News — Washington, DC—Shelley J. Correll, Michelle Mercer and Bruce Golden Family Professor of Women’s Leadership, Director of Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab, and Professor of Sociology at Stanford University, has been elected the 117th President of the American Sociological Association (ASA). Victor E. Ray, F. Wendell Miller Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Iowa, has been elected ASA Vice President. Correll and Ray will serve as President- and Vice President-Elect for one year before succeeding Adia Harvey Wingfield, Washington University in St. Louis, and Allison J. Pugh, University of Virginia, respectively, in August 2025.
Correll conducts research in the areas of gender, workplace dynamics, and organizational culture. Her research on the “motherhood penalty” demonstrates how motherhood influences the workplace evaluations, pay, and job opportunities of mothers. Her current research uncovers how gender stereotypes and organizational practices affect the hiring, advancement, and retention of women in technical jobs. In a recent paper in American Sociological Review, Correll and her colleagues analyzed the language managers used when writing performance reviews at a large tech company. They found that managers used gendered language to describe employees’ performance, and that the very same language, like “taking charge,” increased men’s chances of getting a top rating, but lowered women’s, thereby making women less eligible for promotion.
Correll has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in journals, such as in Socius, Gender & Society, Social Forces, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences. Correll’s many accolades include the 2008 ASA Section on the Sociology of Sex and Gender’s Distinguished Article Award for the article she coauthored with Stephen Benard, Indiana University, and In Paik, Cornell University, “Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?” published in the American Journal of Sociology. Correll also received the 2009 Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research from the Work and Family Researchers Network, and her work was recognized by the organization as an Extraordinary Contribution to Work Family Research in 2018. Her research has also been profiled in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and other leading media publications.
Regarding her election as ASA President, Correll said, “We are living in challenging times where the value higher education is being questioned and DEI goals are under attack and pitted against academic freedom and free speech. As president, I will draw on my past experiences leading efforts to advance gender, racial, and other forms of equity to ensure that ASA is a trusted and actionable voice in larger conversations around equity and inclusion and the importance of higher education in creating open and equitable societies.”
Correll is a Co-Founder and the Director of the Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab and an Associate Director of Stanford Impact labs. She served as the Barbara D. Finberg Director of the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Research on Gender at Stanford University ( from 2010-19). Correll was Co-Chair of the Feminist Mentor Award Committee for Sociologists for Women in Society (2018-19). In addition, Correll has held several positions at ASA, including as Chair of the Feminist Scholar Action Award Committee (2012-13) and the Sally Hacker Best Graduate Student Paper Award Committee (2011-12), both for the ASA Section on Sex and Gender, and as Council Member for both the ASA Section on Sex and Gender (2009-12) and the ASA Section on Social Psychology (2008-11).
Correll was Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Associate and Assistant Professor of Sociology, Cornell University, and Associate Professor of Sociology, Stanford University. She completed her PhD and MA degrees from Stanford University and her BS from Texas A&M University.
Ray’s research applies critical race theory to classic sociological questions. Specifically, his work on racialized organizations shows how race shapes seemingly neutral organizational processes. His work has also explored notions of racial progress in the social sciences, showing that progress is often fragile and fleeting. His current projects examine how race (and racism) shape sociological theorizing.
In his recent book, On Critical Race Theory: Why It Matters & Why You Should Care (Random House 2022), Ray traces the foundations of critical race theory in the Black intellectual traditions of emancipation and the civil rights movement and explores the many facets of our society that critical race theory interrogates. In addition, his work has been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, American Sociological Review, American Behavioral Scientist, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Ethnic and Racial Studies, the Journal of Marriage and Family, and Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, among others.
Ray’s work has received multiple awards, including the ASA Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Distinguished Early Career Award (2020) and the Southern Sociological Society Junior Scholar Award (2019). His paper “Theory of Racialized Organizations” was awarded the ASA Theory Section’s Theory Prize (2021) and the Kimberlé Crenshaw Outstanding Article Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems, Critical Race and Ethnic Study Division (2020). He was also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution (2021-23), a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School (2022-24) and a Business in Global Society Fellow at Harvard Business School (2024-25), among many other accolades. Ray is an active public scholar, publishing commentary in outlets such as the New York Times, Time, CNN, the Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, and Boston Review.
Regarding his election as ASA Vice President, Ray said, “I’m honored to be elected and to serve as Vice President of ASA. Professional organizations, and academia overall, are facing a profound set of challenges around legitimacy, public accountability, and long-term viability. I’m happy to be part of the team, under Dr. Correll’s leadership, that will help to chart a path through these challenges.”
Ray has held several positions at ASA, including as Council Member (2021-23), Chair of the Public Understanding of Sociology Award Committee (2023), Member of the Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award Committee (2022) and the Public Understanding of Sociology Award Committee (2022), and Member of the Nominations Committee for the American Sociological Association Theory Section (2021). He has also contributed service to other organizations, including the Ford Foundation and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Ray was Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Tennessee-Knoxville and Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology and African American Studies, University of Iowa. Ray completed his PhD and MA degrees from Duke University and his BA from Vassar College.
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About the American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association, founded in 1905, is a nonprofit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society.
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