Sociologists for Women in Society

The subcommittee is delighted to recognize Nahrissa Rush as the 2027 Beth B. Hess Memorial Scholarship Honorable Mention Awardee. Nahrissa is a PhD candidate in sociology at The Ohio State University. She studies race and identity, specifically the racial identity experiences of those with one Black and one white parent. Nahrissa’s dissertation project uses in-depth interviews to understand how racial identity is experienced across the life course, with attention to differences for older adults. She analyzes how these experiences may differ depending on phenotype, class, education, and other characteristics. Nahrissa is also a committed instructor, dedicated to nurturing and challenging the next generation of sociologists. She attended community college in Madison, Wisconsin from 2004-2005, and again from 2012-2015. She earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Minnesota in 2020.  The subcommittee is very excited to celebrate Anesa and Nahrissa at the 2027 SWS Winter Conference and looks forward to following their work.

Congratulations to the SWS Feminist Initiative Award Winner!

 Allison Monterrosa is the 2027 Feminist Initiative Award Recipient.

The Feminist Initiative Award supports direct social action by SWS members as central to advancing the Association’s purpose/mission. The award supports efforts to undertake social action broadly defined (e.g., advocacy, public education, organizing, movement-building). SWS recognizes that action “for women” does not mean that the work is done “with women” or even “by women.” Substantial need exists for social action working with men, boys, LGBTQ communities and other marginalized groups where change will benefit women and can be understood as feminist action. SWS supports work done in this broad spirit of community impact regardless of applicant’s gender identity.

Special thanks to the Feminist Initiative Award Subcommittee Members: Stephanie Nawyn, Adreinne Trier-Bieniek, and Zoe Lefkowitz.

Dr. Allison E. Monterrosa is Associate Professor of Sociology, Criminology &
Justice Studies at California State University San Marcos. Her areas of specialization
Are critical criminology and socio-legal studies, medical sociology, critical race and gender
theories. Her research topics include gender-based violence, racialized state violence,
the health implications of racism and the intersections of the carceral state. Her work
has been published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Gender & Society, Feminist Criminology, Race and Justice, Violence Against Women, and Rutgers Criminal Law and Justice Books. We will honor Allison in person at the 2027 Winter Meeting in Ellicott City, Maryland that will take place from February 4-6, 2027.

Congratulations to the SWS Barbara Rosenblum Dissertation Scholarship Award Winner!

 Beth Gaines is the 2027 Barbara Rosenblum Dissertation Scholarship Award  Recipient.

The purpose of the Barbara Rosenblum Dissertation Scholarship is to encourage doctoral research in sociology, anthropology, psychology, and related fields on women’s experience of breast and other reproductive cancers and the prevention of these cancers in honor of Barbara Rosenblum. Barbara Rosenblum made significant sociological contributions to the understanding of women and cancer before her passing from breast cancer in 1988.Another goal is to encourage scholars to make this type of research accessible to the public through speaking and publishing for general audiences.

Special thanks to the Barbara Rosenblum Dissertation Scholarship Award Subcommittee Members: Katja Guenther, Janet Hankin, and Shiri Noy.

Beth Gaines is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences at the University of South Florida. She has an M.A. in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (USF, 2022) and a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (USF 2020) with concentrations in WGSS and History. Her areas of research are in medical sociology, embodiment, and gender/sexuality. Specifically, she is interested in how gender and sexuality impact the surgical decisions of breast cancer patients. When not studying or teaching, Beth is an avid runner who enjoys participating in marathons across the U.S. We will honor Beth in person at the 2027 Winter Meeting in Ellicott City, Maryland that will take place from February 4-6, 2027.

Congratulations to the SWS Esther Ngan-ling Chow and Mareyjoyce Green Dissertation Scholarship Award Winners!

Angie Monreal is the 2027 Chow Green Dissertation Scholarship Award Recipient.

Gaëlle Aminata is the 2027 Chow Green Dissertation Scholarship Honorable Mention Award Recipient.

