Sociology Symposium
Portrait of a Tipping Point: Critical Questions for Social Scientists in 2025
Saturday, April 5, 2025
9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Golisano Hall
The Department of Sociology, Criminology and Human Services at Hartwick College organizes the second regional symposium for social scientists.
The title of this year's symposium is Portrait of a Tipping Point: Critical Questions for Social Scientists in 2025.
We invite all proposals, especially from undergraduate students, graduate students, and early career faculty in the Upstate New York area, to join us to discuss contemporary social issues, share ideas and opinions, and build a community of scholars.
Abstracts must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, February 17, 2025.
Symposium Topics
The symposium will foster interdisciplinary collaboration, offering a platform for young sociologists and established researchers to share their work, gain new insights, and contribute to the ongoing conversation about the future of sociology and its role in shaping a more equitable and sustainable world.
The promise of the ascendancy of Western liberal democracy in the 21st century has gone largely unfulfilled. Instead, in the last decade, we have witnessed a rise in authoritarian politics, religious fundamentalism, and international conflicts that have been coupled with an increasing skepticism in scientific progress and independent journalism. We believe that 2025 represents a tipping point—a critical threshold in the struggle between democracy and authoritarianism, science and incognizance, and cooperation and discord. Our symposium offers an opportunity to reflect on how we got to this point and where we might go from here.
“The modes of life brought into being by modernity have swept us away from all traditional types of social order, in quite unprecedented fashion. The transformations involved in modernity are more profound than most sorts of change characteristic of prior periods. They have served to establish forms of social interconnection which span the globe; they have come to alter some of the most intimate and personal features of our day-to-day existence.”
Anthony Giddens – The Consequences of Modernity
Proposal Guidelines
Abstracts must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, February 17, 2025.
You may submit abstracts of individual papers for potential inclusion in a regular paper session. These abstracts will be organized into sessions by the members of the Program Committee on the basis of common themes. All regular paper submissions should include: (a) the title of the paper, (b) names, affiliations, and contact information for each author, and (c) an abstract. Abstracts should be approximately 200-300 words.
All full session proposals must include a short abstract 300-400 words detailing the theme of the proposed session. This should include a brief description of the sessions prospective broad appeal and/or connections with the 2025 meeting theme. All areas of sociology are welcome! You must include full details for all participants including submission title, submission type, abstract, three keywords, name, institution, email, and position. Participants include the presider and organizer, in addition to the presenters or panelists, and discussant, if included.
All undergraduate students who submit an abstract are also eligible to submit their full paper for consideration for the Undergraduate Student Paper Award. To be eligible for submission, a paper must not be published nor accepted for publication. Papers must be student-authored; they may be authored by a single student or co-authored by more than one student, but may not be co-authored by a faculty member or other non-student. Papers must not exceed 25 double-spaced pages (including all notes, references, and tables), and should include a brief abstract. To be eligible for the award, the author(s) must make a commitment to present the paper at the 2025 symposium. The winner of the reward will receive a stipend and an opportunity to present their research to the wider Hartwick College community. Papers should be emailed to Zachary McKenney at [email protected] by March 1, 2025.
Keynote Speaker - Cecilia Menjívar
Cecilia Menjívar is the Dorothy L. Meier Chair in Social Equities and is Professor of Sociology at UCLA. She specializes in immigration, gender, family dynamics, social networks, religious institutions, and broad conceptualizations of violence. She focuses on two main areas: the impacts of the immigration regime and laws on immigrants and the effects of living in contexts of multisided violence. Menjívar is interested in how state power manifests itself through legal regimes and formal institutions and bureaucracies to shape microprocesses in everyday life. Menjívar served as the President of the American Sociological Association in 2022. Her seminal text Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America was the winner of the William J. Goode Outstanding book award. In 2024 Menjívar was the recipient of both the ASA's Jessie Bernard Award and the Public Understanding of Sociology Award.
The conference schedule will be announced via email to those who submit an abstract for consideration and on the conference website https://www.hartwick.edu/socsymposium.
Notice of Registration Fees
To participate in the one-day symposium, all attendees must pay the appropriate registration fee of $20.
Breakfast, lunch, snacks and coffee will be provided to all participants.
Links to Register Coming Soon!
Symposium FAQ
Discussants are responsible for reflecting on the papers or abstracts that they have received prior to their session. In turn, discussants are expected to lead the discussion by raising interesting points, asking questions derived from the presentations, or finding connections between the papers included in the session. The Program Committee will coordinate the discussant for each session and ensure that you receive some written material prior to the symposium.
No. This symposium will have only in-person options. Attendees will be asked to follow health and safety measures as directed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the College.
No. Papers are not required for the initial submission. However, if you are interested in having your work be considered for the Undergraduate Student Paper Award, a full paper will need to be submitted according to the guidelines above.
The Program Committee will notify all submitters of their program participation by February 17, 2025.
Projectors, screens, and a sound system will be available for all sessions. However, presenters and/or session organizers should plan to bring their own laptop. We recommend saving an additional copy of your work to a USB drive in case you need to use another participant’s laptop. If you plan to use video clips in your presentation, we request that you include closed captions and/or audio descriptions.
Yes! Internet access will be available in all meeting spaces in Golisano Hall.
Abstracts must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, February 3, 2025 to be considered. All program participants must register for the symposium by TBD. Failure to register by TBD will result in deletion from the final program.
Links coming soon!
Non-Hartwick affiliated participants and attendees can register by following this link.
Hartwick students can register by following this link.
Symposium Planning Committee
Dr. Elena Chernyak, Associate Professor of Sociology and Department Chair
Dr. Zachary McKenney, Assistant Professor of Sociology
Please, direct any questions to Dr. Elena Chernyak at [email protected] or Dr. Zachary McKenney at [email protected].
The symposium is partly funded through Alpha Kappa Delta International Honor Society of Sociology grant.
2023 Symposium Keynote Address
The Department of Sociology, Criminology, and Human Services
Hartwick College
Golisano Hall
Oneonta, New York 13820