ASR News & Announcements

Rachel Kraus, Executive Officer

Thank you to everyone who attended our 80th annual meeting in Philadelphia and helped make it a great success.  I hope you all found intellectually engaging conversations, met some new people, and enjoyed Philadelphia sites.  Highlights of this year’s meeting included Daniel V.A. Olson’s Presidential Address, Jennifer Glass’s Furfey Lecture on religion and politics, seven Author Meets Critics sessions, and four Presidential Sessions.  The annual meeting also featured two professionalization workshops focusing on teaching sociology of religion, and Louisville Institute research funding opportunities for social scientific studies of religion.  Along with our McNamara and Distinguished Article Awards, we also presented our second Lifetime Achievement Award.  Congratulations to our award winners:  Helana Darwin (McNamara Award), Sarah Carol and Nadja Milewski (Distinguished Sociology of Religion Journal Article Award), and Wade Clark Roof (Lifetime Achievement Award).  Further details about these and other aspects of the annual meeting are available on the ASR website at www.sociologyofreligion.com.

The results of ASR’s 2018 election were also announced at this year’s meeting.  Every year we elect a President-elect and three Council members from our membership.  James C. Cavendish was elected to the position of President-elect, which means that he will succeed ASR’s current incoming president, Paula Nesbitt.  The three new Council members, who will serve for three year terms, are Amy Adamczyk, Kraig Beyerlein, and Rebecca Kim.  Congratulations to all those elected, and thanks to all of the nominees for their willingness to let their names go forward in the election.  Our membership also overwhelmingly approved an amendment to add the position of Secretary to ASR’s elected leadership.  Daniel V.A. Olson, our Immediate Past-President, will be the Chair of the Nominations Committee for our 2019 election, which will include the newly approved position of Secretary.  Please contact me at ASREO@bsu.edu if you are interested in potentially running for an elected position and/or serving on one of ASR’s standing committees.