2009 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:x2009 | 2008 | 2005 | 
• Mini-Conferences:x2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 |
• Lewis Coser Award Lecture and Salon: 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 |

2009:  The third Junior Theorists Symposium will be held August 7th at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Conference Room at 2521 Channing Way. Sponsored by the Theory Section of the American Sociological Association, and organized by Claudio Benzecry (University of Connecticut) and Monika Krause (University of Kent), the event will include a broad range of exciting work over three sessions, on Knowledge, Practice, and Politics. The Theory Section will be providing breakfast, lunch, coffee, and a closing reception for the 2009 Junior Theorists' Symposium. The complete schedule is below. You may also download a pdf version of the scheduel as well as a registration form, which you are requested to complete by.

"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.

8:30 – 9:00 Coffee and Bagels

9:00 – 10:50 Knowledge

• Epistemic Contests and Emergent Epistemologies. – Owen Whooley (New York University)
• Criticism in the Age of Climate Change. – Elif Kale-Lostuvali (University of California, Berkeley)
• Bureaucracy, Democracy and Exclusion: Why Indigenous Knowledge Holders Have a Hard Time Being Taken Seriously. – Chantelle Marlor (Rutgers University)
• Competition, Risk/Reward Structures and Scholarly Production: The Case of Science and Technology Studies. – Kyle Siler (Cornell University)
• Commentator: John Levi Martin (University of California, Berkeley)

10:50 – 11:00 Coffee

11:00 – 12:50 Practice

• Hybrid Habitus: Toward a Post-Colonial Theory of Practice. – Claire Decoteau (University of Illinois at Chicago)
• Models, Morals and Motives. – Stephen Vaisey (University of California, Berkeley)
• Field as analytic disposition. – Aaron Panofsky (UCLA) and Mike McQuarrie (University of California, Davis)
• A relational aesthetic for social theory? Culture, cognition, and curating contemporary art. – Sophia Krzys Acord (University of Exeter)
• Commentator: Craig Calhoun (New York University and Social Science Research Council)

12:50 – 2:00 Lunch

2:00 – 4:15 Politics

• On the Generative Power of Theory: Meaning, Modality, and Passion in Professional Political Life. – Matthew Mahler (SUNY Stony Brook)
• Ideology, Identity, and Religious Politics. – Ates Altinordu (Yale University)
• Sectarian Imaginary: The Micro-Politics of Shia-Sunni Conflict in Pakistan's Northern Areas. – Nosheen Ali (Cornell University)
• Concept Formation and the Problem of Populism: Lessons from an Anomalous Case. – Robert Jansen (University of Michigan)
• Commentator: Julia Adams (Yale University)