Society for the Study of
Symbolic Interaction

Past Awards

George Herbert Mead Lifetime Achievement Award

2025 Simon Gottschalk, Professor Emeritus, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

2024 Andrea Salvina, Professor, University of Pisa

2023 

2022 Eviatar Zerubavel, Professor, Rutgers University

2021 E. Doyle McCarthy, Fordham University

2020 Robert Dingwall, Nottingham Trent University

2019 Gary T. Marx, M.I.T. (Emeritus)

2018 Robert Prus

2017 Will van Hoonaard and Deborah van Hoonaard

2016 David Snow (UC Irvine)

2015 Ruth Horowitz. (New York University)

2014 Donileen Loseke (University of South Florida)

2013 Joel Best (University of Delaware)

2012 David Karp (Boston College)

2011 Clinton Sanders (University of Connecticut)

2010 Patti Adler and Peter Adler

2009 Joseph Kotarba

2008 Spencer Cahill

2007 Lonnie Athens

2006 Kathy Charmaz

2005 Clark McPhail

David Altheide

2004 Douglas Mitchell

2003 Gary Alan Fine

2002 John Johnson

2001 Lyn H. Lofland

2000 Sheldon Stryker

1999 David Maines

1998 Robert S. Perinbanayagam

1997 Norman Denzin

1996 Virginia Olesen

1995 John Lofland

1994 Peter Hall

1993 Helena Znaiecki Lopata

1992 Carl Couch

1991 Joseph Gusfield

1990 Ralph Turner

1989 Jacqueline Wiseman

1988 Louis Zurcher

1987 Howard S. Becker

1986 Tamotsu Shibutani

1985 Anselm Strauss

1984 Stanford Lyman

1983 Erving Goffman

1982 Kenneth Burke

1981 Everett Hughes

1980 Gregory Stone

1979 Alfred Lindesmith

1978 Herbert Blumer

Issei Misumi


Charles Horton Cooley Book Award

2025 Asia Friedman, Associate Professor, University of Delaware for Mammography Wars: Analyzing Attention in Cultural and Medical Disputes

2024 Thomas DeGloma, Professor of Sociology, CUNY for Anonymous: The Performance of Hidden Identities, University of Chicago Press, 2023

2023 Corte, Ugo. Professor, Sociology.

Honorable mentions: Stacey Hannem and Christopher J. Schneider. 

2022 Michael J. Walker. Indefinite: Doing Time in Jail. Oxford University Press.

2020 Anne Nassauer. Situational Breakdowns: Understanding Protest Violence and Other Surprising Outcomes. Oxford University Press.

2019 Eviatar Zerubavel, Taken for Granted: The Remarkable Power of the Unremarkable Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press

2018 Joonyoung Lee. Blowin’ Up: Rap Dreams in South Central. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.

2017 Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman. The Color of Love. Racial Features, Stigma and Socialization in Black Brazilian Families. Austin: UT Press

Norbert Wiley Inner Speech and the Dialogical Self, Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 2016

2016 Daniel R. Huebner Becoming Mead: The Social Process of Academic Knowledge University of Chicago Press, 2015

2015 Thomas DeGloma Seeing the Light. The Social Process of Personal Discovery. University of Chicago Press, 2014

2014 Joe Kotarba Baby Boomer Rock ‘n’ Roll Fans: The Music Never Ends. Scarecrow Press, 2013

2013 Nancy Berns for Closure: The Rush to End Grief and What it Costs US. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

2012 Michael G. Flaherty for The Textures of Time:  Agency and Temporal Experience. Philadelphia, PA:  Temple University Press. 

Honorable MentionsPatricia A. Adler and Peter Adler for The Tender Cut:  Inside the Hidden World of Self-Injury.  New York:  NYU Press, 2011.

Will C. van den Hoonard for The Seduction of Ethics:  Transforming the Social Sciences.  Toronto, Canada:  University of Toronto Press, 2011.

2011 Scott R. Harris for What Is Constructionism?  Navigating Its Use in Sociology.  Boulder, CO:  Lynne Rienner Publications.

2010 Tammy L. Anderson for Rave Culture: The Alteration and Decline of a Philadelphia Music Scene. Philadelphia: Temple University Press (2009)

2009 Carolyn Ellis, Revision: Autoethnographic Reflections on Life and Work. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2009.

2008 Gary Alan Fine, Authors of the Storm: Meteorologists and the Culture of Prediction. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

2007 David Altheide, Terrorism and the Politics of Fear. Lanham, MD: AltaMira, 2006.

2006 Adele E. Clarke, Situational Analysis: Grounded Theory After the Postmodern Turn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005.

Joseph E. Davis, Accounts of Innocence: Sexual Abuse, Trauma and Self. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

2005 Jennifer Dunn, Courting Disaster: Intimate Stalking, Culture and Criminal Justice. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter, 2002.

