The American Sociological Association has selected Bernice Pescosolido and Rashawn Ray (Professor of Sociology at University of Maryland and 2010 IU Sociology Ph.D.) to each receive the Public Understanding of Sociology Award. Per the ASA website:
"Ray is a leading public intellectual in the U.S., with media, think tanks, and policymakers all drawing on his sociological expertise to address one of the most urgent issues facing our society today—systemic racism in society, particularly in policing. During a time when Black Lives Matter protests and the police killings of Black people to which those protests respond are in the news regularly, the need for sociologists to speak out about institutional racism and the criminal justice system is immense. Ray has responded to this need, consistently lending his expertise in ways that have shaped the nation’s conversation on these pressing issues, with the potential to shift the future of the nation...
Ray’s work as a public intellectual is truly remarkable in its positive impacts on national conversations on race and demonstrates clearly the promise of sociology in shaping U.S. public life. The committee can hardly imagine someone more deserving of the ASA Public Understanding of Sociology Award."
"Pescosolido’s research has made major contributions to our understanding of mental health stigma, social networks, and suicide. She is particularly interested in understanding how social networks connect individuals to their communities and to institutions such that individual’s attitudes, behaviors, and opportunities to cultivate well-being are impacted. Pescosolido’s research on mental health stigma—or the negative or pejorative attitudes attached to mental illness—has been particularly important to both public sociology as well as medical sociology and sociological theory. Her research challenges widespread assumptions that the stigma of mental illness has abated; instead, her scholarship highlights stigma as an important and malleable social force ripe for sociological interventions to build a world worth living in. Pescosolido has made significant in-roads into challenging stigmas attached to mental illness, influencing public policy, and advocating for better treatment....
While the scientific insights Pescosolido’s body of research has produced are paradigm shifting, her commitment to translating her scholarship to stakeholders beyond the academy renders her an ideal candidate for the Public Understanding of Sociology Award. Pescosolido has worked tirelessly at the national, state, and local levels to foster public awareness about mental health and improve policies and decision making for individuals experiencing mental illness....
Locally, nationally, and internationally, Pescosolido is known for the passion she brings to her research, advocacy, and academic engagement. Her passion coupled with her remarkable accomplishments makes her an ideal candidate for the ASA Public Understanding of Sociology Award."
Read more about both award recipients on the ASA website, here: 2021 ASA Award Winners | American Sociological Association (asanet.org)
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