THE BULLETIN

THE BULLETIN  is a publication of the North Carolina Sociological Association. The NCSA is open to any person engaged in teaching or research in sociology, or in a field of applied sociology, as well as to any student whose major interest is sociology. Members receive THE BULLETIN and are invited to attend the annual meeting of the association in late winter or early spring. Dues for one calendar year are $15 (professional) and $5 (student, includes registration for annual meeting). For more information about the NCSA, please visit its main page.

Contact Information:

The editor of THE BULLETIN  is Lee Dodson, Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at Rockingham Community College, P.O. Box 38, Wentworth, NC 27375-0038
336-342-4261, ext. 2155

dodsonl@rockinghamcc.edu

The treasurer of the NCSA is Dr. Cathy Zimmer, The Odum Instutitue, Campus Box   , Chapel Hill, NC 27599. Questions about membership should be directed to Dr. Zimmer.

Click here to return to THE BULLETIN   home page.

by Steve McNamee
UNCW
NCSA President-Elect

Join us for the North Carolina Sociological Association Annual Meeting at the Shell Island Oceanfront Suites (http://www.shellisland.com/).

at Wrightsville Beach on Friday, February 9, 2007! We will have a welcoming reception the evening before on Thursday, February 8, 2007 6:00pm-9:00pm in the Clocktower Lounge at the new Fisher Student Center on the campus of the University of North Carolina Wilmington and hosted by the UNCW Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice.

The UNCW Campus is located on 601 South College Road about three miles south of where I-40 empties onto South College Road: (http://www.uncw.edu/ba/campus_map .htm). The Fisher Center is in the middle of the campus with an adjacent parking lot. The Shell Island Oceanfront Suites is located about five miles from the UNCW campus on the very northern end of Wrightsville Beach at 2700 N. Lumina Avenue with parking on site. A limited number of rooms are available at the Shell Island Oceanfront Suites at the special rate of $89.00 (applies to Thursday night and could be extended to Friday night as well). All the rooms are ocean front and include kitchens. Be sure to mention the North Carolina Sociological Association when booking your room. Call for reservations at 910-256-8696.

The meeting registration fee is $10 for professionals. Annual membership dues are $15 for professionals and $5 for students (student dues include registration for the annual meeting).

The Luncheon and Awards Banquet is $20 for members and $10 for students. Everyone needs to sign up for the Luncheon and Awards Banquet in advance.

The theme of the meetings is "Contexts, Connections, and Change." The meetings will primarily focus on sociology about North Carolina, including a session on Public Sociology in North Carolina, a session on research conducted in North Carolina, and a film and discussion session on Max Weber’s visit to North Carolina. We will also have the usual session on jobs and graduate school options as well as a session on teaching tips and promoting sociology within the academy. This year we are also adding a student poster session featuring undergraduate student research projects.

While in the Wilmington area, there are many interesting sites you might want to visit. Besides walking on the beach, you might consider a stroll along Wilmington’s downtown riverfront walk. Wilmington’s downtown offers many fine restaurants, unique shops, and charming historical surroundings. For the historically inclined, one can tour the Cape Fear Museum (http://www.capefearmuseum.com/), the battleship U.S.S. North Carolina (http://www.battleshipnc.com/index.html), or the Bellamy Mansion  (http://www.bellamy mansion.org/). For the adventurous, there is a Serpentarium downtown (http://www. capefearserpentarium.com/) as well as a lively night life. Shopping options include the new Mayfaire Mall (http://www.mayfairetown.com/index.jsp) (a la European style village atmosphere). For more information about these and other sites, see the web site for the Visitor’s Bureau: http://www.cape-fear.nc.us/index.asp.

Shell Island Resort will host the 2007 NCSA Meeting.

6-9 PM: Welcoming Reception, Hors D’Oeuvres and Beverages
Fisher Student Center, University of North Carolina Wilmington
601 S. College Road, Wilmington, N.C

Shell Island Oceanfront Suites
2700 N. Lumina Ave
Wrightsville Beach, N.C.

8:15-9 AM: Registration and Exhibits
Coffee and Muffins

9-9:15 AM: Welcome and Program Overview. Miles Simpson, NCSA President

Presidential Address: "The Social Construction of Life Meaning" Stephen J. McNamee, NCSA President-Elect, University of North Carolina Wilmington

Session 1: "Max Weber Visits America: 1904 Mount Airy, NC"
•"Weber’s Trip to North Carolina: The Video." Larry Keeter, Appalachian State University
•"Weber’s Trip to the USA." Rob Tolliver, North Carolina Central University
•"How Applicable are Weber’s Theories to the Modern Post-Industrial World?" George H. Conklin, North Carolina Central University.