Sociologists for Women in Society first established the Esther Ngan-ling Chow and Mareyjoyce Green Dissertation Scholarship at its annual meeting in February 2007. The primary purposes of the scholarship are: (1) To offer support to women and non-binary scholars of color who are from underrepresented groups and are studying concerns that women of color face domestically and/or internationally and (2) To increase the network and participation of students and professionals of color in SWS and beyond. The award is named after Esther Ngan-ling Chow and Mareyjoyce Green to acknowledge the contributions of these two SWS members who played an integral role in making SWS more inclusive of women of color. 

Special thanks to the Esther Ngan-ling Chow and Mareyjoyce Green Dissertation Scholarship Award Subcommittee Members: Erika Busee-Cardenas, Ana Prata, and Rianka Roy.

Angie B. Monreal is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Irvine, in the sociology department. She has earned a B.A. in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an M.S.W. from Columbia University. Her research examines deportation, reentry, and criminalization with a focus on health and gendered experiences of immigrants living in the U.S. with an undocumented status and a deportation history. Angie’s work has been published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Berkeley Journal of Sociology, Russell Sage Foundation Journal of Social Sciences, and Columbia Social Work Review. Angie has also been a visiting scholar at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where she further examined deportation through a binational lens. Her goal is to produce research that will help create inclusive immigration reform and policies.  

Gaëlle Aminata is a French-Ivoirian scholar, artist, and PhD candidate in Sociology at Stony Brook University (SUNY). Her work is grounded in an Afro-feminist perspective shaped by Black feminist thought across the African diaspora. Her artistic and academic practice centers the intellectual and vernacular knowledge production of women of African descent, with a particular focus on the Francophone world. Her dissertation focuses on the everyday food practices of women from Francophone West Africa living in New York City. Through art-based visual ethnography, she explores how migration, gender, and class shape their food knowledge and practices of care. She also uses her artistic practice as a research method, viewing art and creativity as promising tools for community-driven knowledge production. We will honor Angie and Gaëlle in person at the 2027 Winter Meeting in Ellicott City, Maryland that will take place from February 4-6, 2027.

Congratulations to the Cheryl Allyn Miller Award Winner!

Inés Martínez Echagüe is the 2027 Cheryl Allyn Miller Award Recipient.

The award was originally founded by a bequest from the family of the late Cheryl Allyn Miller. Cheryl’s work centered on aging and the life course, family sociology, sex and gender, and women’s work and occupations. Cheryl had a strong commitment to feminist and feminist scholarship. Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) established this award for graduate students and recent PhDs working in the area of women and paid work: employment and self-employment, informal market work, illegal work.The purpose of the award is to recognize a sociology graduate student or a recent doctorate whose research or activism constitutes an outstanding contribution to the field of women and work. 

Special thanks to the Cheryl Allyn Miller Award Subcommittee Members: Cynthia Pelak, Kyla Bender-Baird, and Torisha Khonach.

Inés Martínez Echagüe (she/they) is a sociologist and decolonial gender scholar from Uruguay. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.A. in Gender and Public Policies from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, and will be a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute beginning September 2026. Their research examines gender, intimate relationships, feminist movements, and social change processes. In their work, they use quantitative and qualitative methods, especially in-depth interviewing, to examine how egalitarian and feminist ideals shape the pursuit of more just social relations. In “Equality Takes Work: A Process to Understand Why Women Still Do Most of the Household Labor,” published in Social Forces, she theorizes women’s work toward creating more egalitarian divisions of household labor, providing a novel explanation for why this work so often fails. At the European University Institute, they will work on publishing their dissertation and book project, The Feminist Tide and the Rereading of Violence in Uruguay, which draws on 70 life-history interviews to examine how widespread feminist mobilizations are shaping cisgender women’s and gender minorities’ sexual, romantic, and platonic relationships. Beyond academia, Inés has been actively involved in feminist activism and public sociology in Uruguay. We will honor Ines in person at the 2027 Winter Meeting in Ellicott City, Maryland that will take place from February 4-6, 2027.

Congratulations to the 2027 SWS Feminist Mentoring Award Winner!

Pamela (Pam) Aronson is the 2027 Feminist Mentoring Award Recipient.

