The American Sociological Association (ASA), founded in 1905 as the American Sociological Society (ASS), is a non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

 by serving sociologists in their work and promoting their contributions to serve society.

The ASA holds its own annual academic conference

Academic conference

An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.-Overview:Conferences are usually composed of various...

, the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting. The 103rd ASA Annual Meeting in Boston in August 2008 attracted 5,415 attendees. ASA publishes several academic journals. The best known is the American Sociological Review

American Sociological Review

The American Sociological Review is a bimonthly, peer-reviewed academic journal covering all aspects of sociology, including new theoretical developments, results of research that advance the understanding of fundamental social processes, and methodological innovations. It is published by SAGE...

 and the newest one is Contexts

Contexts

Contexts, subtitled Understanding People in their Social Worlds, is an official publication of the American Sociological Association. The magazine is designed to be a more accessible source of sociological ideas and research, and it has been deeply inspired by the movement within the discipline of...

, a magazine designed to share sociology with other fields and the public

Public sociology

Public sociology is an approach to the discipline which seeks to transcend the academy and engage wider audiences. Rather than being defined by a particular method, theory, or set of political values, public sociology may be seen as a style of sociology, a way of writing and a form of intellectual...

. In 2010 ASA's membership went beyond 14,000 and consists of various sociology-related professionals: academics (professors, students, researchers) as well as other practitioners. This membership makes ASA currently the largest professional association of sociologists in the world, even larger than the International Sociological Association

International Sociological Association

International Sociological Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific purposes in the field of sociology and social sciences...

.

ASA journals

• American Sociological Review
  American Sociological Review
  The American Sociological Review is a bimonthly, peer-reviewed academic journal covering all aspects of sociology, including new theoretical developments, results of research that advance the understanding of fundamental social processes, and methodological innovations. It is published by SAGE...
  
  
• City & Community
• Contemporary Sociology
  Contemporary Sociology
  Contemporary Sociology is an academic journal in the field of sociology, published bimonthly by Sage Publications on behalf of the American Sociological Association since 1972. Contemporary Sociology publishes reviews and discussions of the most important recent works in sociology and in related...
  
  
• Contexts
  Contexts
  Contexts, subtitled Understanding People in their Social Worlds, is an official publication of the American Sociological Association. The magazine is designed to be a more accessible source of sociological ideas and research, and it has been deeply inspired by the movement within the discipline of...
  
  
• Journal of Health and Social Behavior
  Journal of Health and Social Behavior
  The Journal of Health and Social Behavior is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Sociological Association. It publishes "empirical and theoretical articles that apply sociological concepts and methods to the understanding of health and illness and the organization...
  
  
• Rose Series
• Social Psychology Quarterly
  Social Psychology Quarterly
  Social Psychology Quarterly is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of social psychology. The journal's editors-in-chief are Karen A. Hegtvedt and Cathryn Johnson...
  
  
• Sociological Methodology
• Sociological Theory
  Sociological Theory
  Sociological Theory is a peer-reviewed journal published by Blackwell Publishing for the American Sociological Association since 1983. It covers the full range of sociological theory - from ethnomethodology to world systems analysis, from commentaries on the classics to the latest cutting-edge...
  
  
• Sociology of Education
  Sociology of education
  The sociology of education is the study of how public institutions and individual experiences affect education and its outcomes. It is most concerned with the public schooling systems of modern industrial societies, including the expansion of higher, further, adult, and continuing...
  
  
• Teaching Sociology
  Teaching Sociology
  Teaching Sociology is an quarterly academic journal in the field of sociology. It has been published since 1973 by American Sociological Association...
  
  

