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Mission of the Pacific Sociological Association

The mission of the Pacific Sociological Association is to advance scholarly research on all social processes and areas of social life, to promote high quality teaching of sociological knowledge, and to mentor the next generation of sociologists.  Consistent with principles of scientific investigation, the PSA endorses engagement of sociologists in areas of social justice and social responsibility.  The Association accomplishes its mission by convening an annual meeting and publishing its journal, Sociological Perspectives.

Members of the Pacific Sociological Association subscribe to and are bound by the Code of Ethics of the American Sociological Association. The PSA and its members also subscribe to the PSA Manifesto on Academic Freedom.

Brief History of the Association

The Pacific Sociological Association (originally called the Pacific Southwest Sociological Society and then a year later in 1930 the Pacific Sociological Society) was established in October 1929. A small group of sociologists was called together by Emory S. Bogardus of the Department of Sociology at the University of Southern California for the purpose of organizing the Society. The initial officers elected at this meeting were President Emory S. Bogardus (USC), Vice President William Kirk (Pomona College), Secretary/Treasurer L. D. Osborn (University of Redlands), and Program Chair George Day (Occidental College). The charter members agreed that they had been in isolation at their respective institutions long enough. They embraced the idea of a colleague, Earle E. Eubank, who said, "where there is contact of human minds, there association exits; where there is no contact, there is a state of isolation." So the charter members decided to illustrate one of sociology's basic concepts, "social interaction," which they defined as "that dynamic interplay of forces in which contact between persons and groups results in a modification of the behavior of the participants." As stated in the original constitution, the purpose and object of the Society was the promotion of both sociological research and the teaching of sociology in universities, colleges, community colleges, and high schools in the Pacific area. The first Annual Meeting (with a program) was held on January 25, 1930 in Los Angeles at the Alexandria Hotel.

The history of the PSA's first 75-years is available.

Current Membership, Geographical Reach, Archives, and Office

Today the PSA is the professional association of sociologists in the Pacific Region of North America: Hawaii, Montana, Oregon California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Washington, British Columbia and Alberta in Canada, and Baja California and Chihuahua in Mexico. Our membership includes professors and students working at colleges and universities located throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada, but especially those who live in the western region of those countries. Many Association members work as consultants, researchers, and administrators. Some members have government jobs and others own businesses. A significant number are graduate students. The Association holds an annual meeting in late March or early April and publishes a newsletter, The Pacific Sociologist, and a journal, Sociological Perspectives.

The archives of the PSA are located at the library of California State University, Sacramento.

The office of the association is located at the Department of Sociology, California State University Sacramento. The Executive Director is Dean S. Dorn.

In Memory of PSA Members 36 hours in Bangkok

Carl W. Backman, University of Nevada Reno

Carl W. Backman, a long-time PSA member and former President of the organization (1970-71), died at his home in Reno, Nevada, on February 16, 2008. He was 84. Carl was born 1923 in Canandaigua, New York, in the midst of a family fishing trip. His father was a Swedish immigrant; his mother was of German-Irish descent. Raised in the town of Tonawanda near Buffalo, New York, he never finished high school because he was needed in his father’s shop. Eventually, he went on to Oberlin College in Ohio, but his college career was interrupted by service in the Army during World War II. Because of his high IQ scores he was assigned to intelligence. He fought in the Philippines, usually sneaking in ahead of major landings to do pre-invasion reconnaissance, and he barely outweighed the heavy radios he had to lug onto the islands. Typically, his unit was told to avoid the enemy and, in case of enemy contact, to not take prisoners, though, because of his bad eyesight, Carl never saw the enemy first. But when his unit was once instructed to capture and bring back Japanese soldiers, he realized that the enemy were young men just like him, driven by the same hopes and fears. This, and similar experiences, left him a life-long skeptic of war.

