OPEN SESSION AMSS: Advocating for Morality and Prosociality in Unsettled Times by Candace Robinson

Organizer Notes submitted by Candice Robinson- AMSS has been one of my favorite sections since I joined ASA in 2012. At an AMSS roundtable in 2016, I presented my solo-authored work at ASA for the first time. That year, I also served on the AMSS Graduate Student Paper Award Committee. From 2017-2018 I was one of the AMSS Student Representatives. in 2020, I served as the Presider for the 2020 ASA Annual Meeting Regular Session: "Open Session on Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity: Understanding the Good in a World Gone Bad." For 2021, I will serve as a Panelist on the Panel Session: "Black Lives Matter: The Role of Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity in Supporting Racial Justice Efforts." My most exciting contribution to the section in my career so far has been organizing the "2021 Open Session on Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity: Advocating for Morality and Prosociality in Unsettled Times."

As a scholar of inequality, broadly interested in race, class, civic engagement, and social movements, I understood the importance of developing a nuanced scholarship for more accurate interpretations of the social world. Furthermore, we must incorporate this year's session theme: "Advocating for Morality and Prosociality in Unsettled Times." Our session leans on the following questions: How do people develop and sustain moral commitments during times of unrest? Why and when do people seek to challenge inequalities, do good for others, and bond together amidst unsettled times? How do people seek to make collective change for the better?

We received approximately 15 phenomenal papers that more specifically fell along with the themes of prosociality as a variable, motivations for AMSS, fairness, and discussions of shared missions of individuals and organizations. We have 4* sole author papers from Ph. D.s and Ph.D. students from across the world. The papers I selected ultimately fall under a broad view of what leads to AMSS actions. In more detail, the work analyzes how scholars characterize prosociality and similar traits, how individuals account for their prosocial actions, how love sustains prosocial and activist activities, and how philanthropists market themselves. These papers broaden the field of AMSS through a variety of mixed-methodologies and push forward theories that ensure that AMSS has far reach implications beyond our subfields. Additionally, the use of qualitative data in most papers helps to add additional analytical and descriptive dimensions to our work. For more information, check out the abstracts and titles for the papers below, and be sure to tune in during our session on Sunday, August 8, from 11 am-12:25 pm Eastern. I look forward to the University of Southern California Graduate Student Demetrius Murphy presiding over the session.
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*I want to make a special note to say we had a 5th paper from Saugher Nojan (University of California-Santa Cruz) for this session that incorporated race and religion in understanding prosociality. Unfortunately, the author was no longer available. For those who are interested, the paper submitted builds on theory and data from another one of her recently published articles: Nojan, S. (2021). Racialized Religion and Civic Engagement: Insights into Intra-Muslim Racial Diversity on University Campuses. Sociology of Religion. I hope we can incorporate her critical scholarship in future panels. 
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