Call for Nominations
The 2025 Betty and Alfred McClung Lee Book Award
The Association for Humanist Sociology is pleased to announce their 2025 Betty and Alfred McClung Lee Book Award call for nominations. Authors, publishers, and AHS members may nominate books for consideration. The winner will be recognized at the annual meeting November 5-29, 2025 in Columbus, OH. Nominations should be for Sociology or interdisciplinary social science books that approach their subjects from a humanist perspective consistent with the mission of AHS to: "strive as professionals, as scholars and as activists to uncover and address social issues, working with others to lessen the pain of social problems. We view people not merely as products of social forces, but also as shapers of social life, capable of creating social orders in which everyone’s potential can unfold. Difficult times give humanist sociologists opportunities to apply their special skills and perspectives for the purpose of creating a more humane world."
Eligible books must be published in the calendar year 2024 or the first half of 2025. If a book was submitted for last year’s consideration, it cannot be nominated again. Edited volumes and textbooks are not eligible for this award.
To nominate a book, authors/publishers/nominators should e-mail a letter of nomination with the subject line “AHS 2025 Book Award Nomination” to Dr. Anastacia Schulhoff at [email protected]
Authors/publishers must send one desk copy and one digital copy (if available) of the book for each of the four award committee members. The deadline for nominations is July 15, 2025.
Eligible books must be published in the calendar year 2024 or the first half of 2025. If a book was submitted for last year’s consideration, it cannot be nominated again. Edited volumes and textbooks are not eligible for this award.
To nominate a book, authors/publishers/nominators should e-mail a letter of nomination with the subject line “AHS 2025 Book Award Nomination” to Dr. Anastacia Schulhoff at [email protected]
Authors/publishers must send one desk copy and one digital copy (if available) of the book for each of the four award committee members. The deadline for nominations is July 15, 2025.
BETTY AND ALFRED MCCLUNG LEE BOOK award past recipients
2023 Naa Oyo A. Kwate, White Burgers, Black Cash: Fast Food from Black Exclusion to Black Exploitation, University of Minnesota Press.
Dorothy Roberts, Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World, Basic Books.
2022 Eve Darian-Smith (2022) Global Burning: Rising Antidemocracy and the Climate Crisis, Stanford University Press.
Honorable Mention: Pallavi Banerjee (2022) The Opportunity Gap: High-Skilled Workers, Indian Families, and the Failures of the Dependent Visa Program. NYU Press.
Victoria Reyes (2022) Academic Outsider: Stories of Exclusion and Hope. Stanford Briefs.
2021 Michael Méndez, Climate Change from the Streets: How Conflict and Collaboration Strengthen the Environmental Justice Movement, Yale University Press
2020 Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Remaking a Life: How Women Living with HIV/AIDS Confront Inequality, University of California Press.
Honorable Mention: Nicole Nguyen, Suspect Communities: Anti-Muslim Racism and the Domestic War on Terror, University of Minnesota Press.
2019 Robert Durán. The Gang Paradox: Inequalities and Miracles on the U.S.-Mexico Border. Columbia University Press.
2018 Ana Raquel Minian, Undocumented Lives: The Untold Story of Mexican Migration. Harvard University Press.
2017 Robert Vargas. Wounded City: Violent Turf Wars in a Chicago Barrio. New York: Oxford University Press.
2016 Alice Fothergill and Lori Peek, Children of Katrina, University of Texas Press
Aldon Morris, The Scholar Denied: W.E.B. DuBois and the Birth of Modern Sociology, University of California Press
2015 Mary Patrice Erdmans and Timothy Black, On Becoming a Teen Mom: Life Before Pregnancy, University of California Press.
Honorable Mention: Susan Starr Sered and Maureen Norton-Hawk, Can’t Catch a Break: Gender, Jail, Drugs, and the Limits of Personal Responsibility, University of California Press.
2014 Shannon Elizabeth Bell, Our Roots Run Deep as Ironweed: Appalachian Women and the Fight for Environmental Justice, University of Illinois Press
Seth Holmes, Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States, University of California Press
2013 David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu, Why Austerity Kills: Recessions, Budget Battles and the Politics of Life and Death, Basic Books
2012 Alondra Nelson, Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination, University of Minnesota Press
2011 Joanna Dreby, Divided by Borders: Mexican Migrants and Their Children, University of California Press
2010 Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, New Press
Timothy Black, When A Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers on and off the Streets, Pantheon
2009 Javier Auyero and Debora Alejandra Swistun, Flammable: Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown, Oxford University Press
2008 Devah Pager, Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work, University of Chicago
Reuben A. Buford May, Living Through the Hoop: High School Basketball, Race, and the American Dream, New York University Press
2007 Laura Pulido, Black Brown, Yellow and Left: Radical Activism in Los Angeles, University of California Press
Melissa Checker, Polluted Promises: Environmental Racism and the Search for Social Justice in a Southern Town, NYU Press
2005 Corey Dolgon, The End of the Hamptons: Scenes from the Class Struggle in America’s Paradise, New York University Press
2003 Kevin Delaney & Rick Eckstein, Public Dollars Private Stadiums: The Battle Over Building Sports Stadiums, Rutgers University Press
2001 Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto, Harvard University Press
1999 Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding Politics: How Americans Produce Apathy in Everyday Life, Cambridge University Press