Upon his return from the Army, he completed college and married his wife of 60 years, Shirley Bennett from Danvers, Massachusetts. He earned a Ph.D. in sociology at Indiana University under Karl Schuessler. After four years at the University of Arkansas, three of them as ABD, he joined the faculty of the University of Nevada, Reno in 1955. Because he came to love Reno and the West, he remained at UNR until the end of his life, only interrupted by a two-year stint as program director for Sociology and Social Psychology at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. At UNR he was department chair, director of the social psychology program, and, at his expressed wish only for a short time, dean. Outside of UNR, he served as the editor of Sociometry (subsequently renamed Social Psychology Quarterly) and became the president of PSA, to name only a few of his honors.

Carl’s scholarly contributions were in social psychology, focusing mainly on the self, interpersonal relations, and group processes. Though a sociologist by training and employment, he did not see social psychology as being “owned” by any academic discipline. Soon after his arrival at UNR, he teamed up with psychologist Paul Secord with whom he published in the best journals of the day in sociology and psychology. In 1964 Secord and Backman achieved international recognition through their widely used textbook “Social Psychology.”  Translated into more than twenty languages and once re-edited, the book was perhaps the most complete, but maybe also the last effort to present social psychology as a coherent discipline equally shared between sociology and psychology.
In part as an expression of their unitary vision of social psychology and with the critical contribution of Gerald Ginsburg, Carl Backman and Paul Secord established the “Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Social Psychology” at the University of Nevada. Since it graduated its first Ph.D. in 1967, this program continues to thrive to this day. Carl was also one of very few individuals who were ever named a fellow by both the American Sociological Association and the American Psychological Association.

Though by disposition not at all a radical, Carl knew when it was time for a social scientist to take a stand. During the Sixties he was involved in fighting racism in Nevada. He took part in various protests on and off campus and refused to hold conferences in the state until discriminatory practices in housing and segregation in hotels and casinos were banned by law. His activities earned him a spot on an infamous list of “communists” distributed by a right-wing state senator—a distinction to be proud of.

Carl had a great influence on his discipline, PSA, the university that he served, the department and the Ph.D. program that he helped build, as well as his many colleagues, students and friends. A loving and loved family man, he is survived by his wife, a sister, five children and nine grandchildren.

Jim Wood, San Diego State

Jim Wood passed away on Wednesday April 18th.  He joined the San Diego State faculty in 1974 after receiving his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, studying under Neil Smelser.  He served as department chair for many years, and he was instrumental in organizing the resistance in 1992 to threatened faculty layoffs and firings at San Diego Sate and in the sociology department.  At the end of over 180 days of faculty and student protests, the chancellor instructed the president of San Diego State, Tom Day, to retract the layoff letters. Jim Wood was as responsible as anyone for this victory.

Jim was also a loyal and active member of the Pacific Sociological Association.  He presented his first PSA paper at the conference held in San Jose in March of 1974. It was titled "Ideology, Social Structure and Student Protest."  He regularly organized sessions dealing with various aspects of higher education--threats to tenure, financial issues and funding, and prospects for higher education in the 21st century. In addition he presented many papers over the years, among some of the most recent "Higher Education Funding in Comparative Perspective" in 1997; "University Crisis and Professional Organizations" in 1998; and "A Comparative Analysis of Tenure Procedures in Universities, Law Schools, and Medical Schools" in 2003. In 1998, working with Charles Hohm, he edited a special issue of Sociological Perspectives, “The Academy Under Siege,” which dealt with issues in higher education.  For the 2007 meeting in Oakland, Jim organized a session on "Sociology and Higher Education."  He was unable to attend the conference, but was responsible to the very end, sending an email to the participants on the eve of the conference informing them that he would miss seeing them, listening to their papers, and joining the discussion. He also served on several program committees during his long involvement with the association.  He was a consummate supporter of the PSA and will be greatly missed at the annual meetings.

annual meetings

• 2009 Annual Meeting
• 2010 Annual Meeting
• past Annual Meetings, Presidents, Presidential Addresses, sites & programs