​

The Robin. M. Williams Jr. Distinguished Lecture Award was established in 1993 as part of the Eastern Sociological Society's effort to enhance the sharing of sociological ideas within and beyond the discipline. The Robin M. Williams Jr. Lecture Award is granted each year to a sociologist in recognition of his/her sociological and scholarly contribution and its relevance for contemporary public life.

The recipient of the Robin. M. Williams Jr. Distinguished Lecture Award is invited to deliver a keynote at the Eastern Sociological Society’s annual meetings. The Robin M. Williams Jr. lecturer also delivers invited lectures at two campuses within the Society's jurisdiction during their year as the Williams Lecturer. The ESS Executive Office will provide transportation and honoraria: the host institution will take care of local arrangements, including room and board. The individual chosen for the Lectureship will receive an honorarium and will present two lectures on campuses in the ESS region during the terms of his or her appointment. (These campuses will be selected on a competitive basis.)

To nominate someone for the 2027-2028 Robin M. Williams, Jr. Lecture, please send nominations (self-nominations welcome) in a letter to the Committee Chair, Tey Meadow, tm2846@columbia.edu. Nomination letters should describe the proposed lecture, its sociological warrant and public relevance, as well as the qualifications of the nominee to deliver the Robin M. Williams lecture. Nomination can also include up to two supporting letters. ​​​​Nominations are due October 15, 2026.

The 2026-2027 Lecturer (2026 Award Recipient): Tiffany Joseph, Northeastern University.

Dr. Tiffany Joseph is Associate Professor of Sociology and International Affairs Program at Northeastern University. She received her Sociology PhD at the University of Michigan, was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Scholar at Harvard University and was an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Stony Brook University from 2013-2018. Her research and teaching interests explore race, ethnicity, and migration in the Americas; immigrants' health and healthcare access; immigration and health policy; and the experiences of faculty of color in academia. Her most recent book, (Not) All In: Race, Immigration, and Healthcare Exclusion in the Age of Obamacare (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025), explores how documentation status, race, and ethnicity influence the healthcare access of immigrants after comprehensive health reform. She has received grants and awards from the Ford Foundation, Institute for Citizens and Scholars, Institute for International Education Fulbright Program, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She is also the author of Race on the Move: Brazilian Migrants and the Global Reconstruction of Race (Stanford University Press, 2015) and her work has been published in various peer-reviewed journals and national media outlets. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Joseph is also a graduate of Phillips Academy-Andover and Brown University. 

​

The 2025-26 Lecturer (2025 Award Recipient): Tey Meadow, Columbia University:

Tey Meadow is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Columbia University and sits on the executive committee of the Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender. Meadow’s published work focuses on a broad range of issues, including the emergence of the transgender child as a social category, the international politics of family diversity, the creation and maintenance of legal gender classifications, and newer work on the ways social categories structure erotic life. She is the author of Trans Kids: Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century (University of California Press, 2018), which won the American Sociological Association’s Distinguished Scholarly Book Award, a 2018 Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Titles from the American Library Association, and was a finalist for the C. Wright Mills Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems. She is also the co-editor of the volume, Other Please Specify: Queer Methods in Sociology (University of California Press, 2018). She has published in Gender & Society, Politics & Society, Sexualities, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Ethnic & Racial Studies, Sociological Forum, Socius, Transgender Studies Quarterly and multiple edited volumes. She is currently finishing an ethnographic book on two BDSM communities, examining the nexus of social difference, power and sexuality.

Meadow received her B.A. from Barnard College, a J.D from Fordham University School of Law and a Ph.D. from New York University. Prior to joining Columbia, she was the Fund for Reunion-Cotsen Fellow in the Princeton Society of Fellows and an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Harvard University.

​

The Robin M. Williams, Jr. Distinguished Lecturer delivers three scholarly presentations during the year. The recipient of the Robin M. Williams, Jr. Distinguished Lecturer Award is invited to deliver a keynote, which will be held Saturday, March 6, 2027 (with a reception to follow) at the Eastern Sociological Society’s annual meetings (Philadelphia, PA March 4-7, 2027).

​

The Robin M. Williams, Jr. Lecturer also delivers invited lectures at two campuses within the Society's jurisdiction during their year as the Williams Lecturer. The ESS Executive Office will provide transportation and honoraria: the host institution will take care of local arrangements, including room and board. These campuses will be selected on a competitive basis. Faculty interested to bring the Williams Lecturer to your campus should apply to do so. Requests should address the interest in bringing the 2026-2027 Robin M. Williams, Jr. Distinguished Lecturer to campus (in no more than 2 pages) and sent to: Richard E. Ocejo, rocejo@jjay.cuny.edu.

Sociology departments with limited resources to bring scholars to campus are especially encouraged to apply. Deadline for applications: October 15, 2026.

About Robin M. Williams Jr.

Robin Murphy Williams (1914-2006) was born on October 11, 1914, in Hillsborough, NC, the son of Robin M., Sr. (a farmer), and Mabel (a homemaker). He received his B.S. in 1933 from North Carolina State College; his M.S. in 1935 from N.C. State and the University of North Carolina; his M.A. in 1939 from Harvard University; and his Ph.D. in 1943 from Harvard University. During World War II, he served in the Special Services Division of the US War Department in Washington, D.C., and the European Theater of Operations from 1942 to 1946.

Dr. Williams was a Past-President of the American Sociological Association, Past-President of the Eastern Sociological Association, Founding Editor of Sociological Forum, and the Co-Chair of the Committee on the Status of Black Americans. Dr. Williams’ many awards and honors include the Commonwealth Award for Distinguished Service, the American Sociological Association’s Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award, and the Robin M. Williams, Jr. Distinguished Lectureship Award established by the Eastern Sociological Association.

​
His best-known works include The American Soldier (Vols. 1-11, 1949); Schools in Transition (1954); and What College Students Think (1960); The Reduction of Intergroup Tensions (1947); Strangers Next Door (1964), American Society: A Sociological Interpretation (1st edition, 1951; 2nd edition, 1960; 3rd edition, 1970); Mutual Accommodation: Ethnic Conflict and Cooperation (1977); and most recently, The Wars Within: Peoples and States in Conflict (2003). He was also a co-editor of A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society (1989). He was the author as well of some hundred and fifty articles, monographs, and chapters in edited volumes.

​

​​​