Awards
The Environment and Technology Section recognizes students, researchers, and ASA members each year. Below, you will find a short description of each of these awards, followed by a list of current and previous recipients.
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 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, 2012. For more information, contact the chair of the award committee, Lori Hunter, at lori.hunter@colorado.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 books published within the period, January 1, 2009, through December 31, 2011. 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 to Lori Hunter, chair of the Outstanding Publication Award committee, at lori.hunter@colorado.edu, by April 1, 2012.
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 March 1, 2012. 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, David Pellow, at dpellow@umn.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, 2012, to Dorcetta Taylor at dorceta@umich.edu.
The Environmental Sociology Teaching and Mentorship Award (New!)
The biannual Teaching and Mentorship Award honors faculty members who have provided especially dedicated service to the teaching of environmental sociology and effective training of graduate and/or undergraduate students. Section members are encouraged to nominate colleagues, but all members, especially those in smaller institutions, are encouraged to self-nominate. Nomination packets may include teaching statements, syllabi, innovative assignments and exercises, course evaluations, letters of support, peer observations, etc. Materials should be submitted electronically to Diane Bates, at bates@tcnj.edu, in one file under 10 Mb. For full consideration, all materials must be received by March 1, 2012.
Previous Award Winners
Marvin E. Olsen Student Paper Certificate
- 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
- 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
- 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