Session 2: Public Sociology in North Carolina: Student Scholarship and Engagement
Panel Presentation:
•Leslie Hossfeld, University of North Carolina Wilmington
•Jammie Price, Appalachian State University
•Public Sociology Students UNCW: Danielle Aldrich, Lynn Casper, Casey Simmons, Rachel Stewart
•Community Sociology Students ASU: Kandace Davis, Beth McClearen, Emily Smith

Session 3: North Carolina Sociology
•"The Foster Grandparent Program in North Carolina: Older Volunteers, Social Benefits and Life Satisfaction." Katherine L. Jones, Appalachian State University
•"Infant Mortality in North Carolina" Akbar Aghajanian, Fayetteville State University
•"North Carolina in the Global Economy" Gary Gereffi, Duke University

Session 4: Passing on the Tradition: Tips on Teaching
Panel Participants:
•Al Dunkleman, Cleveland County Community College
•Derek Greenfield, St. Augustine College
•Ken Wilson, East Carolina University

Session 5: Life after Completing an Undergraduate Degree in Sociology: Seeking Careers and Further Education
•Jammie Price, Appalachian State University

Session 6: Promoting Sociology Within the Academy: Prospects and Challenges
Panel Participants
•Julie Brown, University of North Carolina Greensboro
•Kim Cook, University of North Carolina Wilmington
•Robert Puckett, Cape Fear Community College
•Ken Land, Duke University

Check Out the Complete NCSA Website

NCSA members and the general public can access the association’s web site at www.ncsociology.org. Information to be included in THE BULLETIN should be sent to its editor at dodsonl@rockinghamcc.edu or mailed to him at RCC, P.O. Box 38, Wentworth, NC 27375. General information for the NCSA web site should be sent to its webmasters, George Conklin (george@nccu.edu, 919-560-6222) or Jammie Price (pricejl@appstate.edu).

Join Our Electronic Information Service

To subscribe to the NCSA list, send a one-line message to listproc@listproc.appstate.edu containing the text: sub NCSA Firstname Lastname. To send a message to the list, send the message to ncsa@listproc.appstate.edu. To unsubscribe to the NCSA list, send a one-line message to listproc@appstate.edu containing the text: unsubscribe ncsa. You may also e-mail Beth Davison with your request (davisonb@appstate.edu).

The members of the NCSA nominations committee are pleased to announce the candidates for the NCSA 2007 election. We are truly fortunate to have excellent NCSA members who are willing to serve the organization as President-Elect and as Members of the Executive Council. We are confident that the NCSA will be in good hands in the coming years. Please read the brief biographical statements below and vote using the ballot included with this newsletter.

Ken Land is the candidate for president-elect. The nominees for the three openings on the NCSA Executive Council are Akbar Aghajanian, Vicki Lamb, and Robert Puckett.

"We appreciate the willingness of these candidates to volunteer their time and talents to support the NCSA," said Rebecca Bach on behalf of the Nominating Committee. "If others would be willing to serve, now or in the future, we encourage them to make themselves known."

The president-elect of the NCSA will serve as the program chair for next year’s annual meeting. Following a year as president, this person will serve for one year as a member of the Executive Council.

Ken Land received his Ph.D. in sociology and mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1969. After a year of postdoctoral study in mathematical statistics at Columbia University in New York City, he taught there and was a member of the staff of the Russell Sage Foundation for three years. He then was successively a member of the faculties of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and the University of Texas at Austin before joining the Duke Sociology Department as Chairman in 1986. Land served as Chair of Sociology from January 1986 to August 1997. His main research interests are contemporary social trends and quality-of-life measurement, social problems, demography, criminology, organizations, and mathematical and statistical models, and methods for the study of social and demographic processes. He has done extensive research in each of these areas and has been elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (1978), the Sociological Research Association (1981), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1992), the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (1997), and the American Society of Criminology (2004). He teaches Contemporary Social Problems, Basic Demographic Methods and Materials, and Advanced Methods of Demographic Analysis. His other interests include tennis, jogging (10 kilometers), and music.

The membership will elect three of the following candidates to serve three-year terms on the NCSA Executive Council. Please use the enclosed ballot. You may write in candidates if you wish.

Akbar Aghajanian is a professor of Sociology-Demography. He received his MA and Ph.D. from Duke University in Durham, NC and completed postdoctoral research at the International Population Center at Cornell University. He taught and conducted research at the University of Washington in Seattle before he joined Fayetteville State University in 1990. He has severed as consultant to the United Nations Fund for Population Activity. He has research and training grants from Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Education, and National Science Foundation.

Vicki Lamb is an Associate Professor of Sociology, North Carolina Central University and a Research Scientist at Duke University. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Duke University in 1992. Her teaching and research interests are in elderly and youth well-being, demography of health and disability, medical sociology, and statistical methodology. Currently she is a Research Associate on "Developing an Indicator of Child Well-Being" (funded by Foundation for Child Development, Kenneth C. Land, PI). Her most recent publications are in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA (2006), Population and Development Review (2006), Social Indicators Research (2005, 2007), and a book chapter in African American Family Life: Ecological and Cultural Diversity (2005).

Robert Puckett is the chair of the department of social and behavioral sciences at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, NC. He also teaches part time at UNCW. He has been active in the CFCC Faculty Association, serving both as vice president and president. He was honored by the State Board of Community Colleges with an Award for Excellence in Teaching and has been listed in Who’s Who among American Teachers. A founding member of the NC Community College Faculty Association, Puckett has taken part in a curriculum improvement project reviewing the social science curriculum in NC community colleges and has served as advisor to the CFCC chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, an international honor society for two-year college students.

The Bellamy Mansion is one of the points of interest in the Wilmington Area.

Official ballots are enclosed in the mailed copy of THE BULLETIN received by all dues-paying members.

Ballots and registration forms must be postmarked by Feb. 2, 2007. Pre-registration is required for the Awards Luncheon. On-site registration will be available Feb. 8-9; however, a place at the table is not guaranteed for those who wait!