List of presidents

List of ASA presidents

#	Name	Term
1	Lester F. Ward	1906–1907
2	William G. Sumner	1908–1909
3	Franklin H. Giddings	1910–1911
4	Albion W. Small	1912–1913
5	Edward A. Ross Edward A. Ross Edward Alsworth Ross was a progressive American sociologist, eugenicist, and major figure of early criminology.-Biography:...	1914–1915
6	George E. Vincent	1916
7	George E. Howard	1917
8	Charles H. Cooley Charles Cooley Charles Horton Cooley was an American sociologist and the son of Thomas M. Cooley. He studied and went on to teach economics and sociology at the University of Michigan, and he was a founding member and the eighth president of the American Sociological Association...	1918
9	Frank W. Blackmar Frank W. Blackmar Frank Wilson Blackmar was an American sociologist, historian and educator. He served as the 9th President of the American Sociological Society .Before earning a Ph.D...	1919
19	James Q. Dealey	1920
11	Edward C. Hayes Edward C. Hayes Edward Cary Hayes was a pioneer in American sociology and was a founder and president of the American Sociological Association.Edward Cary Hayes was born on February 10, 1868 in Lewiston, Maine. He received a bachelor's degree from Bates College and then studied at the Cobb Divinity School...	1921
12	James P. Lichtenberg	1922
13	Ulysses G. Weatherly Ulysses G. Weatherly Ulysses G. Weatherly was a founder of the American Sociological Society and on its executive committee from 1907 to 1910. He was appointed as Vice President in 1920 and President in 1923.-References:* -Books:...	1923
14	Charles A. Ellwood Charles A. Ellwood Charles A. Ellwood was one of the leading American sociologists of the interwar period, studying intolerance, communication and revolutions and using many multidisciplinary methods. He argued that sociology should play a role in directing cultural evolution through education of society...	1924
15	Robert E. Park Robert E. Park Robert Ezra Park was an American urban sociologist, one of the main founders of the original Chicago School of sociology.-Life:...	1925
16	John L. Gillin	1926
17	W. I. Thomas W. I. Thomas William Isaac Thomas was an American sociologist. He is noted for his innovative work on the sociology of migration on which he co-operated with Florian Znaniecki, and for his formulation of what became known as the Thomas theorem, a fundamental principle of sociology: "If men define situations as...	1927
18	John M. Gillette	1928
19	William F. Ogburn	1929
20	Howard W. Odum Howard W. Odum Howard Washington Odum was an American sociologist.-Biography:...	1930
21	Emory S. Bogardus Emory S. Bogardus Emory S. Bogardus was a prominent figure in the history of American sociology...	1931
22	Luther L. Bernard	1932
23	Edward B. Reuter	1933
24	Ernest W. Burgess	1934
25	F. Stuart Chapin	1935
26	Henry P. Fairchild	1936
27	Ellsworth Faris Ellsworth Faris Ellsworth Faris was an influential sociologist of the Chicago school.Faris was born in 1874 in Salem, Tennessee. He studied at Texas Christian University, where he earned his Bachelor Degree in 1894 and Masters Degree in 1896. From 1897 to 1904, he spent time in Belgian Congo as a missionary...	1937
28	Frank H. Hankins Frank H. Hankins Frank Hamilton Hankins was an American sociologist and anthropologist who was the president of the American Sociological Society in 1938. He wrote the book The Racial Basis of Civilization which was critical of Nordic theory.- References :...	1938
29	Edwin Sutherland Edwin Sutherland Edwin H. Sutherland was an American sociologist. He is considered as one of the most influential criminologists of the twentieth century...	1939
30	Robert M. MacIver	1940
31	Stuart A. Queen	1941
32	Dwight Sanderson	1942
33	George A. Lundberg George A. Lundberg George Andrew Lundberg was an American sociologist.-Biography:...	1943
34	Rupert B. Vance	1944
35	Kimball Young Kimball Young Kimball Young was the president of the American Sociological Association in 1945.Young was a grandson of Brigham Young. He was born in Provo, Utah, and graduated from Brigham Young University in 1915. However, Kimball Young himself was not a believer in the Latter-day Saint faith, and spoke...	1945
36	Carl C. Taylor	1946
37	Louis Wirth Louis Wirth Louis Wirth was an American sociologist and member of the Chicago school of sociology.-Life:Louis Wirth was born in the small village of Gemünden in the Hunsrück, Germany. He was one of seven children born to Rosalie Lorig and Joseph Wirth. Gemünden was a pastoral community, and Joseph Wirth...	1947
38	E. Franklin Frazier E. Franklin Frazier Edward Franklin Frazier , was an American sociologist. His 1932 Ph.D. dissertation The Negro Family in Chicago, later released as a book The Negro Family in the United States in 1939, analyzed the cultural and historical forces that influenced the development of the African American family from the...	1948
39	Talcott Parsons Talcott Parsons Talcott Parsons was an American sociologist who served on the faculty of Harvard University from 1927 to 1973....	1949
40	Leonard S. Cottrell, Jr.	1950
41	Robert C. Angell	1951
42	Dorothy Swaine Thomas	1952
43	Samuel A. Stouffer Samuel A. Stouffer Samuel Andrew Stouffer was a prominent American sociologist and developer of survey research techniques. Stouffer spent much of his career attempting to answer the fundamental question - How does one measure an attitude?Dr...	1953
44	Florian Znaniecki Florian Znaniecki Florian Witold Znaniecki was a Polish sociologist. He taught and wrote in Poland and the United States. He was the 44th President of the American Sociological Association and the founder of academic sociology studies in Poland...	1954
