Abstract
This introduction serves to set the stage for a special issue of The American Sociologist, a festschrift in honour of the career and ongoing influence of Dorothy Pawluch. A festschrift is a collection of reflections in honor of a scholar, and this issue includes reflections of how Dorothy Pawluch came to inspire, through her teaching and supervisory guidance, a particular legacy that continues to inform her former students, their own students, and the wider academic community. The festschrift also includes papers which have the goal of advancing social problems theory and taking constructionism in new, exciting directions. As such, they are also geared to honor Dorothy’s career. While readers will no doubt be reminded by many of the contributors about the huge impact of Dorothy’s influential article, Ontological Gerrymandering, written with Stephen Woolgar, what also shines through are recollections of Dorothy’s kindness, altruism, and general decency.
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Notes
Another example of a festschrift, for influential McMaster University ethnographer and Honeycrisp apple enthusiast William Shaffir, was recently published in Qualitative Sociology Review (Vol. XVI, Issue 2), edited by Antony Puddephatt and Steven Kleinknecht (see Puddephatt & Kleinknecht 2020).
Dorothy helped clarify some of the details we document here regarding her biography.
Our thanks to Dorothy for providing these details.
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Adorjan, M., Spector, M. Through the Social Problems Looking Glass: A Festschrift in Honor of Dorothy Pawluch. Am Soc 53, 132–140 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-022-09532-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-022-09532-5