The Robert and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey Distinguished Visiting Scholar Series for 2009 focused on The Nature of Nature: Struggles around the Biology of Gender and Race. Our next DVSS, Capitalism in Crisis, will take place in spring 2010 and will feature scholars David Harvey, Michael Hardt, and Saskia Sassen.
The Distinguished Visiting Scholar Series is funded by a gift from Robert and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey.
Departmental Seminar
In addition to hosting the annual Distinguished Visiting Scholar Series, the Sociology Department hosts a seminar series throughout the academic year. The seminar series features research work by our faculty, our advanced PhD students, and by other prominent scholars in the field. See the Departmental Seminar Schedule to find out about upcoming speakers, and our Seminar Archives to read about some of our past speakers and topics.
Charles Derber was a featured speaker in the virtual conference Ideas Boston 2009. His talk for the conference, "Marx's Ghost" is available 
Stephen Pfohl presented Digital Magic, Cybernetic Sorcery: On the Cultural Politics of Fascination and Fear at the 
Natasha Sarkisian won the prestigious Oliver Cromwell Cox Article Award from the Section of Racial and Ethnic Minorities of the ASA for her paper, "Street Men, Family Men: Race and Men’s Extended Family Involvement," which was published in Social Forces in December 2007.
Sharlene Hesse-Biber gets interviewed on feminist research methods on 
Mike Cermak won two prestigious BC awards this year: the Donald White Teaching Excellence Award, which recognize graduate teaching fellows and teaching assistants who distinguished themselves in classroom instruction, and the Set the World Aflame Award, given to the student who has demonstrated exceptional commitment and leadership to the BC community. 
A. Javier Treviño, who earned his Ph.D. in sociology from Boston College and now serves as professor of sociology at Wheaton College, has been elected as 2010-1011 president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP). 
A paper authored by Ph.D. candidate Jared Del Rosso is this year's winner of the Best Graduate Student Paper Award for the Social Problems Theory Section of SSSP. The paper is entitled "To Make a Prison Mobile: Social Problems Forms and the Construction of Abu Ghraib." 
A paper authored by Ph.D. candidate Matt Williams is this year's winner of the Graduate Student Paper award of the ASA section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements. The paper is entitled "Strategizing Against Sweatshops: Ideology, Strategic Models and Innovation in US Anti-Sweatshop Movement." Recent Ph.D. graduate 
Assistant Sociology Professor Shawn McGuffey's article, "Saving Masculinity: Gender Reaffirmation, Sexuality, Race and Parental Responses to Male Child Sexual Abuse," has won the Best Article Award from the American Sociological Association Sexualities Section. 
The Romero Award recognizes a Boston College junior who exemplifies commitment to the values and ideals that Archbishop Romero held. The scholarship recipients must demonstrate an outstanding record of involvement in and service to the Hispanic and Latino community at BC and in the wider community. There were three finalists for this year's award: Stephanie Andujar, Jeans M. Santana, and Gloria Mercedes Villanueva, all Sociology majors.