Awards

Dr. Dorothy Smith has received two awards from the American Sociological Association: the Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award (1999), and the Jessie Bernard Award for Feminist Sociology (1993). “The Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award goes to those who have shown outstanding commitment to the profession of sociology and whose cumulative work has contributed in important ways to the advancement of the discipline. The body of lifetime work may include theoretical and/or methodological contributions. The award selection committee is particularly interested in work that substantially reorients the field in general or in a particular sub field.” Dr, Smith deserved this award because of her contribution to sociology regarding the institutional ethnography she developed along with her theory and reorienting of the standpoint of women into sociology. Smith poses a challenge to sociology while still maintaining her connection with the discipline throughout her career. When she was given this award she had been practicing her ideals for over 25 years. “The Jessie Bernard Award is given in recognition of scholarly work that has enlarged the horizons of sociology to encompass fully the role of women in society. The contribution may be in empirical research, theory, or methodology. It is presented for significant cumulative work done throughout a professional career. The award is open to women or men and is not restricted to sociologists.” This award is especially pertinent to Dorothy Smith because her work focuses on women and their experiences and relations to society’s institutions and structures. Smith’s goal for sociology is for the standpoint of women to be in all sociology. She created a sociology for women. In addition to her American Sociological Association accomplishments, Dorothy Smith has also received awards from the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association: the John Porter Award for The Everyday is Problematic (1990) and the Outstanding Contribution Award (1990). “The John Porter Award recognizes outstanding published scholarly contributions in the past three years which are within the John Porter tradition and are to the advancement of sociological and/or anthropological knowledge in Canada.” Dorothy Smith did some of her most influential writing and work in Canada at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Also she currently lives in British Columbia. “The CSAA Outstanding Contribution Award honors colleagues who have significantly contributed to Sociology and Anthropology in Canada” In addition, Smith also worked to found a women’s action group at the University of British Columbia and was effective in connecting women academics from colleges and universities other than her own through action-oriented research. A more extensive list of her awards is available in her Curriculum Vitae which is attach in the How She Became An Academic Section.


References:

American Sociological Association site, http://www.asanet.org/.

Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association site, http://www.csaa.ca/Menu.htm.

Smith, Dorothy. "Curriculum Vitae."