General Information

Information about the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Rural Sociological Society will be posted here. The conference registration is now open, click here to register. RSS members can register from now until May 31st at a reduced rate.  For hotel room reservation at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, click here. The RSS room block will expire on July 7th. We will announce new information about the conference as soon as it becomes available.

Preliminary Conference Schedule

Program Errata

Highlights

Plenaries

Katherine J. Cramer - "The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness and the 2016 Election"

Professor of Political Science - University of Wisconsin-Madison

She is also director of the Morgridge Center for Public Service and an affiliate faculty member in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the LaFollette School of Public Affairs, the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, and the Center for Community and Nonprofit Studies. She is the author of Talking about Race and Talking about Politics, both also published by the University of Chicago Press.

 

Clark Gray  - "Vulnerability to Climate-Induced Migration in the Developing World."

Associate Professor of Geography - University of North Carolina

Clark is a population and human-environment geographer interested in the interactions between rural livelihoods, household well-being and environmental change in the developing world. As described on these pages, my research has investigated environmental influences on human migration around the world, indigenous livelihoods in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and human dimensions of soil degradation in rural Uganda.

My methodological expertise is in the use of survey, statistical and demographic methods, approaches which have not been widely applied to these topics within geography. For more information see this bio piece about me by the Carolina Population Center.

John Ikerd - "Economic Colonization in Rural America: Increasing Vulnerability in a Volatile World."

John has become a leading figure in the sustainability revolution—one who is capable of deep insights but also has the capacity to engage everyone in the conversation and work. He has found himself at the edge of what is possible in the discipline and has turned his efforts to using his voice and position to advocate for radical change and to help others to both understand this necessity and to be able to advocate for themselves.

In 2014, John was asked by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to develop the North American report for the International Year of the Family farm. In his report, he makes the case for multifunctional farms of the future that protect and renew natural ecosystem and create and nurture caring communities as they provide economic livelihoods for farm families. Should we make it through this great transition facing humanity in the 21st century, it will be in, in part, thanks to John, his thinking, his engagement, and his work.

We will announce new information about the conference when it becomes available.