2004 David Altheide, Creating Fear: News and the Construction of Crisis. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter, 2002.

2003 Stanford Lyman, Roads to Dystopia: Sociological Essays on the Postmodern Condition. Fayetteville, AS: University of Arkansas Press, 2001.

2002 Richard G. Mitchell, Dancing at Armageddon: Survivalism and Chaos in Modern Times. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2001.

2001 Robert Perinbanayagam, The Presence of Self. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000.

2000 Clinton R. Sanders, Understanding Dogs: Living and Working with Canine Companions. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1999.

1999 Gary Alan Fine, Morel Tales: The Culture of Mushrooming. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998.

1998 Laurel Richardson, Fields of Play: Constructing an Academic Life. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997.

1997 Arnold Arluke and Clinton Sanders, Regarding Animals. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1996.

1996 David Karp, Speaking of Sadness: Depression, Disconnection and the Meaning of Illness. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1996.

1995 Ruth Horowitz, Teen Mothers: Citizens or Dependents? Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

David Goode, A World Without Words: The Social Construction of Children Born Deaf and Blind. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1994.

1994 Donileen Loseke, The Battered Woman and Shelters: The Social Construction of Wife Abuse. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1992.

Special recognitionIrwin Deutscher, Fred P. Pestello and Frances G. Pestello, Sentiments and Acts. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter, 1993.

1993 David Snow and Leon Anderson, Down on Their Luck: A Study of Homeless Street People. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993.

1992 Kathy Charmaz, Good Days, Bad Days: The Self in Chronic Illness and Time. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991.

1991 Joel Best, Threatened Children: Rhetoric and Concern About Child-Victims. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

1990 John P. Hewitt, Dilemmas of the American Self. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1989.

Honourable mentionPeter K. Manning, Symbolic Communication: Signifying Calls and the Police Response. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988.

1989 Jack Katz, Seductions of Crime: Moral and Sensual Attractions in Doing Evil. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1988.

Honourable mentionJohn Van Maanen, Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

1988 Norman Denzin, The Alcoholic Self. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1997.

1987 Patrick Biernacki, Pathways from Heroin Addiction: Recovery Without Treatment. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1986.

Honourable mentionPatricia A. Adler, Wheeling and Dealing: An Ethnography of an Upper-Level Drug Dealing and Smuggling Community. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1985.

1986 David Altheide, Media Power. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1985.

1985 Kristen Luker, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1984.

1984 Arlie Hochschild, The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1983.

1983 Joseph Gusfield, The Culture of Public Problems: Drinking-Driving and the Symbolic Order. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1981.

1981 Peter Conrad and Joseph Schneider, Deviance and Medicalization: From Badness to Sickness. St Louis, MO: Mosby, 1980.

1980 Howard S. Becker, for significant contributions to the perspective

1979 Anselm Strauss, Negotiations: Varieties, Contexts, Processes and Social Order. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1978

1978 Ralph Turner, ‘The Real Self: From Institution to Impulse’, American Journal of Sociology, 81(5): 989–1016, 1976.

Ralph Turner, ‘The Role and the Person’, American Journal of Sociology, 84(1): 1–23, 1978.



Herbert Blumer Award for Student Paper

2025 Yuchen Yang, Assistant Professor, University of Birmingham for "Gender Uptake: Theorizing the Semiotics of (Un)Doing Gender" 

Honorable Mention: Jiwon Yun, PhD Candidate, Yale University for "Multiple Staging for Multiple Audiences: Working Around the Donor-Beneficiary Dynamic in the Nonprofit Sector."

2024 Oded Marom, University of Southern California for his paper, “Patterns of Tolerance: How Interaction Culture and Community Relations Explain Political Tolerance (and Intolerance) in the American Libertarian Movement”

2023 Yuchen Yang, "The Art Worlds of Gender Performance: Cosplay, Embodiment, and the Collective Accomplishment of Gender," The Journal of Chinese Sociology, 9(9).

2022 Robert Scott (UC-Boulder), “A Social Phenomenon of Risk Perception: Saskatchewan Firefighters on the Yarnell Hill Fire Fatalities.”

Honorable Mention: Ken Hanson (Oregon) for “The Silicone Self: Examining Sexual Selfhood and Stigma within the Love and Sex Doll Community,” published in Symbolic Interaction

2020 Fangheyue Amber Ma, University of Southern Florida, for the paper: “’You Are First a Chinese Citizen, Then a Consumer’: Presenting and Balancing Identities Online as Chinese International Tourists”

2019 Max Papadantonakis (CUNY) for the paper: Cultural Othering: Interpersonal Foundations of Nationalist Ethnic Conflict in a Greek Street Market.

