Margaret Abraham

Over 40 years ago, the Executive Committee of the International Sociological Association (ISA), meeting in Poland, also met Izabela for the first time, standing dignified amid drifting snowflakes to welcome us. As the niece of Magdalena Sokołowska, I assumed this doctoral student was only helping with local arrangements. How wrong can one be? This was not one week off her thesis on Virginia Woolf but an introduction to four decades of working for the ISA...

Across the world, sociologists, social scientists, researcher–activists, feminists, and people of color have had a long history of linking research and action, and of engaging with publics. This includes addressing issues of inequality, apartheid, exploitation, oppression, alienation, wars, racism, colonialism, capitalism, democracy, gender-based violence, and movements for social justice and social change. In the United States, the history...

The fact that there is an increase in domestic violence during times of crisis and uncertainty has been well documented. The current COVID-19 global pandemic has been no exception. Since March 2020, coronavirus has led to worldwide “lockdown,” “stay-at-home,” and “shelter-in-place” orders, placing government mandated restrictions on people’s movements. While this has proven to be a necessary...

Dr. S.M. Rodriguez (Samar Rodriguez-Fairplay; pronouns: they/their) is Assistant Professor of Criminology and Director, LGBTQ+ Studies at Hofstra University, Department of Sociology. They are the author of the book, The Economies of Queer Inclusion: Transnational Organizing for LGBTI Rights in Uganda (2019), in which Rodriguez provides a nuanced analysis of the implications of transnational organizing and international funding for...

A record number of women were elected during the 2018 November midterm elections and now serve in the 116th Congress of the United States. The election witnessed historic firsts, electing the first two Native American women, two Muslim women, the first openly bisexual woman, and the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. A woman was reelected as Speaker of the House, the only woman to ever hold this post. On February 5, 2019, Stacey...

It is hard to imagine that we are just a few months away from the XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology in Toronto, Canada. Since the start of the discipline, sociologists have been preoccupied with power, violence, and justice and their imprint on society. Current social, economic, and political challenges enhance the relevance of these sociological preoccupations. The times we live in require us to reengage with these issues with greater urgency. This Congress...

This July, 6,087 sociologists and social scientists from 95 countries met in Yokohama, Japan, for the ISA’s XVIII World Congress of Sociology. For a hugely successful event, our heartiest congratulations and thanks to the Japanese Local Organizing Committee, superbly chaired by Koichi Hasegawa; to the ISA Program Committee, chaired by Raquel Sosa and our ISA Vice-Presidents, Tina Uys, Robert van Krieken, Jennifer Platt; and to Program Coordinators...

It is my pleasure to announce that the ISA Executive Committee has selected Buenos Aires, Argentina to host the ISA Forum 2012 (August 1-4). In the interests of openness, the Executive Committee of the International Sociological Association sent out a call for bids to RCs, WGs, TGs, and NAs for the site of the ISA Forum of Sociology in 2012 with a submission deadline of November 15th 2010. We received eight proposals, from Argentina (Buenos Aires), Finland...