Bridging Scholarship and Struggle: The Long Arc of Community-Engaged Sociology

Session Submission Type: Invited Session (90 minute)

Description

Community-engaged scholarship (CES), that is, research conducted in deep collaboration with communities striving for social justice, offers a powerful alternative to extractive or top-down approaches to social inquiry. Grounded in collaboration, accountability, and shared purpose, CES positions sociologists as co-creators of knowledge and agents of change. Though historically undervalued in the discipline, this approach has deep roots in American Sociology and is gaining renewed recognition, as reflected in the ASA Council’s recent adoption of guidelines for including community-engaged scholarship in tenure and promotion cases. Building on this momentum, this session examines how CES is reshaping the field by advancing equity-oriented research, democratizing knowledge production, and strengthening communities’ capacities to challenge systemic oppression. Panelists will highlight action-based research that links sociological inquiry to transformative equity-oriented policy and institutional change. The session aligns with the annual meeting’s theme of solutions-oriented sociology that responds to the pressing challenges facing both the academy and democracy at large.

Sub Unit

• Presidential Panel

Presider

• Teresa Irene Gonzales, Loyola University Chicago

Panelists

• Leisy Janet Abrego, University of California, Los Angeles

• Patricia Hill Collins, University of Maryland - College Park

• Cecilia Menjivar, University of California-Los Angeles

• Aldon D. Morris

• Mark R. Warren, University of Massachusetts Boston

Session Organizers

• Teresa Irene Gonzales, Loyola University Chicago

• Mark R. Warren, University of Massachusetts Boston