Shooting Star

Through the graciousness of our former department chairperson, I was able to attend the XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology held in Yokohama, Japan last month. 

My view from Pacifico Yokohama, where the congress was held.

About 6,000 sociologists attended the conference, including academic bigwigs such as Dr. Michael Burawoy from the University of California-Berkeley, Dr. Immanuel Wallerstein from Yale University, Dr. Göran Therborn from the University of Cambridge, Dr. Saskia Sassen from Columbia University, and Dr. Erik Olin Wright from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (who is, coincidentally, one of my favourite professors and former boss'--Dr. Cynthia Bautista--adviser for her dissertation!).

Unfortunately, I missed the opening plenary because my colleagues and I (we were travelling together from the Philippines) boarded the wrong train from Narita Airport to Yokohama. But I heard that there were 47 Filipino sociologist attended the conference (I personally know only about 14 out of the 47 in attendance). Philippines, represent! Woot!

Since my boss is a member of the organisation's executive committee, she was tasked to organise a career development session--the Junior Sociologists Meet Senior Sociologists session. This session with simultaneously run round tables provided junior sociologists the opportunity to engage with well-­established and renowned sociologists in a more informal setting. Participants had to pre-register in order to participate in the session. We opened the pre-registrations less than a couple of months before the conference, and about 150 pre-registered within that week so we had to close it immediately (the room that was initially assigned to us is only large enough to fit 100 people). 

To make sure that only the 150 pre-registered participant could get in, we sent out session "IDs" a week before the conference, and stationed a registration desk outside the room for checking. It was chaos--of course, a lot of people who didn't pre-register but wanted to participate said they weren't able to pre-register because they didn't receive the email announcement; others complained that this kind of session should not be exclusive. To a certain extent, I agree, but this is not designed as a plenary session. It was designed so that senior sociologists could approach junior sociologists at a level that is slightly more personal, henceforth giving them a comfortable space to mentor junior sociologists in specific rather than general terms. It was also designed to be less tyrannical, as compared to plenary sessions.

Dr. Margaret Abraham (Hofstra University)

Dr. Tharailath Koshy Oommen (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Dr. Chizuko Ueno (Tokyo University)

Dr. Alberto Martinelli (University of Milan)

Dr. Jan Marie Fritz (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars)

Dr. Michael Burawoy (University of California-Berkeley). We were only scheduled up to 8:50 p.m. in the room, but he took his group out for dinner to continue their discussion. 

Dr. Koichi Hasegawa (Tohoku University)

Dr. Erik Olin Wright (University of Wisconsin-Madison). He also took his group out of the room after the schedule and continued the discussion. These senior sociologists are so generous with time!

Dr. Michel Wievorka (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales)

Dr. Göran Therborn (University of Cambridge). My friend and I were buying a copy of his book, The Killing Fields of Inequality, when he suddenly appeared behind us! When I got it signed, I was so kilig! Check out my fangirling moment here: http://instagram.com/p/qfg14Ur3yY/.

Dr. Immanuel Wallerstein (Yale University). He's like the "crush ng bayan" in this session--everybody (even those who did not pre-register) wants to see him and be in a roundtable discussion with him, and everybody wants to have a selfie with him (yes, we did: http://instagram.com/p/qfggiHr3x3/)!