The following is a letter requesting ASA expand their remote access ability to scholars who find it unsafe to travel to the 2025 meeting in Chicago.
Dear ASA Council,
We are writing to urge the American Sociological Association (ASA) to revise its remote presentation and attendance policy in light of the current political moment. At present, the ASA only allows disabled scholars with medical documentation to present remotely and requires all other presenters and attendees to travel to the on-site location. Although we recognize that in an ideal environment, we would all be able to be together and in each other’s company, in our current political moment, the remote presentation and attendance policy poses too many risks to too many members of the ASA.
There are numerous reasons our colleagues may be unable to safely travel to the ASA Annual Meeting. The Trump administration’s actions have created a hostile and dangerous travel environment for the following groups, among others:
- Trans, nonbinary, and intersex sociologists, who may face heightened risks to their safety when traveling inside the U.S. or crossing U.S. borders (e.g., U.S. citizens’ identity documents are being reverted to sex assigned at birth)
- Immigrant sociologists, who risk deportation regardless of their visa status
- Sociologists who have publicly critiqued the administration and risk having their personal phones and computers searched and seized
- Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim sociologists, and potentially any sociologists who are publicly supportive of Palestine who may be branded as “terrorists”
We, the below signed organizations, have heard from many of our members over the last several months who are no longer able to attend ASA due to one or more of these reasons. Again, for all these scholars, and particularly those who are multiply marginalized, traveling within or to the U.S. for the ASA Annual Meeting poses serious threats to their safety, freedom, and dignity and asks our colleagues to take great risks in the current moment.
Further, the COVID-19 pandemic is not over for disabled and chronically ill scholars. While ASA allows remote presentation for “people who have a disability and people who have a medical condition for which a medical professional would advise against in-person attendance,” the policy is ableist. The policy (1) places an undue and costly burden on disabled and chronically ill scholars to provide proper medical documentation to the ASA, and (2) dehumanizes disabled and chronically ill people, reducing them to medical files to be evaluated by (presumably able-bodied) strangers.
At minimum, we request that ASA revise its remote presentation policy to allow any scholar who requests to do so, for any reason related to their safety, freedom, and dignity, to present remotely at the Annual Meeting. In addition, we request that ASA allow non-presenters to attend remotely by providing Zoom links to all conference sessions.
We understand that changing the remote presentation and attendance policy will require ASA to purchase additional bandwidth, which is not an insignificant expense, and will require additional coordination. However, we sincerely hope that ASA chooses to place the dignity and safety of its members above financial and logistical concerns. Now is the time to stand strong in support of sociologists with marginalized identities. Changing the remote policy is one concrete, immediate way ASA can take a stand.
Sincerely,
Sociologists for Trans Justice
