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Our 2008 meeting will be held July 31-August 2 in Boston. This year the theme of the meeting is Religion Crossing Boundaries. We want to encourage discussions of boundaries and boundary crossings of all sorts—substantive, conceptual, and methodological. Of course, we also welcome paper submissions on current research on other topics as well. Please send your session proposals and paper abstracts to Jim Spickard, program chair. On the next page of this newsletter you will find submission instructions, while the program call is on the back page.

In keeping with the program theme of boundary crossing, the Furfey lecture will be given by Allison Hodge Coke, a Native American and First Nations poet, who currently holds The Distinguished Paul W. Reynolds and Clarice Kinston Reynolds Endowed Chair in English at the University of Nebraska, Kearney. Allison is the author of the award winning volumes of poetry Dog Road Woman (1998), Off Season City Pipe (2005) and most recently, Blood Run (2006). She is also the author of the autobiographical work, Rock, Ghost Willow Deer: A Story of Survival. She edited Ahani: Indigenous American Poetry 2007, a special issue of To Topos—the first inclusive volume of indigenous poetry representing the Western Hemisphere from the Arctic to Antarctic Circles. Although Allison works in a different discipline, her subject matter includes work, inequality, and social and cultural change—all overlapping with sociology. She exemplifies the theme of border crossing in her life and work, moving between countries, cultures and genres—and like Paul Hanly Furfey, she believes that religion can and should contribute to social change.

In addition, we have three sessions linked with the ASA. One is a panel on Religion and Labor. ASA designated this session as a thematic session, corresponding with the ASA theme of "Worlds of Work." Two other sessions are jointly sponsored with the ASA. One on "Religion and Practice" looks at religion outside of conventional religious institutions, including hospitals, the environmental movement, and the "secular" city. Another panel session "Partnering for Change: How Researchers are Helping Shelter Workers and Religious Leaders Create a Shared Discourse about Domestic Violence" brings together sociologists, theologians, and shelter workers who are working together to create a Web-based resource for sharing information about helping victims of domestic violence.

Our hotel for Boston is the Boston Park Plaza & Towers, an excellent location from which to enjoy all that Boston has to offer—the museums, historic sights, walking tours, and good food.

I look forward to seeing you in Boston this summer.

Mary Jo Neitz, University of Missouri

As the annual meeting has grown, the program construction process has become increasingly difficult. As a result, at its 2007 meeting Council approved funding to employ a person entirely outside of the ASR to process submissions in the first instance. Through www.sociologyofreligion.com, you will find forms for the submission of both session (deadline 31 January) and individual (deadline 29 February) proposals. These forms need to be downloaded, completed, and returned to ASR2008@augustana.edu, where they will be checked for accuracy and completeness. You will also be required to preregister for the annual meeting at this time. Preregistration fees will be nonrefundable should you later withdraw. Session proposals will similarly need to be complete and include fees for all participants. It will be the task of our program administrator, who has performed a similar function for Sociological Quarterly, to review all forms and ensure they are complete and accurate before they are forwarded to the program chair and executive office. With respect to session proposals, please ensure that your participants are current ASR members who are not otherwise on the program, and with respect to individual paper proposals, please understand that second (or third or fourth) program appearances are provided only after every member who wishes to be included has had an opportunity for that.

Submissions must be received by 1 June 2008 to be eligible for this year’s award. Submission should be in the form of articles with a maximum length of 40 double-spaced, single-sided pages inclusive of all material: text, titles, notes, tables, figures, etc. The title page should include an abstract of no more than 200 words. Text should not exceed 12,000 words, i.e., approximately 36 double-spaced pages of 12 point (or 10 cpi) type. Submissions should take the form of a file formatted in Microsoft Word. Alternatively, a CD containing the file may be mailed. Responsibility for the timely submission of useable materials to the proper address rests entirely with the applicant. Send submissions to: Prof. William Mirola, 4833 N Park Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46205; mirola@marian.edu.

A total of $22,000 is available to fund research in either of two areas, prioritized as follows: (1) women and religion, gender issues, and feminist perspectives on religion; (2) religion and disaster. The allocation of the total amount is entirely at the committee’s discretion; historically, however, the money has been divided among several proposals. The competition is open to all categories of members at all levels of their careers, including those seeking funding for dissertation research, but funding for already-completed research or the publication of research is excluded, as are funds for administrative overhead. Applicants must have been members of ASR throughout 2007. This year’s committee is composed of Barbara Denison (chair), Darren Sherkat, Susan Eisenhandler, and Brian Starks. Former Fichter awardees may also apply for assistance, from a separate purse, to present the results of their research at the annual meeting—follow the Gallagher Award procedures detailed below, indicating this qualification for funding in your application.

A proposal of not more than five double-spaced pages should outline the rationale and plan of the research. A detailed budget and vita should be attached. Simultaneous submissions to other grant competitions are permissible only if the applicant is explicit about which budgetary aspects the Fichter grant will cover that do not overlap with other submissions. Send four copies of the application packet to Barbara at POB 211, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055. Submissions must be postmarked by 1 March 2008; awards will be announced 1 May 2008, at which time the moneys will also begin to be available. Questions? Phone Barbara at 717-477-1257 or e-mail bjdeni@ship.edu.

Gallagher grants to assist with travel to attend the ASR annual meeting are offered annually by the Council to graduate students and non-US/Canadian scholars whose papers are accepted for inclusion on the program. Note that these are assistance grants, and participation cannot be made contingent upon their receipt. A total of $3,000 is available for open applications this year. Grants are normally in the amount of $800 for foreign colleagues and $500 for domestic graduate students, and may never exceed $1,000. Grants are paid in cash to the recipient at the meeting. Application must be made to the Program Chair (Jim Spickard [ASR2008@coolsociology.net]), and final grants are determined by a committee composed of the Program Chair, President, and Executive Officer. Persons in need of travel assistance should indicate their circumstances at the time they submit their program proposal or abstract. This should take the form of a letter in which the applicant indicates a specific dollar request, states the reason for the request, and provides reasonable evidence that funds to cover the balance of the trip are in hand.