Friday, August 9, 2019

The American Sociological Association Meeting in Buffalo

The next several meetings of the American Sociological Meeting will be in expensive cities: San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Montreal, and back to New York in 2026. It looks like the most reasonably priced place is Philadelphia in 2023. It's understandable that you want the host city to be an exciting city that people want to travel to. But sociologists must also be struggling with cognitive dissonance. We study inequality for a living. The idea of our national conference taking place in fancy hotels in glamorous cities doesn't match up with our concerns about severe economic inequalities. What about folks who don't get generous (or even modest) travel funds? Can graduate students, adjuncts, and newer faculty afford to attend the conference for 2, 3 or more days?

Are sociologists willing to attend ASA conferences in smaller, less expensive cities? What about a place like Buffalo, NY, which has BEAUTIFUL weather in August (75 degrees here today, baby) and is a 20 minute drive to the majestic Niagara Falls?!?! Don't forget about W.E.B. Du Bois and the Niagara Movement! Shouldn't sociologists take interest in Buffalo, a place that has experienced deindustrialization and population loss? Buffalo has amazing architecture, cool public art, great art museums, lovely parks, reasonably placed hotels, and a ton of places to eat and drink. Yes, the chicken wings are the best you'll ever find, but there's much more to Buffalo than wings and pizza.

Fellow sociologists, we can continue to voice our concerns about overpaying to attend conferences in prominent cities, or we can change our ways. We really should have a serious conversation about where our national conference takes place.

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