Minutes, November 2023

Middle East Sociology Working Group
Minutes, November 2023

The Middle East Sociology Working Group and the Sociology of Islam network met for breakfast at Le Cartet on November 4, 2023, during the annual conference of the Middle East Studies Association in Montreal. Following up on our meeting in August 2023, there was continued enthusiasm for a renewed petition campaign to establish a section of the American Sociological Section on the Global Middle East. (We launched a petition drive in 2015 but were unable at that time to meet the threshold of 200 dues-paying ASA members.) By the time of our meeting in Montreal, five colleagues had offered to serve on the organizing committee for this petition, in response to an e-mail soliciting volunteers. The sense of the meeting was that another invitation should go out in case more colleagues wish to volunteer. The organizing committee is expected to begin its work in late November in anticipation of a January 1, 2024, start-date for gathering signatures. The deadline for submitting section petitions is July 1 each year.

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