Minutes, August 2008

Middle East Sociology Working Group

Minutes

Informal meeting at the American Sociological Association, Annual Meeting, Boston, August 4, 2008.

We met at the registration desk at 10:00 a.m., as arranged via our list-serve the previous week, and then found some empty tables at a park outside of the conference hotels. We numbered about six people, half graduate students. After introductions, we brainstormed ideas for possible institution-building:

– graduate training workshop in Middle East sociology, perhaps a week before ASA meetings?
– list faculty on Mideast Sociology webpage in addition to graduate students?
– include Middle East and/or Islam as category in the ASA Guide to Graduate Departments of Sociology?

[ASA Guide to Graduate Departments of Sociology, 2008 edition, includes an index to more than 70 special programs at various departments. The criterion for inclusion is: “Special programs denote an area in which the department offers several regularly scheduled courses, a core faculty, special examinations, or some other indication of a concentration.” (p. iii)]

Minutes taken by Charles Kurzman, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill