Minutes, August 2009

Middle East Sociology Working Group

Informal meeting at the American Sociological Association, Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, August 9, 2009.

A larger-than-expected group of us met in the lobby of the main conference hotel and walked to Union Square, where we commandeered chairs and lawn space and baked in the unseasonable San Francisco sun, with at least one contingent abandoning the outdoors for a nearby restaurant. Because of our large numbers, we were not able to convene as a whole for introductions and a single focused discussion. The suggestion was made that our numbers may now warrant more formal meeting arrangements at future conferences, perhaps by asking participants to sign up in advance and reserving a large table at a restaurant near the conference site.

Small-group discussions included references to the job market for Middle East sociologists, which seems stronger than the job market for sociologists overall, and comparative research projects that may cross over the traditional linguistic divides in the region.

We also made plans to look into scheduling regular and thematic sessions for upcoming ASA conferences.

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