By Alexandra Kalev

Dear Section Members,

I hope this message finds you all well, safe and healthy.  This is a trying period in so many ways, but I wanted to share several exciting pieces of information with you about section activities. 

1. Diversity in OOW: Our council is dedicating this year to initiating a journey toward increased diversity in OOW membership, research topics and methodologies. We have established a diversity committee to gather information about the meaning of and barriers to diversity in OOW and possible routes of action. You are likely to receive communication from this committee, announcing initiatives and/or seeking your input over the next couple of months.   

We have also established a mentor program, based on the earlier signup sheet. It is taking off in these very days, as mentors and mentees will be receiving introduction emails (with a special thank you to all those that volunteered to be mentors!). I am also attaching a new signup sheet for those who might have missed the earlier one. We believe mentoring is especially important, perhaps even more so right now, as graduate students and young scholars are more likely to feel isolated and to experience uncertainties regarding teaching, research and the job market. We see mentoring as part of our diversity efforts as well, hoping that it can also help section members from under-represented groups feel more connected to our section and find the section to be professionally nurturing. Please volunteer to become a mentor or sign up if you’d like to have a mentor. Thank you for all those that have done so already! 

2. The ASA online portal will open for submission on November 9, 2020. The deadline to submit is February 3, 2021 at 11:59pm EST. 

If you are an ASA session organizer interested in building/showcasing your session and using  our listserv to do so, please submit your session info to announcements@oowsection.org.

Please submit your papers to one of OOW sessions or roundtables (see below) and/or encourage your colleagues from underrepresented groups, or those that study topics outside the mainstream of OOW, to submit a paper. Open topic sessions will be formed according to the papers submitted.  

Broadening the Conversation about Racism in Organizations, Occupations, and Work 
Organizers: Elizabeth Berman, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Victor Ray, University of Iowa

This panel is seeking papers that broaden the conversation about racism and racialization in organizations, occupations, and work. Submitted papers should touch on organizations, occupations, or work in some way, but may not be primarily grounded in these literatures. This is part of an effort to bring into the section new approaches to thinking about processes of racism in organizations, occupations and work and in OOW research.

Open Topics on Organizations, Occupations, and Work
Organizers:  Elizabeth Berman, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; Sharla Alegria, University of Toronto; Nicole Denier, University of Alberta; Jiwook Jung, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Victor Ray, University of Iowa.

We welcome submission of all papers related to the topics of organizations, occupations, and/or work  

OOW Roundtables
Organizers: Angelina Grigoryeva, University of Toronto; Argun Saatcioglu, University of Kansas

3. OOW award nomination calls are out. Nominations for our Distinguished Scholar award, Weber Book award, Thompson Graduate Student Paper and Scott Article awards are due on March 31. This is a way to reward, celebrate and give publicity to work that excites you (even if it is your own!). Please nominate yourself or others.

4. Nomination for OOW section leadership. The nomination committee is seeking nominations for 2 new council members, a treasurer and a chair. Our past Chair, Michael Sauder is chairing the nomination committee. Please email him your nominations at michael-sauder@uiowa.edu. Serving on the OOW council is an opportunity to give back and to pave new ways, to meet new people and to be exposed to top notch work. Nominating someone is a flattering gift and can be a way to promote section diversity.

 Thank you for your participation in the section activities!