conform to them of my own free will, this coercion is not felt or felt hardly at all, since it is unnecessary... If I attempt to violate the rules of law they react against me so as to forestall my action, if there is still time."

-Emile Durkheim.

Organized by Isaac Reed (University of Colorado) and Erika Summers-Effler (University of Notre Dame)

8:15-8:45 Breakfast

8:50-9:00 Opening remarks

9:00-10:50 Session I: Legitimate Knowledge and its Discontents

Heroes, devotees, addicts and nostalgics: Repertories of engagement in the quest for self transcendence - Claudio E. Benzecry (University of Connecticut)

Toward a Theory of Scientific Legitimacy - Brian Dick (University of California-Davis)

Theory: General, middle range, variation-finding, inspiring - Monika Krause (New York University)

Think tanks and the production of policy-knowledge in America: On the notion of an interstitial field - Thomas Medvetz (University of California, Berkeley)

Commentary on oapers from Session 1 - Jeffrey Alexander (Yale University)

11:10-1:00 Session 2: Selves and Social Situations

The feeling subject and the reflexive self: Bridging Cartesian dualism - Michal Pagis (University of Chicago)

Consumer demand as socially constituted - Frederick Wherry (University of Michigan)

The hierarchy of senses and situated punishment - King-To Yeung (Princeton University)

Murder matters: Fatal physical violence as a form of productive power - Laurel Westbrook (University of California-Berkeley)

Commentary on papers from Session 2 - Anne Rawls (Bentley College)

1:00-2:30 Lunch

2:30-4:00 Session 3: Institutions and Organizations: New Theoretical Developments

Expanding the terrain of welfare state theory: Core concepts and new policy arenas - Tasleem J. Padamsee (University of Michigan)

Adaptation, reproduction and social change in the institutional analysis of organizations: A dual cognition model - Omar Lizardo (Notre Dame University)

Institutional autonomy: Revisiting od institutional analysis from the 'inside out' - Seth Abrutyn (University of California-Riverside)

Commentary on papers from Session 3 - Randall Collins (University of Pennsylvania)

4:00-4:15 Closing Remarks