Critical Mass, Vol 47 (1)

The Spring 2022 edition of the Critical Mass Bulletin is now available. This issue features a message from CBSM Chair Rory M. McVeigh, two op-ed pieces by Meihui Chen and Chris Rhomberg, a list of recent publications by section members, and an overview of CBSM sessions at the American Sociological Association’s annual conference this year. Get your PDF copy here: 

2022 Award Winners

Congratulations to the Collective Behavior and Social Movement awardees and a special thanks to those who served on the award committees.

Aldon Morris Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Scholarship of Social Movements

(Photo Credit: Aldon Morris)

Winner: Aldon Morris. Northwestern University.

With this newly established award, the CBSM section “seeks to honor eminent senior scholars who have offered sustained contributions to social movement research and illuminated ways in which people in the United States and throughout the world have worked collectively to promote equality and justice.” The award committee is delighted to award the inaugural CBSM Aldon Morris Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Scholarship of Social Movements to the scholar for whom this award is named: Aldon D. Morris, Leon Forrest Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northwestern University and former ASA President.

Professor Morris’ career is notable for the way that his scholarship has transformed the way we think about social movements. His path-breaking 1984 book, Origins of the Civil Rights Movement (winner of multiple awards including the ASA Book Award and the Gustuvus Myers Award) and related articles in prestigious outlets such as the American Sociological Review developed the “indigenous perspective” and showed how Southern Black communities were not resource-poor and reliant upon Northern elites but instead drew on their own cultural, material, and infrastructural resources to generate resistance. His keen theoretical insights, grounded in careful empirical research, are the hallmark of his work. Indeed, just as Origins of the Civil Rights Movement rewrote the history of the civil rights movement for social movement scholars, Professor Morris’ 2015 book, The Scholar Denied (also the winner of numerous awards, including the Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award in 2016) tells the much overlooked story of W.E.B. DuBois and his central contributions to the field of sociology. Similarly, Professor Morris’ theoretical and empirical work on topics such as leadership and oppositional consciousness expanded our notions of the factors that give rise to collective action. These themes are present both in his sole-authored work and in his influential edited volumes, the 1992 Frontiers in Social Movement Theory (co-edited with Carol Mueller) and the 2001 Oppositional Consciousness (co-edited with Jane Mansbridge). These works continue to shape and inspire research on movements of marginalized peoples, both in the U.S. and world-wide. Finally, Professor Morris is a dedicated and impactful mentor who has shaped the field by guiding the careers of generations of scholars.

Through a vote of its membership, the CBSM section has named its career award after Aldon Morris, thereby recognizing Professor Morris’ significant contributions to the field of social movements over the course of his illustrious career. It is only fitting that the inaugural award goes to its namesake.  

Mayer N. Zald Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Student Paper Award

(Photo Credit: Simone Durham)

Winner: Simone Durham. University of Maryland. “Not in this Lifetime”: The Black Millennial Imagination and Impacts of Black Lives Matter on Racial Dynamics in the U.S.”

(Photo Credit: Stephen Wulff)

Honorable Mention: Stephen Wulff. University of Minnesota. “’Entrepreneurs of Punishment’: Police Misconduct Insurance, Grassroots Activism, and the Limits of Linguistic Capital.”

Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Article Award

(Photo Credit: Ya-Wen Lei)

Ya-Wen Lei. Harvard University. “Delivering Solidarity: Platform Architecture and Collective Contention in China’s Platform Economy.” American Sociological Review. 2021.

Charles Tilly Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award

(Photo by Matt Cashore /University of Notre Dame)

Winner: Dana M. Moss. University of Notre Dame. The Arab Spring Abroad: Diaspora Activism against Authoritarian Regimes. Cambridge Press.

(Photo Credit: Michael Rodríguez-Muñiz)

Honorable Mention: Michael Rodríguez-Muñiz. Northwestern University. Figures of the Future: Latino Civil Rights and the Politics of Demographic Change. Princeton Press.

Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Dissertation Award

(Photo Credit: Minwoo Jung)

Minwoo Jung. Ph.D. University of Southern California, 2021 (current position, assistant professor at Loyola University, Chicago). Rights Projects in a Globalized World.

2021 Award Winners

Mayer N. Zald Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Student Paper Award

Apoorva Ghosh. “The Politics of Alignment and the ‘Quiet Transgender Revolution’ in Fortune 500 Corporations, 2008 to 2017.”

Honorable mention:

Rui Jie Peng. “Rightful Bargaining: Rural Women Making Claims for Social Provisions in China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation Program.”

Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Article Award

Joshua Bloom. 2020. “The Dynamics of Repression and Insurgent Practice in the Black Liberation Struggle.” American Journal of Sociology 126.2: 195-259.

Charles Tilly Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award

Eleonora Pasotti. 2020. Resisting Redevelopment: Protest in Aspiring Global Cities (Cambridge University Press)

Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Dissertation Award

Co-winners:

Benjamin H. Bradlow. “Urban Origins of Democracy and Inequality: Governing São Paulo and Johannesburg, 1985-2016”

Anna Zhelnina. “Engaging Neighbors: Housing Strategies and Political Mobilization in Moscow’s Renovation”