Awards
Below are the descriptions, procedures, and deadlines for our Section Awards. If you have questions, please contact the chair of the respective award.
Marvin E. Olsen Student Paper Award
The Marvin E. Olsen Student Paper Award recognizes outstanding papers presented by graduate students at the annual American Sociological meetings. In addition to recognition, recipients will receive a modest monetary award to help defray expenses associated with attending the ASA meetings. Nominees are limited to graduate students who are giving presentations at the year’s annual meetings. All members of the Section are invited to submit nominations for the award, together with supporting documentation. All members, including potential recipients, are encouraged to submit nominations. (The paper can be presented at any session or roundtable at ASA). The deadline for submitting papers is April 1, 2013. For more information, contact the chair of the award committee, Sabrina McCormick at sabmc@gwu.edu.
Allan Schnaiberg Outstanding Publication Award
The Allan Schnaiberg Outstanding Publication Award is given in alternate years for publications of special noteworthiness in the field of environmental sociology. In alternate years publications are considered in either book or article form. This year the committee will consider papers published within the period, January 1, 2010, through December 31, 2012. All members of the Section are encouraged to submit nominations; self-nominations are welcome. To nominate a series of thematically-related articles, please send three copies of the works along with a nomination letter by April 1, 2013 to Sabrina McCormick at sabmc@gwu.edu.
Fred Buttel Distinguished Contribution Award
The Fred Buttel Distinguished Contribution Award is to recognize individuals for outstanding service, innovation, or publication in environmental sociology or sociology of technology. It is intended to be an expression of appreciation, to be awarded when an individual is deemed extraordinarily meritorious by the Section. All members of the Section are invited to submit nominations for the award, together with supporting documentation. Nominations for this award must be received by April 1, 2013. To nominate an individual for this award, please send a letter of nomination describing the nominee's contribution to environmental sociology and/or the sociology of technology, accompanied by a copy of the nominee's CV, to the chair of the award committee, Beth Schaefer Caniglia at beth.caniglia@okstate.edu.
Robert Boguslaw Award for Technology and Humanism
The Boguslaw Award for Technology and Humanism recognizes work that addresses technology and human affairs, social action and social change, conflicts over values, or work that proposes innovative solutions to emerging social issues associated with technology. In accordance with Robert Boguslaw's wishes, the honored work should address the concerns of ordinary people rather than reflecting organizational or institutional agendas. The award is limited to doctoral students or young investigators who have obtained their Ph.D.s in the past five years. In addition to recognition, the award includes a small monetary gift. Unpublished papers or articles published within the last two years are eligible. Candidates may either submit their own work or be nominated by someone else. Neither nominees nor nominators need be affiliated with this or any other Section, nor do they need to be associated with any other professional network or organization. Please submit nominations, including copies of the papers or articles by April 1, 2013, to Richard York at rfyork@uoregon.edu.
Practice and Outreach Award
Nomination packets should include:
- Letter of Nomination (If self-nomination, this should include description of the service project/program and should be limited to a maximum of 4 pages)
- Description of practice/outreach project/program (3 pages maximum, included ONLY if not a self-nomination)
- CV (with practice/outreach projects/programs highlighted, including related publications)
- Maximum of 5 letters of support (any mix of students, colleagues, community partners, including letter of nomination if not self-nominated)
The nomination packets should be scanned as a single pdf file and submitted electronically to the email below. For full consideration, nomination packets must be submitted by April 1, 2013.
Please consider that the Practice and Outreach Award is not necessarily a "life-time achievement" award, so people with innovative projects/programs that might be on the recent side should consider submitting a nomination packet.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Diane Bates at bates@tcnj.edu.
Previous Award Winners
Marvin E. Olsen Student Paper Certificate
- 2011 (co-winner) Maria Akchurin - University of Chicago: “Constructing the Rights of Nature: Environmentalism, Indigenous Politics, and Legal Mobilization in Ecuador, 1970-2008.”
- 2011 (co-winner) Cristina Lucier - Boston College: “Obstacles to Precaution and Equity in Global Environmental Governance: Applications to the Basel Convention.”
- 2010 KuoRay Mao - University of Kansas: "The Neoliberal Conundrum: The Western Development Policies, Migration, and Environmental Degradation in Northwestern China."
- 2009 Stefano Long - University of Oregon: "Mediterranean Rift: The Metabolic Rift in the Sicilian Bluefin Tuna Fishery."
- 2008 Eric Bonds: "The Knowledge-Shaping Process: Elite Mobilization and Environmental Policy."
