Sociology of Education Association

The Sociology of Education Association (SEA) is an informal group of scholars and educators from both the fields of sociology and education, who meet annually to engage in discussion of issues at the intersection of sociology and education.

SEA exists outside of the formal structure of any of the major professional associations. To belong to SEA you do not need to be a member of ASA, AERA, or any other organization.

Membership in the Sociology of Education Association (SEA) is included in the SEA Annual Conference registration fees. Conference registration is open. Please click on the 2026 Conference for more information. Membership dues entitle you to the Sociology of Education Association listserv and newsletters or mailings.

We Look Forward to Seeing You at Our Spring Conference!

Spring Conference Program

2026 Annual Conference
February 20–22, 2026
Asilomar Hotel & Conference Grounds
Pacific Grove, CA

Register HERE

The Sociology of Education Association will gather in person for its annual meeting at Asilomar over the weekend of February 20–22, 2026. Our theme this year is Schools as Microcosms: Mirrors of Society, Engines of Change, organized by Program Chair Dr. Daphne Penn. View the full Call for Papers here and the program here.

Mission

• • To provide an inexpensive annual conference (held at Asilomar on the Monterey Bay Peninsula, California) in which colleagues from education, sociology, and other social sciences can come together for discussion of topics of common interest.
  • To provide an organizing vehicle for people interested in education and sociology to get to know each other and to communicate outside of the conference.
  • To introduce graduate students and new Ph.D.’s into this community of scholars.
  • To serve as an information conduit for persons interested in education and sociology to hear about recent research, job openings, and other news of interest to the membership.

The board members and elected leadership of the Sociology of Education Association declare unequivocally that Black Lives Matter, and stand in solidarity with those fighting to end systemic oppression and state-sanctioned violence against all Black people. Please see our Statement On Systemic Oppression and State-Sanctioned Violence Against Black Americans, as well as our resource, Education Scholarship by Black Sociologists and Scholars in Related Fields.

This is a living document. Please submit additional/new work by Black scholars using sociological lenses to study education here and we will include it in this resource. We are promoting this scholarship, so that it will be widely read, cited and used in syllabi.

The Sociology of Education Association (SEA) fundamentally believes in a community that values diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a group of scholars engaged in discussions at the intersection of sociology and education and particularly issues of inequities, SEA is committed to the inclusion of diverse scholars who occupy a multitude of identities, backgrounds, and life histories. This includes but is not limited to people from various races, ethnicities, cultures, gender identities, sexual orientations, socioeconomic statuses, ages, mental and physical abilities, religions, and nationalities. SEA strives to cultivate a more inclusive community in which scholars of all identities, visible and invisible, are welcomed.

Association members produced a new textbook called Education and Society: An Introduction of Key Issues in the Sociology of Education. 100% of the royalties go directly to SEA to be used exclusively for graduate student scholarships to our annual conference. Please consider adopting it the next time you teach an undergraduate Sociology of Education course. If you’d like syllabus ideas, feel free to contact Lisa Nunn lnunn@sandiego.edu or Ben Gibbs benjamin_gibbs@byu.edu. We are happy to share what we are doing with the book!

The Association maintains an anti-harassment policy for its members. You can review this policy here.