2018 Stephanie Peña-Alves (Rutgers University) for her paper “Say it with Doors: Object-Mediated Communication in Everyday Life”.

2017 Andrea Laurent-Simpson (Texas Women’s University Denton) for her paper Considering Alternate Sources of Role Identity: Childless Parents and Their Animal “Kids”

2016  Sherri Sasnett-Martichuski (Sociology, University of Colorado, Boulder) for her paper “The Transgender Experience: In Search of an Authentic Self”.

2015 Hyeyoung Kwon (Indiana University) for the paper: Intersectionality in Interaction: Immigrant Youth Doing American from an Outsider-Within Position.

2014 Hannah Wohl, Northwestern University, for her paper: Modeling Judgment: Interacting in an Erotic Arts Club

2013 Amanda Gengler, Brandeis University, for her paper:  Keep Your Hope, Keep Your Faith: Hope Work and Emotional Threat Management among Families of Seriously Ill Children

Honourable Mention:  Gareth M. Thomas, Cardiff University, for this paper, Cooling the Mother Out: Revisiting and Revising Goffman’s Account.

2012 Jason Sumerau and Alex I. Thompson

2011 Lisa-Jo Van den Scott

2010 Marc Eaton

2009 Raymond Garrett-Peters

2008 Eric C. Bonds

2007 Ken Kolb

2006 Margaret Leaf

Honorable mention: Annie Wagganer

2005 Elly Teman and Avi Shoshana

2004 Amy Leisenring

2003 Rob Gardner

2002 Hilary Smith

2001 Adina L. Nack

Honorable mentionsScott R. Harris, Tony Puddephatt

2000 Alice Fothergill

1999 Penny Phillips

1998 Jennifer Lois

1997 Leslie Irvine and Joanna Gregson

1996 Daphne Holden

1995 Jessica Fields

Honorable mentionStefan Timmermans

1994 Joseph Hopper

1993 Carol Rambo-Ronai

1992 Lori Ducharme

1991 Jody Miller

1990 J. David Brown

1989 Kent Sandstrom

1988 Martha Copp

1987 Elisabeth Schillinger

1986 Judi Miller

1985 Steve Worden

1983 William L. Tam

1981 Spencer Cahill, Wendy Espeland, and Bill Gronfein

1980 Diane Bjorkland and Monica Hardesty

1979 Claire Fraser Holt

1978 David Unruh


Helena Lopata Mentor Excellence Award

2025 Ross Haenfler, Professor, Grinnell College

2024 Beth Montemurro, Professor of Sociology, Penn State University 

2023 Doug Schrock, Florida State University

2022 David Schweingruber, Iowa State University

2021 Timothy Hallett, Indiana University Bloomington

2020 Dr. J. Patrick Williams, Associate Professor of Sociology,  Nanyang Technological University in Singapore

2019 Lisa-Jo K. van den Scott, Memorial University

2018 Leslie Irvine, University of Colorado, Boulder

2017 Eviatar Zerubavel, Rutgers University

2016 Matthew W. Hughey, University of Connecticut

2015 Donileen Loseke, University of South Florida and

           David G. Embrick, Loyola University Chicago

2014 Dan Miller, University of Dayton

2013 Clinton R. Sanders, University of Connecticut

2012 Joel Best, University of Delaware

2011 Gary Alan Fine, Northwestern University

2010 Joseph A. Kotarba, Texas State University

2009 John M. Johnson, Arizona State University

2008 Viktor Gecas, Washington State University

2007 David Altheide, Arizona State University

(The award was titled the ”Feminist Mentor Award” through 2006. It was changed to the  “Mentor Excellence Award” in 2007.)

2006 Michael Schwalbe, North Carolina State University

2005 Peter Adler, University of Denver

2004 Patti Adler, University of Colorado

2003 Patricia Ticineto Clough, Fordham University

2002 Adele E. Clarke, University of California, San Francisco and Sherryl Kleinman, University of North Carolina

2001 Kathy Charmaz, Sonoma State University

2000 Carolyn Ellis, University of South Florida and

        Virginia Olesen, University of California, San Francisco

1999 Helena Znaniecki Lopata, Loyola University and

       Lauren Richardson, Ohio State University

1998 Lyn H. Lofland, University of California and

       Davis and Barrie Thorne, University of California Berkeley

1997 Mary Lou Dietz, University of Windsor and

       Dorothy Smith, University of Toronto


Kathy Charmaz Early In Career Award

2025 Martin Harbush, University of Siegen 

2024  Deana Simonetto, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of British Columbia-Okanagan

2023 Chris Connor, University of Missouri

2022 Lisa-Jo K. van den Scott, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador

  Alexandra Vinson, University of Michigan


Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction is a 501(c)6 non-profit organization.

Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software