Dear Human Rights Section Colleagues:

In my capacity as Secretary/Treasurer, I am writing to urge you not 
only to renew your membership in the ASA Section on Human Rights, but 
also to encourage your colleagues and students to join the section for 
the 2011 calendar year.

You will recall that the membership drive in September brought the 
section's membership to 290--10 short of the magical threshold. Our 
goal for 2011 is to cross the threshold definitively. This will permit 
us to hold an extra session at the 2012 ASA Meeting.

To renew your membership or join for the first time, please go to the 
following url:

In conjunction with Sociologists Without Borders (SSF)
http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/asa/asa11/index.php?click_key=2

For more information on the section:
http://www.asanet.org/sections/humanrights.cfm

Mission Statement

The Section on the Sociology of Human Rights seeks to promote and 
support scholarship, teaching, and the fostering of an 
interdisciplinary, international, and critical engagement in both the 
sociological study of human rights as well as establishing a human 
rights approach to the sociological enterprise. The Sociology of Human 
Rights is conceived broadly and inclusively as a scholarly and human 
pursuit of understanding the social, political, cultural, and 
comparative construction of human rights histories, institutions, 
discourses, and futures as well as the social structures, relations, 
and practices that will most fully support the realization of human 
rights in the world. The Section on the Sociology of Human Rights 
encourages the growth of dialogues regarding human rights as method, 
as epistemology, as theory, and as praxis in the sociological 
understanding of the world in which we live. This section will strive 
to bring international perspectives to the Sociology of Human Rights 
globally and to the United States.

The Section will facilitate these goals through the active support of 
and creation of structures, activities, and practices that promote: 1) 
the free exchange of ideas, experiences, research findings, 
pedagogical strategies, and best practices in the research on the 
sociology of human rights and the discussion of human rights within 
the sociological enterprise; 2) the collaborative development of 
resources dedicated to enhancing research, teaching, and practice of 
the sociology of human rights; 3) communication among members both 
nationally and internationally regarding events, practices, 
experiences, research, and teaching on the sociology of human rights; 
4) the forging of linkages and relationships with sociology of human 
rights scholars across the globe, including community activists, 
grounded movements, communities, and individuals; and, 5) 
opportunities for the dissemination, distribution, and publication of 
research in the sociology of human rights across the world.

Section Officers 2010 - 2011

Chair: John Hagan, Northwestern University

Chair-Elect: Judith Blau, University of North Carolina

Secretary/Treasurer: Mark Frezzo, Florida Atlantic University ('13)

Council:
Claudia Chaufan, University of California, San Francisco ('13)
Manisha Desai, University of Connecticut ('12)
LaDawn Haglund, Arizona State University ('13)
R. G. Lentz, McGill University ('11)
Linda Majka, University of Dayton ('11)
Sara Smits, Saint Anselm College ('12)

Website Director: Rachel Bryant, Case Western Reserve University

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Mark Frezzo, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Mississippi 
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/soc_anth/
Secretary-Treasurer, Human Rights Section, ASA 
http://www.asanet.org/sections/humanrights.cfm
Vice President of Public Relations, Sociologists without Borders 
http://www.sociologistswithoutborders.org/
Co-Editor, Societies without Borders 
http://societieswithoutborders.org/