RSS Update on Coronavirus
April 2, 2020
Dear RSS Membership,
As a consequence of the growing coronavirus global pandemic, the RSS Executive Committee and I have decided to cancel our 2020 meeting in Westminster, Colorado scheduled for this August, postponing until 2021 when we meet in Burlington, Vermont. The Executive Committee was strongly unanimous that under the circumstances this was the best and most obvious course of action.
We have all taken very seriously the uncertainties of this pandemic, how these uncertainties may play out over time, and what our actions and decisions now might imply for not only broader public health considerations, but for the exposure of our individual members to unacceptable health risks. Our decision to cancel the Annual Meeting was not taken lightly, and is nearly without precedent – the only other time RSS meetings were cancelled was a consequence of the Second World War.
Although we will not be meeting this year, I am convinced that our intellectual efforts and (rural) sociological imagination are needed more than ever, especially as this pandemic exposes new dimensions of spatial and social inequalities, risks, and institutional failures – as well as social resiliencies and new political agency. Please take advantage of this moment to make our work count through our scholarship, instruction, outreach, and public engagement.
In the meantime, stay healthy, take care of yourselves, your family, friends, neighbors and community (local and otherwise). Please know how much we value your efforts and commitment towards the Rural Sociological Society.
Kai Schafft
Kai Schafft, RSS President
Dreamal Worthen, RSS President-Elect
Keiko Tanaka, RSS Past President
John Green, RSS Vice President
Cynthia Struthers, RSS Executive Director
