Department of Sociology Celebrates Professor Rory McVeigh's Election as President-Elect of the American Sociological Association
The Department of Sociology is delighted to announce that Professor Rory McVeigh has been elected President-Elect of the American Sociological Association (ASA), the nation's most prestigious professional organization for sociologists. McVeigh’s term as President-Elect begins September 1, 2026 and he will assume the presidency following on September 1, 2027, immediately following the ASA's Annual Meeting.
"Rory's election reflects both his exceptional scholarly contributions and his deep commitment to advancing the discipline," said Department Chair Terry McDonnell. "This honor is so well-deserved and speaks to the caliber of our faculty and the important work Rory has done to advance the study of politics and inequality specifically and the discipline of sociology broadly."
The Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Social Movements, McVeigh brings a distinguished career of research and service to this role. His scholarship focuses on the structural foundations of social conflict and the long-term consequences of social movement mobilization, with particular expertise in inequality, political sociology, and race and ethnicity. McVeigh is the author of The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan: Right-Wing Movements and National Politics and, with Kevin Estep, The Politics of Losing: Trump, the Klan, and the Mainstreaming of Resentment. Most recently, he has published Politics and Privilege: How the Status Wars Sustain Inequality with William Carbonaro, Chang Liu, and Kenadi Silcox. McVeigh has also published extensively in leading journals including the American Sociological Review and the American Journal of Sociology.
McVeigh's leadership extends throughout the discipline. He previously served as chair of the ASA's Collective Behavior and Social Movement section and as co-editor of the American Sociological Review. Under his direction, the Center for the Study of Social Movements has become an international hub for scholarly activity, hosting the John D. McCarthy Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Scholarship of Social Movements and the Young Scholars in Social Movements Conference.
Rory is excited about taking on this new challenge: “I am honored to take on this role and am looking forward to organizing the 2028 ASA conference in Baltimore, which will have an overarching focus on assessing societal damage resulting from political turmoil and plotting a course for a better future.”
The American Sociological Association, founded in 1905, is the primary professional organization for sociologists in North America, with nearly 13,000 members engaged in teaching, research, and applied sociology.