45	Donald Young	1955
46	Herbert Blumer Herbert Blumer Herbert George Blumer was an American sociologist. Continuing the work of George Herbert Mead, he named and developed the topic of symbolic interactionism. According to Blumer himself, his main post-graduate scholarly interests were symbolic interactionism and methodological problems...	1956
47	Robert K. Merton Robert K. Merton Robert King Merton was a distinguished American sociologist. He spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University, where he attained the rank of University Professor...	1957
48	Robin M. Williams, Jr.	1958
49	Kingsley Davis Kingsley Davis Kingsley Davis , identified by the American Philosophical Society as one of the most outstanding social scientists of the twentieth century, was a Hoover Institution senior research fellow and internationally recognized American sociologist and demographer...	1959
50	Howard P. Becker Howard P. Becker Howard Paul Becker was for many years professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.-Biography:...	1960 (died in office)
51	Robert E.L. Faris	1961
52	Paul F. Lazarsfeld Paul Lazarsfeld Paul Felix Lazarsfeld was one of the major figures in 20th-century American sociology. The founder of Columbia University's Bureau of Applied Social Research, he exerted a tremendous influence over the techniques and the organization of social research...	1962
53	Everett C. Hughes	1963
54	George C. Homans George C. Homans George Casper Homans was an American sociologist, founder of behavioral sociology and the exchange theory.Homans is best known for his research in social behavior and his works including The Human Group, Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms, his exchange theory and the many different propositions...	1964
55	Pitirim A. Sorokin	1965
56	Wilbert E. Moore Wilbert E. Moore Wilbert E. Moore was a American sociologist noted, with Kingsley Davis, for their explanation and justification for social stratification, based their idea of "functional necessity."...	1966
57	Charles P. Loomis	1967
58	Philip M. Hauser	1968
59	Arnold M. Rose	1969 (died in office)
60	Ralph Turner	1969
61	Reinhard Bendix Reinhard Bendix Reinhard Bendix was a German American sociologist.Born in Berlin, Germany, he briefly belonged to Neu beginnen and Hashomer Hatzair, groups that resisted the Nazis. In 1938 he emigrated to the United States. He received his B.S., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and subsequently...	1970
62	William H. Sewell William H. Sewell William Hamilton Sewell was a United States sociologist and the Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1967-1968. He is known also as the father of another sociologist .-Biography:...	1971
63	William J. Goode	1972
64	Mirra Komarovsky Mirra Komarovsky Mirra Komarovsky , a pioneer in the sociology of gender.Coming from a privileged Jewish family in Czarist Russia, her family fled the country after the 1917 Russian Revolution. Komarovsky’s parents were Zionists and landowning Jews in Akkerman, Russia, until tsarist police drove them from their home...	1973
65	Peter M. Blau	1974
66	Lewis A. Coser Lewis A. Coser Lewis Coser was an American sociologist. The 66th president of the American Sociological Association in 1975....	1975
67	Alfred McClung Lee Alfred McClung Lee Alfred McClung Lee was an American sociologist whose research included studies of American journalism, propaganda, and race relations....	1976
68	John Milton Yinger John Milton Yinger John Milton Yinger was an American sociologist who was president of the American Sociological Association 1976-1977. Yinger received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1942, and was Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Oberlin College.-Biography :Yinger was born in Quincy,...	1977
69	Amos H. Hawley	1978
70	Hubert M. Blalock, Jr.	1979
71	Peter H. Rossi	1980
72	William Foote Whyte William Foote Whyte William Foote Whyte was a sociologist chiefly known for his ethnological study in urban sociology, Street Corner Society...	1981
73	Erving Goffman Erving Goffman Erving Goffman was a Canadian-born sociologist and writer.The 73rd president of American Sociological Association, Goffman's greatest contribution to social theory is his study of symbolic interaction in the form of dramaturgical perspective that began with his 1959 book The Presentation of Self...	1982
74	Alice S. Rossi Alice S. Rossi Alice S. Rossi was a pioneering feminist and sociologist.-Biography:Rossi's scholarship focused on the status of women at work, in the family, and their sexual life. Her writings helped to build the foundations of the feminist movement. Her early advocacy of abortion and reproductive rights...	1983
75	James F. Short, Jr.	1984
76	Kai T. Erikson Kai T. Erikson Kai Theodor Erikson is an American sociologist, noted as an authority on the social consequences of catastrophic events. He served as the 76th president of the American Sociological Association....	1985
77	Matilda White Riley	1986
78	Melvin L. Kohn Melvin L. Kohn Melvin L. Kohn is an American sociologist and past president of the American Sociological Association. He is currently a professor at Johns Hopkins University and conducts research on social structure and personality....	1987
