- sessions on theorizing perception, directions in relational sociology, abduction and the craft of theorizing
- an invited session on visualization and social theory
- the Coser Memorial Lecture by Isaac Ariail Reed
- an Author Meets Critics Session on Big Data/Big Theory
- section roundtables, business meeting, and reception
Monday, August 22, 8:30-10:10AM
Session Organizer: Joseph Klett (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Panelists
- Daniel A. Winchester (Purdue): “A Pedagogy in the Passions: The Effects of Embodiment on Discursive Consciousness and Abstract Knowledge Acquisition”
- Dustin S. Stoltz and Marshall Allen Taylor (University of Notre Dame): “Affording Contention with Objects: Cognition, Materiality, and the Purposeful Enunciation of Material Culture”
- Lindsey A. Freeman (SUNY-Buffalo): “Atomic Mnemonic Assemblages: Towards a Sociological Poetry”
- Fiona Rose-Greenland (University of Chicago): “The Art of Destruction: Cultural Violence and Perception in the Islamic State”
Theory Section Paper Session: Directions in Relational Sociology: Theory, Method, and Practice
Monday, August 22, 10:30AM-12:10PM
Session Organizer: Emily Anne Erikson (Yale University)
Presider: Vanina Leschziner (Toronto)
Panelists
- Jacob Habinek (University of California, Berkeley): “How Organizational Fields Evolve: The Case of Subprime Mortgage Finance, 1998-2008”
- Nina Bandelj (University of California, Irvine): “Rethinking Relationality in Economic Sociology: Relational Work in Circuits of Commerce”
- Marc Garcelon (University of Missouri, Kansas City): “Signs of the Body: What Language Tells Us about Institutions”
- Bernd Wurpts (University of Washington): “Testing Simmel’s Theory of Group Persistence: Elite Networks and Institutional Development in the Medieval Hansa, 1356-1516”
- Carolin Fischer (University of Neuchâtel): “Who Acts for What Change? A Relational Approach to Transnational Engagements of Afghan Diaspora Groups”
Theory Section Paper Session: Abduction and the Craft of Theorizing
Monday, August 22, 2:30-4:10PM
Session Organizer and Presider: Iddo Tavory (New York University)
Panelists
- Anna S. Mueller (University of Chicago) and Seth Abrutyn (University of Memphis): “Abduction and the Reimagining of Durkheim’s Suicide: A Case Study of a Suicide-Prone Cohesive Community”
- Stefan Timmermans (University of California, Los Angeles): “The Everyday Work of Abduction: Modes of Generality and Symbolic Power”
- Judith Gerson (Rutgers): “Narratives of Displacement and Loss: An Abductive Rereading of Holocaust Memoirs”
Discussant: Richard Swedberg (Cornell University)
Theory Section Reception
Monday, August 22, 6:30-8:30PM
Theory Section Invited Session: Visualization and Social Theory
Tuesday, August 23, 8:30-10:10AM
Session Organizers: Raka Ray and Marion Fourcade (University of California, Berkeley)
Session Presider: Raka Ray (University of California, Berkeley)
Panelists
- Kieran Healy and James Moody (Duke University): “Visual Thinking in the Social Sciences”
- Janet Vertesi (Princeton University): “Picturing Space, Picturing Teams: Visualization and Social Practice at NASA”
- Etienne Ollion (Université de Strasbourg): “How to (Quantitatively) Represent the Social World? Geometric Data Analysis Meets the Machine Learning Revolution”
- Marion Fourcade and Thomas Krendl Gilbert (University of California, Berkeley): “Visualizing Concepts”
- Daniel Silver (University of Toronto): “Visual Social Thought”
Theory Section Invited Session: Lewis A. Coser Memorial Lecture and Salon
Tuesday, August 23, 10:30AM-12:10PM
Session Organizer and Presider: Neil Gross (Colby College)
Panelist: Isaac Ariail Reed (University of Virginia)
Theory Section Roundtables
Tuesday, August 23, 12:30-1:30PM
Organizer: Achim Edelmann (University of Bern)
Theory Section Business Meeting
Tuesday, August 23, 1:30-2:10PM
Theory Section Author Meets Critics Session: Big Data/Big Theory
Tuesday, August 23, 2:30-4:10PM
Session Organizer: John W. Mohr (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Presiders: John W. Mohr (University of California, Santa Barbara) and Robin E. Wagner-Pacifici (New School for Social Research)
Authors
- Julia Potter Adams (Yale University)
- Hannah Brueckner (New York University, Abu Dhabi)
- Amir Goldberg (Stanford University)
- Timothy Hannigan (University of Alberta)
- Monica Lee (Facebook, Inc.)
- Kevin Lewis (University of California, San Diego)
- Daniel A. McFarland (Stanford University)
- John Levi Martin (University of Chicago)
Critics
- Bart Bonikowski (Harvard University)
- Jacob Gates Foster (University of California, Los Angeles)
- Laura K. Nelson (Northwestern University)