1997 Jay MacLeod, Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood, expanded edition, Westview Press
1995 Andrew Szasz, EcoPopulism: Toxic Waste and the Movement for Environmental Justice, University of Minnesota Press.
Rob Rosenthal, Homeless in Paradise: A Map of the Terrain, Temple University Press
1993 Timothy Diamond, Making Gray Gold: Narratives of Nursing Home Care, University of Chicago Press
1991 Beth and Steve Cagan, This Promised Land: El Salvador, Rutgers University Press
Roslyn W. Bologh, Love or Greatness, Max Weber and Masculine Thinking - A Feminist Inquiry, Unwin Hymon
1989 Ray Cuzzort, Using Social Thought: The Nuclear Issue and Other Concerns, Mayfield Publishing Company
1987 David Bouchier, Radical Citizenship: The New American Activism, Schocken Books
Dorothy Roberts, Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World, Basic Books.
2022 Eve Darian-Smith (2022) Global Burning: Rising Antidemocracy and the Climate Crisis, Stanford University Press.
Honorable Mention: Pallavi Banerjee (2022) The Opportunity Gap: High-Skilled Workers, Indian Families, and the Failures of the Dependent Visa Program. NYU Press.
Victoria Reyes (2022) Academic Outsider: Stories of Exclusion and Hope. Stanford Briefs.
2021 Michael Méndez, Climate Change from the Streets: How Conflict and Collaboration Strengthen the Environmental Justice Movement, Yale University Press
2020 Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Remaking a Life: How Women Living with HIV/AIDS Confront Inequality, University of California Press.
Honorable Mention: Nicole Nguyen, Suspect Communities: Anti-Muslim Racism and the Domestic War on Terror, University of Minnesota Press.
2019 Robert Durán. The Gang Paradox: Inequalities and Miracles on the U.S.-Mexico Border. Columbia University Press.
2018 Ana Raquel Minian, Undocumented Lives: The Untold Story of Mexican Migration. Harvard University Press.
2017 Robert Vargas. Wounded City: Violent Turf Wars in a Chicago Barrio. New York: Oxford University Press.
2016 Alice Fothergill and Lori Peek, Children of Katrina, University of Texas Press
Aldon Morris, The Scholar Denied: W.E.B. DuBois and the Birth of Modern Sociology, University of California Press
2015 Mary Patrice Erdmans and Timothy Black, On Becoming a Teen Mom: Life Before Pregnancy, University of California Press.
Honorable Mention: Susan Starr Sered and Maureen Norton-Hawk, Can’t Catch a Break: Gender, Jail, Drugs, and the Limits of Personal Responsibility, University of California Press.
2014 Shannon Elizabeth Bell, Our Roots Run Deep as Ironweed: Appalachian Women and the Fight for Environmental Justice, University of Illinois Press
Seth Holmes, Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States, University of California Press
2013 David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu, Why Austerity Kills: Recessions, Budget Battles and the Politics of Life and Death, Basic Books
2012 Alondra Nelson, Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination, University of Minnesota Press
2011 Joanna Dreby, Divided by Borders: Mexican Migrants and Their Children, University of California Press
2010 Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, New Press
Timothy Black, When A Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers on and off the Streets, Pantheon
2009 Javier Auyero and Debora Alejandra Swistun, Flammable: Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown, Oxford University Press
2008 Devah Pager, Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work, University of Chicago
Reuben A. Buford May, Living Through the Hoop: High School Basketball, Race, and the American Dream, New York University Press
2007 Laura Pulido, Black Brown, Yellow and Left: Radical Activism in Los Angeles, University of California Press
Melissa Checker, Polluted Promises: Environmental Racism and the Search for Social Justice in a Southern Town, NYU Press
2005 Corey Dolgon, The End of the Hamptons: Scenes from the Class Struggle in America’s Paradise, New York University Press
2003 Kevin Delaney & Rick Eckstein, Public Dollars Private Stadiums: The Battle Over Building Sports Stadiums, Rutgers University Press
2001 Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto, Harvard University Press
1999 Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding Politics: How Americans Produce Apathy in Everyday Life, Cambridge University Press
1997 Jay MacLeod, Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood, expanded edition, Westview Press
1995 Andrew Szasz, EcoPopulism: Toxic Waste and the Movement for Environmental Justice, University of Minnesota Press.
Rob Rosenthal, Homeless in Paradise: A Map of the Terrain, Temple University Press
1993 Timothy Diamond, Making Gray Gold: Narratives of Nursing Home Care, University of Chicago Press
1991 Beth and Steve Cagan, This Promised Land: El Salvador, Rutgers University Press
Roslyn W. Bologh, Love or Greatness, Max Weber and Masculine Thinking - A Feminist Inquiry, Unwin Hymon
1989 Ray Cuzzort, Using Social Thought: The Nuclear Issue and Other Concerns, Mayfield Publishing Company
1987 David Bouchier, Radical Citizenship: The New American Activism, Schocken Books