2019 Patricia Hill Collins (University of Maryland)
2017 Jean-François Côté (Université du Québec à Montréal)
2016 Joe Kotarba (Texas State University)
2015 Diane Vaughan (Columbia University)
2014 Phillip Vannini (Royal Roads University)
2013 Joan Fujimura (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
2012 Donileen Loseke (University of South Florida)
2011 Clinton Sanders (University of Connecticut)
2010 Ruth Horowitz (New York University)
2009 Eviatar Zerubavel (Rutgers University)
2008 Karin Knorr-Cetina (University of Chicago)
2007 Gary Cook
2006 Norman Denzin (University of Illinois, Urbana)
2005 Clark McPhail (University of Illinois, Urbana)
2004 Christine Williams (The University of Texas at Austin)
2003 Irwin Deutscher (Emeritus)
2002 Elijah Anderson (Yale University)
2001 Stanford Lyman (University of California, Berkeley)
2000 Joane Nagel (The University of Kansas, Lawrence)
1999 Jaber Gubrium (University of Missouri)
1998 Laurel Richardson (Ohio State University)
1997 Joel Best (University of Delaware)
1996 Peter M. Hall (University of Missouri)
1995 Arthur Vidich (Emeritus)
1994 Carl Couch
1993 Ralph Turner (UCLA)
1992 John Johnson (Arizona State University)
1991
Rom Harré
1990
Harvey Farberman
1989
Jack Douglas
1988
Lyn Lofland
1987
William Gamson
1986
Howard S. Becker
1985
Louis Zurcher
1984
Robert Perinbanayagam
1983
Morris Rosenberg
1982
Guy E. Swanson
1981
Fred Davis
1980
Lillian Rubin
1979
Alfred Lindesmith
1978
Herbert Blumer