The Culture Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) recently announced the inaugural Stuart Hall Award lecture by Ben Carrington (University of Southern California), the first winner of the award. The annually organized Stuart Hall Award in Cultural Sociology recognizes a mid-career sociologist whose work holds great promise for advancing the cultural study of racial or ethnic inequality. Dr. Carrington will give a lecture on “’The university is a critical institution, or it is nothing’- Stuart Hall, The Elephants’ Graveyard, and the Sociology of Race.” Moderated by Dr. Bin Xu (Emory University), the lecture will take place online on Wednesday, December 10, 2025 (10:00am Pacific Time). [Register at Zoom link below.]
Abstract: Universities are under attack. The space for critical scholarship, especially in relation to questions of race and ethnicity, is shrinking. The broader neoliberal-democratic order is collapsing. We are in a moment of profound political and moral crisis as reactionary forces in the United States of America and across the globe seek to dismantle the progressive changes to civil society established over the past few decades. We are, in other words, in a revolutionary moment. In this talk I draw upon the work and ideas of Stuart Hall to help make sense of the present conjunctural shift we are experiencing. I offer a critique of recent arguments within the sociology of race, ethnicity and culture that have attempted to downplay the continuing significance of racism and that deliberately ignore the contributions of critical scholars of race. Against this conservative shift, I instead argue for a renewed form of imaginative sociology as a way to revitalize the sociology of race and ethnicity and to save it from dying in the elephants’ graveyard of redundant subdisciplines. Reorientating sociology towards a more critical and politically engaged project is the only way for the discipline (and, by extension, universities as relatively autonomous institutions) to remain relevant and capable of challenging rather than succumbing to the present reactionary moment.
Stuart Hall Award for Advancing the Study of Racial or Ethnic Inequality
The annually organized Stuart Hall Award in Cultural Sociology recognizes a mid-career
sociologist whose work holds great promise for advancing the cultural study of racial or
ethnic inequality. The winner must be a cultural sociologist who uses cultural theories and/or methods in their research. They must have received a Ph.D. no less than five (but no more than 20) years before their candidacy. The winner will be expected to deliver a lecture in the course of the academic year following the award as part of the Section’s Culture and
Contemporary Life Series. An adapted version of the lecture will be published in Poetics.
Nomination letters should make a strong, substantive case for the nominee’s selection and
should discuss the nominee’s past work and anticipated future research trajectory as they
relate to the study of both cultural sociology and the sociology of race and ethnicity. Self-
Nominations are preferred. Nomination letters and CVs as well as an article-length
publication, which exemplifies the author’s contribution to the advancement of the cultural
study of racial or ethnic inequality should be submitted through this form.
The committee may be in touch to request copies of writings that are not easily accessible.
The deadline for nominations is March 1st 2025. The committee may, in any given year, decide not to give the award.
Please direct any inquiries to the Committee Chair, Clayton Childress
(clayton.childress@ubc.ca).
Register and attend the meeting via this zoom link: https://emory.zoom.us/meeting/register/mAflAW1pTxybruPv6VDaxQ#/registration
For more information, see https://asaculturesection.org/stuart-hall-award/
See more on Stuart Hall at https://www.stuarthallfoundation.org/stuart-hall/StuartHallAssociation**
The Culture Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) recently announced the inaugural Stuart Hall Award lecture by Ben Carrington (University of Southern California), the first winner of the award. The annually organized Stuart Hall Award in Cultural Sociology recognizes a mid-career sociologist whose work holds great promise for advancing the cultural study of racial