79	Herbert J. Gans Herbert J. Gans Herbert J. Gans is an American sociologist who has taught at Columbia University since 1971, retiring in 2007.One of the most prolific and influential sociologists of his generation, Gans came to America in 1940 as a refugee from Nazism and has sometimes described his scholarly work as an...	1988
80	Joan Huber	1989
81	William Julius Wilson William Julius Wilson William Julius Wilson is an American sociologist. He worked at the University of Chicago 1972-1996 before moving to Harvard....	1990
82	Stanley Lieberson	1991
83	James S. Coleman	1992
84	Seymour Martin Lipset Seymour Martin Lipset Seymour Martin Lipset was an American political sociologist, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and the Hazel Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University. His major work was in the fields of political sociology, trade union organization, social stratification, public opinion, and...	1993
85	William A. Gamson William A. Gamson William Anthony Gamson is a professor of Sociology at Boston College, where he is also the co-director of the Media Research and Action Project ....	1994
86	Amitai Etzioni Amitai Etzioni Amitai Etzioni is a German-Israeli-American sociologist.-Biography:In 1933, Amitai Etzioni was only four years old when the Nazis rose to power in Germany. He was separated from his family but reunited with them by the year 1947...	1995
87	Maureen T. Hallinan	1996
88	Neil Smelser Neil Smelser Neil Joseph Smelser is an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was an active researcher from 1958 to 1994. His research has been on collective behavior....	1997
89	Jill Quadagno Jill Quadagno Dr. Jill B. Quadagno is Professor of Sociology at Florida State University where she holds the Mildred and Claude Pepper Eminent Scholar Chair in Social Gerontology. Her books include One Nation, Uninsured: Why the U.S. Has No National Health Insurance and the Color of Welfare: How Racism...	1998
90	Alejandro Portes Alejandro Portes Alejandro Portes is a prominent Cuban-American sociologist. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1970. He is currently chair of the department of sociology at Princeton University and a member of the National Academy of Science, and of the Board of Trustees...	1999
91	Joe R. Feagin	2000
92	Douglas S. Massey	2001
93	Barbara F. Reskin	2002
94	William T. Bielby William T. Bielby William T. Bielby is Professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and is Distinguished Research Scholar at the . He was the President of the American Sociological Association in 2002-2003. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and...	2003
95	Michael Burawoy Michael Burawoy Michael Burawoy is a British, sociological Marxist, best known as author of Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process under Monopoly Capitalisma study on work and organizations that has been translated into a number of languagesand as the leading proponent of public sociology...	2004
96	Troy Duster Troy Duster Troy Duster is a sociologist with research interests in the sociology of science, public policy, race and ethnicity and deviance. He is a Chancellor’s Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley and professor of sociology and director of the Institute for the History of the Production of Knowledge at...	2005
97	Cynthia Fuchs Epstein	2006
98	Frances Fox Piven Frances Fox Piven Frances Fox Piven is an American professor of political science and sociology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, where she has taught since 1982.-Life and education:...	2007
99	Arne L. Kalleberg	2008
100	Patricia Hill Collins Patricia Hill Collins Patricia Hill Collins, is Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, former head of the Department of African American Studies at the University of Cincinnati and past President of the American Sociological Association Council...	2009
101	Evelyn Nakano Glenn Evelyn Nakano Glenn Evelyn Nakano Glenn is a Professor of Gender & Women's Studies and of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to her teaching and research responsibilities she serves as Founding Director of the University's Center for Race and Gender . The CRG is a leading U.S...	2010
102	Randall Collins Randall Collins Randall Collins, Ph.D. is the Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor in Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the Advisory Editors Council of the Social Evolution & History Journal. He is considered to be one of the leading non-Marxist conflict theorists in the United...	2011
103	Erik Olin Wright Erik Olin Wright Erik Olin Wright is an American analytical Marxist sociologist, specializing in social stratification, and in egalitarian alternative futures to capitalism.-Biography:...	2012

See also

The documentary A Century of Progress:Presidential Reflections, 1905-2005(20 minutes). It is a concise overview of the core ideas of the respective presidents of the American Sociological Association. It was produced in conjunction with the centennial of the ASA by sociologist-
filmmaker Gale Largey(www.galelargey.com).

• ASA style
  ASA style
  American Sociological Association style is a widely accepted format for writing university research papers that specifies such the arrangement and punctuation of footnotes and bibliographies...
  
  
• International Sociological Association
  International Sociological Association
  International Sociological Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific purposes in the field of sociology and social sciences...
  
  

External links

• American Sociological Association
• North Central Sociological Association