- 2007 Norah Mackendrick: "Contaminants, the Human Body and the Framing of Risk: A Study of Canadian News Coverage, 1986-2006."
- 2006 Jessica Crowe: "Community Economic Development Strategies in Rural Washington: Toward a Synthesis of Natural and Social Capital.";
- Honorable mention: Lisa Asplen: "Decentering Environmental Sociology: Lessons from Post-Humanist Science and Technology Studies."
- 2004 Rebecca Gasior-Altman
- 2003 Kari Marie Norgaard
- 2002 Andrew Jorgensen
- 2001 Michael Mascarenhas
- 2000 Allison Shore
- 1999 Reid Helford
- 1998 Michael J. Handel
- 1997 Zsuzsa Gille
- 1996 Beth Caniglia
- 1994 Karen O'Neill
- 1993 Adam Weinberg
- 1992 Hal Aronson
- 2011 Sherry Cable (University of Tennessee), Tamara Mix (Oklahoma State University), and Thomas Shriver (Oklahoma State University): “Risk Society and Contested Illness: The Case of Nuclear Weapons Workers.” 2008. American Sociological Review. Vol 73 (3): 380-401.
- 2010 Dorceta Taylor - University of Michigan: The Environment and the People in American Cities, 1600s-1900s: Disorder, Inequality, and Social Change (Duke University Press 2009).
- 2009 Liam Downey - University of Colorado at Boulder
This year the committee considered series of thematically-related articles published between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2008:- Downey, Liam. 2005. "The Unintended Significance of Race: Environmental Racial Inequality in Detroit," Social Forces 83(3):971-1008.
- Downey, Liam. 2006. "Using Geographic Information Systems to Reconceptualize Spatial Relationships and Ecological Context," American Journal of Sociology 112(2):567-612.
- Downey, Liam. 2006. "Environmental Racial Inequality in Detroit," Social Forces 85(2):771-796.
- Downey, Liam. 2007. "US Metropolitan-area Variation in Environmental Inequality Outcomes," Urban Studies 44(5/6): 953-977.
- 2008 Thomas Rudel: "Tropical Forests: Paths of Destruction and Regeneration."
- 2007 Brett Clark and Richard York
- 2006 Peter Dickens: "Society and Nature: Changing our Environment, Changing Ourselves."
- 2005 Dara O'Rourke: "Community-Driven Regulation: Balancing Development and the Environment in Vietnam"
- 2004 Richard York, Eugene Rosa, and Thomas Dietz.
- 2002 Carlo Jaeger, Ortwin Renn, Eugene Rosa and Thomas Webler: "Risk, Uncertainty, and Rational Action"
- 2000 Jeffery Broadbent: "Environmental Politics in Japan: Networks of Power and Protest"
Note: Established in 1983 as the "Distinguished Contribution Award," the award was renamed to honor Fred Buttel in 2005
- 2011 Andrew Szasz - University of California, Santa Cruz
- 2009 Harvey Molotch - New York University
- 2008 J. Timmons Roberts - College of William and Mary
- 2007 Robert Gramling (University of Louisiana at Lafayette) and Penelope Canan (University of Central Florida)
- 2006 Phil Brown - Brown University
- 2005 Lee Clarke - Rutgers University
- 2004 Steve Kroll-Smith - University of North Carolina at Greensboro
- 2003 Craig Humphrey - The Pennsylvania State University
- 2002 John Bellamy Foster - University of Oregon
- 2001 Steve Picou - University of South Alabama
- 2000 Shirley B. Laska - University of New Orleans
- 1999 Gene Rosa - Washington State University
- 1998 Robert Bullard - Clark Atlanta University
- 1997 Tom Dietz - George Mason University
- 1996 William R. Freudenburg - University of Wisconsin-Madison
- 1995 Thomas Rudel - Rutgers University
- 1994 Frederick Buttel - University of Wisconsin
- 1993 Marvin E. Olsen - Washington State University
- 1992 David Sills - Social Science Research Council
- 1991 Kai T. Erikson - Yale University
- 1990 James T. Short, Jr. - Washington State University
- 1989 Denton E. Morrison - University of Minnesota
- 1988 Adeline Levine - SUNY Buffalo
- 1987 William Michelson - University of Toronto
- 1986 William R. Catton, Jr., and Riley Dunlap - Washington State University
- 1984 Allan Schnaiberg - Northwestern University
- 1983 C. P. Wolf - Social Impact Assessment Center
- 2005 Dr. William James Smith, Jr.
- 2001 David Pellow
- 1999 Chris Wellin
- 1997 Valerie Kuletz
- 1994 Thomas Webler
- 2011 Richard York - University of Oregon