New Book!

Religion and Progressive Activism About: New Stories Faith and Politics
(New York University Press, 2017)
Edited by Ruth Braunstein, Todd Nicholas Fuist, and Rhys H. Williams

nyupress.org/books/9781479852901

To many mainstream-media saturated Americans, the terms “progressive” and “religious” may not seem to go hand-in-hand. As religion is usually tied to conservatism, an important way in which religion and politics intersect is being overlooked. Religion and Progressive Activism focuses on this significant intersection, revealing that progressive religious activists are a driving force in American public life, involved in almost every political issue or area of public concern.

This volume brings together leading experts who dissect and analyze the inner worlds and public strategies of progressive religious activists from the local to the transnational level. It provides insight into documented trends, reviews overlooked case studies, and assesses the varied ways in which progressive religion forces us to deconstruct common political binaries such as right/left and progress/tradition.

In a coherent and accessible way, this book engages and rethinks long accepted theories of religion, of social movements, and of the role of faith in democratic politics and civic life. Moreover, by challenging common perceptions of religiously motivated activism, it offers a more grounded and nuanced understanding of religion and the American political landscape.

Reviews

“Social scientists have invested a great deal of energy in trying to understand the religious right, but not nearly enough time and effort has been devoted to the crucial role, in our past and present, of the religious left. This book is thus an enormous contribution and a groundbreaking work. This timely volume shatters the myth of the religious right’s monopoly on faith-based political activism. While acknowledging the difficulties confronted by religious liberals in organizing for social justice, the authors provide a wealth of new evidence-based insights about how to strengthen the progressive religious movement at a time when its witness is badly needed.”

—E.J. Dionne Jr., Author of Why the Right Went Wrong

“Much of our current understanding of religion and politics is based on studies of the activism of conservative, even extremist forms of religious practice. But historically that is not necessarily the most important connection. In the 19th Century progressive religious groups were instrumental to abolitionist and woman’s suffrage movements. And in the current context religious groups have a leading role in many struggles for justice. Braunstein, Fuist, and Williams’ volume brings together some leading scholars of religion to look at some of the most important cases and theorize what they mean for our understanding of religion and social activism.”

—David Smilde, Charles A and Leo M Favrot Professor of Social Relations, Tulane University

2017 ASA Political Sociology Section Awards

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL NOMINEES MUST BE REGISTERED MEMBERS OF THE ASA TO BE CONSIDERED FOR SECTION AWARDS

Political Sociology Section Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship (Book) Award

Deadline: 3/15/2017

This award is given annually to the outstanding recent book in political sociology (we will not consider edited books for this award). To be eligible, the book must have a 2016 copyright date. The selection committee encourages self-nominations or suggestions of work by others. Nominations from publishers will not be accepted. To nominate a book for this award: 1) send a short letter (via e-mail) nominating the book to each committee member below and 2) have a copy of the book sent to each committee member, at the addresses below. Winners will be notified and announced prior to the ASA meetings allowing presses to advertise the prize-winning book. The deadline for nominations is March 15, 2017.

Committee

Dana Fisher, Chair, University of Maryland, drfisher@umd.edu
2112 Parren Mitchell Art-Sociology Building, 3834 Campus Drive, College Park, MD 20742

Elizabeth Popp Berman, University at Albany, epberman@albany.edu
Sociology, University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY 12222

Elizabeth Holzer, University of Connecticut, Elizabeth.holzer@uconn.edu
Sociology Dept & Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut, 344 Mansfield Road, Storrs, CT 06269

Rima Wilkes, University of British Columbia, wilkesr@mail.ubc.ca
Sociology, 6303 NW Marine Drive, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1, Canada

Political Sociology Section Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship (Article or Book Chapter) Award

Deadline: 3/15/2017

This award is offered annually for the outstanding recently published article or chapter in political sociology. To be eligible, submissions must have a 2016 publication date. The selection committee encourages either self-nominations or suggestions of work by others. (Please note that each author may have only one article nominated.) A brief nomination letter and a copy of the article or chapter should be sent to each selection committee member at the e-mail address below.

The deadline for nominations is March 15, 2017.

Committee

Amy Binder, Chair, University of California, San Diego, abinder@ucsd.edu

Sandra Levitsky, University of Michigan, slevitsk@umich.edu

Nina Eliasoph, University of Southern California, eliasoph@usc.edu

Carly Elizabeth Schall, IUPUI, cschall@iupui.edu

Political Sociology Section Best Graduate Student Paper Award

Deadline: 3/15/2017

This award is offered annually for the best graduate student paper in political sociology. Persons who were graduate students at any time during calendar year 2016 are invited to submit published or unpublished papers for this award. To be eligible, papers must be either single authored or co-authored by two or more graduate students. Articles co-authored (and/or subsequently published jointly) by a faculty and a student are not eligible. Please note that each author may have only one article nominated. A brief nomination letter and a copy of the article or chapter should be sent to each selection committee member at the e-mail addresses below. The deadline for nominations is March 15, 2017.

Committee

G. Cristina Mora, Chair, University of California, Berkeley, gcristinamora2@gmail.com

Jennifer Hsu, University of Alberta, jhsu@ualberta.ca

Bin Xu, Emory University, bin.xu@emory.edu

Cristina Lacomba, Harvard University, cristina_fernandez-gutierrez@gse.harvard.edu

2016 Section Awards

Please join us in congratulating this year’s award winners. Many thanks to the committees for all their hard work.

Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship (Book) Award

  • Elizabeth HolzerThe Concerned Women of Buduburam: Refugee Activists and Humanitarian Dilemmas (Cornell University Press), and
  • Dingxin Zhao, The Confucian-Legalist State: A New Theory of Chinese History (Oxford University Press)

Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship (Article or Book Chapter) Award

  • Paul Lichterman and Nina Eliasoph, “Civic Action,” American Journal of Sociology 120 (3): 798-863
  • Honorable Mention: Cedric de Leon, Manali Desai, and Cihan Tugal, “Political Articulation: The Structured Creativity of Parties,” Pp. 1-35 in Building Blocs: How Parties Organize Society, edited by Cedric de Leon, Manali Desai, and Cihan Tugal (Stanford University Press)

Best Graduate Student Paper Award

  • Jeremy Levine (Harvard University), “The Privatization of Political Representation: Community-Based Organizations as Non-elected Neighborhood Representatives,” forthcoming in American Sociological Review