Social Sciences

Jody Agius Vallejo, associate professor of sociology and American studies and ethnicity, has been awarded the 2023 Award for Public Sociology in International Migration. Conferred by the American Sociological Association, the award seeks to underscore the need to foster scholarly collaboration toward a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted causes and consequences of international migration as well as the assimilation of immigrants within host societies. Vallejo was recognized for her achievements in pioneering empirical investigations pertaining to the intricate dynamics of international migration policy.

Evelyn Alsultany, professor of American studies and ethnicity, received the 2023 Richard A. Yarborough Mentoring Award from the American Studies Association. The award, which honors Yarborough’s legacy as an American historian and literary critic, recognizes a scholar for their exceptional commitment and excellence in mentoring and advising other minority scholars and underrepresented faculty.

Jefferey Sellers, professor of political science and international relations and spatial sciences, has received the Daniel Elazar Distinguished Scholar Award from the Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations Section of the American Political Science Association. Citing his most recent book, Multilevel Democracy: How Local Institutions and Civil Society Shape the Modern State (Cambridge University Press, 2020), the section noted how Sellers’ work “truly spans the globe, [with the] unifying theme to approach problems and solutions through the eyes of the local community” and inspires young scholars.

Francille Wilson, associate professor of American studies and ethnicity, history and gender and sexuality studies, has been awarded the Carter G. Woodson Scholar’s Medallion by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. The award is presented annually to a trained historian who is active in the association’s scholarly work and whose career is distinguished through at least a decade of research, writing and activism in the field of African American life and history.

Jackie Wang, assistant professor of American studies and ethnicity, has been named American Democracy Fellow by the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University for her book project, The Carceral Laboratory: The Rise of High-Tech Prisons and Police. Wang’s project explores connections between scholarly work in American history with possibilities for the application of historical insights in the realms of public discourse and policy.

Iony Ezawa, assistant professor of psychology, received the Marna Barrett Award for Excellence in Psychotherapy at the Society for Psychotherapy Research Annual Meeting held in Dublin this summer. The award, which includes a $10,000 prize, recognizes and supports “research excellence for the study of psychotherapeutic treatments of mental disorders that disrupt lives and inhibit the pursuit of well-being.” Ezaway received the award in part for her commitment to improving mental health treatment, supervision and training and her track record of scholarly excellence without large-scale funding.

Henrike Moll, associate professor of psychology, has earned the 2023 American Psychological Foundation Joseph B. Gittler Award. The prize, which includes $4,500, recognizes psychologists who make and are expected to continue making scholarly contributions to the philosophical foundations of psychological knowledge.

Christian Grose, professor of political science and public policy, has received the Alan Rosenthal Prize from the American Political Science Association. The prize, awarded annually, is meant to encourage young scholars to study questions that are important to legislators and legislative staff and to conduct research that could strengthen the practice of representative democracy. The association cited Grose’s journal article Social Lobbying, which he co-authored with his former PhD student Sara Sadhwani, who is now at Pomona College, Pamela Lopez of K Street Consulting and Antoine Yoshinaka of the University at Buffalo. The article won the Joseph Bernd Award earlier this year.

Rhacel Parreñas, Florence Everline Professor of Sociology and professor of sociology and gender studies, has received the 2023 Distinguished Scholarly Book Prize from the American Sociological Association. The award recognizes her book, Unfree: Migrant Domestic Work in Arab States (Stanford University Press, 2021), which the society says “breathes new life into old debates on the nature of freedom and offers a clear-eyed portrayal of the realities of subordinated labor around the globe and the resilience of migrant women seeking dignity and self-determination.”