UCLA will have a major role in this year’s annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, with sociology professor Cecilia Menjívar developing the conference program and dozens of UCLA faculty and researchers presenting.

“Bureaucracies of Displacement,” the theme set by current association president Menjívar, provides an opportunity to assess the sociological impact of issues we are facing today due to the COVID-19 pandemic, along with intersecting economic and political crises.

Thousands of scholars from across the country will present research on and discuss some of the most sensitive problems confronting American society, such as gun violence, policing, housing insecurity, abortion rights, climate change and voter suppression.

Robert Santos, director of the U.S. Census Bureau, will participate in a discussion. Writers from the Atlantic, Vox and the New York Times will be on a panel about media.

More than 50 presenters are from UCLA. Participating UCLA scholars and their presentations include:

  • Leisy Abrego, chair of Chicano/a and Central American Studies — “Displacements, Destabilizations, and Disruptions in Central America, also “Lawyers Resisting Immigration Displacements” 
  • Victor Agadjanian, professor of sociology — “Decentering Sociology from the Global North: Going Beyond Theory and Epistemology”
  • Jennie Brand, professor of sociology and statistics and director of the California Center for Population Research — “The Far-Reaching Impact of Job Precarity and Displacement”
  • Celestina Castillo, doctoral student; Floridalma Boj Lopez, assistant professor in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies; Desi Small-Rodriguez, assistant professor of sociology — “Indigenous Los Angeles”
  • Kevan Harris, assistant professor of sociology — “Unhoused in Los Angeles: Politics and Policy”
  • Kelly Lytle Hernández, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies and Roger Waldinger, director of the Center for Global Migration — “Beyond Control: Immigration Policy in an Era of Enforcement.” Lytle Hernández is also the Thomas E. Lifka Professor of History. 
  • Darnell Hunt, dean of the UCLA division of social sciences; Ana-Christina Ramón, director of research and civic engagement of the division of social sciences; Michael Tuan Tran, graduate student researcher — “Post #OscarsSoWhite? The State of Representation in the Entertainment Industry”
  • Hunt will also participate in a panel titled “Thirty Years After Los Angeles Burned: What Did 1992 Teach Us and Where Are We Now?”
  • Omar Lizardo, LeRoy Neiman Term Chair professor of sociology — “Intellectual Displacements”
  • Randall Kuhn, associate professor of public health — “Understanding Vaccine Refusal: Politics, Policy and Inequality”
  • Aaron Panofsky, associate professor in the Institute for Society and Genetics, Public Policy and Sociology — “The Sociology of DNA Testing”
  • Natasha Quadlin, associate professor of sociology — “Inequality in Educational Spending and Resources”
  • Stefan Timmermans, professor of sociology — “Death and Dying During Pandemics”
  • Min Zhou, distinguished professor of sociology and Asian American studies and the Walter and Shirley Wang Professor of U.S.-China Relations and Communications — “Combating Anti-Asian Racism During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond”

The conference is open to the media. For a full program and to register visit ASANet.org.