Southwestern faculty and students attended the American Sociological Association’s (ASA) Annual Meeting, August 10–13. 

• Associate Professor of Sociology Reggie Byron gave a presentation titled “Workplace Discrimination and the Racialized Character of Organizations.” He also sat on an ASA panel of the Task Force on First-Generation and Working-Class Persons in Sociology for the second year in a row.
• Professor of Sociology Maria Lowe and Madeline Carrola ’19 gave a presentation titled “Racialized Surveillance of Parks and Pools in a Liberal, Predominantly White Neighborhood.” 
• Four sociology majors participated in the 2019 ASA’s Honors Program and presented their papers. Madeline Carrola ’19 and Molly McConnell ’20 presented their capstone and research-methods papers, which were the basis of their admission to the program. Samantha Pentecost 19 and Veronica Ciotti ’19 presented their capstone papers and were admitted by virtue of their second- and third-place wins in the annual Alpha Kappa Delta International Honor Society of Sociology undergraduate paper competition.
• In addition, Savannah Scott  ’19 received the ASA Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities 2019 Joe Feagin Distinguished Undergraduate Student Paper Award for her capstone project, “Medically Policing Black Female Bodies: Black Women’s Experiences with Birth Control in Austin, Texas.”

Sociology majors Samantha Pentecost ’19 and Veronica Ciotti ’19 were awarded Best Paper awards for their capstone projects by Alpha Kappa Delta, sociology’s national honors society. Pentecost’s paper, “Gendering the Boy Scouts: Examining Hegemonic Masculinity at a Coed Backpacking Camp,” was selected as the second-place winner, and Ciotti’s paper, “The Classroom Is Sacred: Academic Masculinity as a Response to the Campus Carry Law in Texas,” was selected as the third-place winner. Both capstone papers were written under the direction of Professor of Sociology Maria Lowe.

Sociology majors Zac White ’20 and Hannah Bills ’20 were selected as two of the eight students participating in the 2019 Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates Program focusing on research in race, ethnicity, and the demography of U.S. families at the University of Texas at Austin’s Population Research Center. White and Bills were assisted by Professor of Sociology Maria Lowe and Associate Professor of Sociology Reggie Byron.

Sociology majors Madeline Carrola ’19 and Molly McConnell ’20 were accepted into the 2019 American Sociological Association’s Honors Program. Carrola was admitted based on her capstone paper, “Performing the Handmaid’s Tale: The Use of Dystopian Literature at Political Protests,” which was written under the direction of Professor of Sociology Maria Lowe. McConnell was admitted based on her research methods paper, “Skin Tone, Colorism, and Colorblind Racism in the Age of Trump,” which was written under the direction of Associate Professor of Sociology Reggie Byron.

Professor of Sociology Maria Lowe, Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow Luis Romero,and seven sociology majors attended the annual meeting of the Southern Sociological Society in Atlanta, GA, April 10–13.

• Lowe and Madeline Carrola ’19 presented “Outsiders Within: The Effects of Online and in-Person Surveillance on Residents of Color in a Predominantly White Neighborhood.” This research is funded by a Southwestern  Faculty–Student Project Award and a Sam Taylor Award.
• Romero presented “‘Paying the ‘Detention Bill’: The Economics and Hidden Costs of Immigrant Detention for Families.”
• Carrola also presented “The Handmaid’s Tale and Performance Activism.”
• Veronica Ciotti ’19 presented “‘The Classroom is Sacred:’ The Perceived Effects of Campus Carry among Texas Male Faculty Members.”
• Carmen Hernandez ’19 presented “How a Piece of Paper Defines One’s Experience in the U.S.: The Experiences of Documented Siblings of DACA Recipients.”
• Samantha Pentecost ’19 presented “Girls in the Boy Scouts: Exploring Dilemmas of Gender-Integrated Spaces and Hybrid Masculinity at a Coed Backpacking Camp.”
• Brielle Read ’20 presented “Letting the Teachers Speak: Teachers’ Perspectives on the Special Education Identification Process in Public Texas Elementary Schools.”
• Savannah Scott ’19 presented “Medically Policing Black Female Bodies: Black Women’s Experiences with Birth Control.”
• Marta Zuzeviciute ’19 presented “‘Why Can’t I Be Both?’: Experiences of Having an Arabic Ethnic Identity in French Society.”