The SWS Feminist Mentoring Award was established in 1990 to honor SWS Members who are outstanding feminist mentors. While the word “mentoring” is commonly used to describe a faculty-student relationship, this award has shown the breadth of ways that feminists do mentoring. In establishing the award, SWS recognized that feminist mentoring is an important and concrete way to encourage feminist scholarship.

Special thanks to the Feminist Mentoring Award Subcommittee Members: Joan Hermson, Catherine Richards Solomon, Caroline Hale.

Dr. Pamela Aronson is Professor of Sociology and an affiliate of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Pam has worked at the university level to increase fairness in promotion and tenure processes (particularly during the pandemic), to address institutional equity regarding sexual harassment in the higher education workplace, and to advocate for university supports for first generation, working class, and Arab American students. She is co-author (with a former student) of Gender Revolution: How Electoral Politics and #MeToo are Reshaping Everyday Life (Routledge 2023). Her collaborative research examines the transition to adulthood (including mentoring), the experiences of Gen Z, intergenerational relationships, how disadvantaged students experience college, gender in electoral politics, social movements, sexual consent and harassment, and reproductive freedom. Pam has over three dozen peer reviewed publications in such places as Gender & Society, Contexts Magazine, Social Forces, Journal of Youth Studies, and Emerging Adulthood. Her work has been featured in nearly two dozen media outlets, including USA Today, The Atlantic, BBC Reel, All About America, NBC News, Salon, Vox, and NPR. Her recent awards include the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor’s Center for the Education of Women+’s “Inspire Award,” as well as the Distinguished Research Award and the Distinguished Research Team Award, both from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Pam is currently working on two new research projects with her colleagues: “How Reproductive Freedom Won in Michigan” and “Intergenerational Technology Divides in the Workplace.” We will honor Pam in person at the 2027 Winter Meeting in Ellicott City, Maryland that will take place from February 4-6, 2027.

Congratulations to the 2027 SWS Trailblazer Award Winner!

Bandana Purkayastha is the 2027 Trailblazer Award Recipient.

In 2025, SWS launched the SWS Trailblazer Award as a way of recognizing an SWS member who has made an extraordinary contribution to sociology, the profession, and/or the community. The nominee should exemplify “trailblazer” qualities of taking risks, changing society for the better, being a leader on campus and/or the community, showing courage, and forging new bold paths in research, activism, and in the field. Nominations from members who have notably and consistently used sociology to improve conditions for marginalized communities in society are especially welcome. 

Special thanks to the Trailblazer Award Subcommittee Members: Laura Jean Kerr, Rodica Lisnic, Cynthia Deitch, and Alexis Grant-Panting.

Bandana Purkayastha is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut, USA. She currently serves as the Vice President for National Associations, International Sociological Association (2023-2027). Passionate about moving away from Euro-America-centric sociological frameworks, her prolific scholarship on migration, human rights, knowledge hierarchies, and intersectionality bridges knowledge from many parts of the world. She is the current Vice President for National Associations and has initiated a podcast series, Sociology In… to interrupt the knowledge gaps about sociologies in different parts of the world. Her research appears in over 100 publications including books, peer reviewed journal articles, and chapters in many countries, including in translation. She has won multiple awards for her scholarship, within the university and in the profession, including the Gordon Hirabayashi book award from American Sociological Association’s (ASA) Human Rights section (2013) for the co-edited book on Human Rights in Our Own Backyard, and the Association for Asian American Studies best paper award (2026) for Why Don’t South Asians in the U.S. Count As “Asian”?: Global and Local Factors Shaping Anti‐South Asian Racism in the United States* Her scholarly excellence has been recognized through career awards, including, ASA’s Jessie Bernard award, “which recognizes significant contributions to improving the lives of women ” and ASA’s Asian American sections, Contributions to the Field award.  Her outstanding teaching and mentoring have been recognized through several awards within her university and in the profession, including Sociologists for Women in Society’s prestigious Feminist Mentoring award. Her service contributions across the university, state, and profession have also been recognized formally through awards. She served in many professional leadership positions, including as President of the feminist organization, Sociologists for Women in Society. She currently serves as the Associate Dean for Social Sciences, regional campuses and community engagement at UCONN. We will honor Bandana in person at the 2027 Winter Meeting in Ellicott City, Maryland that will take place from February 4-6, 2027.