JSS Travel Award 2022: COVID-19 and Society(Deadline June 20, 2022)
JSS Travel Award 2022
COVID-19 and Society
Application Deadline: June 20, 2022
The 95th Annual Meeting of the Japan Sociological Society (JSS)
Otemon Gakuin University
November 12–13, 2022
The International Liaison Committee of the Japan Sociological Society (JSS) is pleased to announce its 16th annual grant competition for early-career scholars in its renewed format as JSS Travel Award. JSS will select an overall of 10 scholars to present papers in two special sessions on “COVID-19 and Society” and participate in the JSS annual meeting. The scholars will receive financial support towards their travel costs as follows:
- 6 early-career scholars from outside of Japan (100,000 yen for travel costs)
- 4 early-career scholars from within Japan (10,000 yen for travel costs)
(Scroll down for details on eligibility, application procedure, and handling in the event of shift to online format.)
Joining the special sessions on “COVID-19 and Society” as discussant is Dr. Carol Underwood, Associate Professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, the globally leading institution in collecting and analyzing data on the COVID-19 pandemic. As internationally renowned expert in research on the social determinants of health, she is actively involved in hands-on sociological research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in various countries around the globe. She will be commenting together with a Japan-based discussant from JSS.
Call for Papers on “COVID-19 and Society”
The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed individual lives and societies in unprecedented ways. Aside from the medical threat of infection, it has challenged economies and welfare systems, and has seeped deeply into the social fabric by placing drastic restrictions on social interaction. A disproportionally high negative impact on populations who were socioeconomically disadvantaged prior to the pandemic based on the social determinants of health, including social class, gender, education, race or ethnicity, employment status, or industry has been reported around the globe. Moreover, disadvantage is compounded among people living at the intersection of multiple marginalized status categories, for example, women who are unschooled and working class and ethnic minority members. In this way, the pandemic amplifies pre-existing inequalities, placing the greatest burden on the shoulders of the most vulnerable. At the macro level, new abyssal lines have become visible, with geopolitical power struggles around access to vaccines, or media-driven discourses on alternative truths and fact-checking.
JSS invites papers addressing these and similar topics related to the societal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Theory-based macro-sociological analyses, micro-sociological investigations, and multi-level studies are equally welcome, as are qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method approaches.
With the new format of the JSS Travel Award, which for the first time is open to applicants working and residing outside as well as inside Japan, we hope to give room for profound exchange between presenters and discussants. Bringing together research papers which analyze the impact of the pandemic within and across various national contexts, we hope to achieve new insight into the social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic from a comparative perspective.
- Eligibility requirements
For applicants from outside Japan:
To be eligible to apply as international applicant, the applicant must
- be currently living and working (or studying if the applicant is a graduate student) outside of Japan. Scholars living in Japan, Japanese citizens, and permanent residents of Japan are NOT eligible to apply as international applicant;
- hold a master’s degree or higher obtained within the past 10 years as of April 1, 2022. If there is no system to offer the master’s degree during the doctoral course, please send us a letter from your supervisor with their signature to state that your educational qualification is regarded to be equivalent to that of those who hold a master’s degree.
Although the competition is open to all early-career scholars who meet the eligibility requirements, preference will be given to early-career scholars from Asia (excluding Japan) and first-time applicants. However, scholars from any region, especially researchers who are at a relatively early stage of their career are encouraged to apply for the award.
International grant winners will be exempt from the annual conference fee as well as the JSS membership fee for the first year and will receive 100,000 yen to help cover the travel costs. All awardees are required to make 15-minute presentations at the JSS annual meeting as part of the sessions on “Covid-19 and Society” in English. (In case the annual meeting should be changed to a virtual format, international awardees will receive 40,000 yen and will be required to make their presentation in online format.)
* Please note that to receive the award, selected international scholars must be able and willing to submit the following two items:
- letter agreeing to participate in the conference,
- membership application for the JSS.
For applicants from within Japan:
To be eligible for support, the applicant must
- be currently living and working (or studying if the applicant is a graduate student) in Japan;
- hold a master’s degree or higher obtained within the past 10 years as of April 1, 2022;
- be a member of the Japanese Sociological Society.
Grant winners from Japan will be exempt from the annual conference fee and will receive 10,000 Yen to help cover the travel costs. All awardees are required to make 15-minute presentations at the JSS annual meeting as part of the sessions on “Covid-19 and Society” in English. (In case the annual meeting should be changed to a virtual format, awardees from Japan will be exempt from the annual conference fees and will be required to make their presentation in online format)
- Applications:
An extended abstract (600 to 1,000 English words) should be submitted via the following form no later than June 20, 2022. Acceptance notes will be sent out in mid-July, 2022. The extended abstract should include a clear description of research questions, theoretical framework, data, analytical methods, and main findings.
Go to the submission site (click here)
- Application Deadline:
June 20, 2022, 23:59 (Tokyo, GMT+9:00)
Applicants will be notified of the abstracts that were accepted in the sessions by mid-July, 2022.
In case of questions, please contact us at: ilc(at)sociology.gr.jp
