Mary Romero is Professor Emerita, Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. She served as the 110th President of the American Sociological Association. Among her awards for a distinguished career include the ASA W.E.B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award, the Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award, and the Julian Samora Distinguished Career Award. She received the founder’s award from ASA Sections of Latina/o Sociology and Race and Ethnic Minorities Founders Award and the Study of Social Problems Lee Founders Award. She is the author of Introducing Intersectionality (Polity Press, 2018, second edition 2022), the Maid’s Daughter: Inside and Outside the American Dream (NYU, 2011), and Maid in the U.S.A. (NYU, 1992). She is the co-editor of nine edited books, and numerous articles, chapters and law review articles.

Summary of presentation:
What is knowledge produced when conducted within a social justice framework? How do we respond to the recent call for engaging in social justice, emancipatory sociology, and public sociology? Mainstream sociology can no longer ignore sociology conducted in the margins of the discipline or the influence, as well as contributions, of interdisciplinary studies. These concerns are addressed by examining sociology after Covid and the challenges we face in the second Trump administration. Both areas of discussion suggest ways we can better prepare current and future sociologists to tackle pressing social issues today.