CCS Spring Conference ~ 2026 ~ Program

CCS Spring Conference ~ 2026 

Cultural Sociology: The Quickening 

Program

Spring Flowers
TIME FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2026
8:30 - 9:00 Continental Breakfast
9:00 - 9:15 Opening remarks: Philip Smith ~ CCS Director ~ Yale University
9:15 - 10:25 Session I: Keynote: The Civil Sphere: An Unlikely Bully
  Chair: Daniel Danny Mollericona Alfaro ~ CCS Junior Fellow ~ Yale University
  Håkon Larsen ~ CCS Faculty Fellow ~ Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway
  Boundary Trouble. On Civil Sphere Intrusion and Aesthetic Repair
  Respondent: Jeffrey Alexander ~ CCS Director Emeritus ~ Yale University
10:25 - 10:45 Coffee Break
10:45 - 12:05 Session II: Boundaries and Belongings
  Chair:  Dorothy Wu ~ CCS Junior Fellow ~ Yale University
  Runya Qiaoan ~ CCS Visiting Fellow ~ Palacký University, Czechia
  Governing Emotions: Affective Boundary-Making in China’s Qinglang Campaign
  Carla Escobar Ortiz   ~ CCS Junior Fellow ~ Yale University
  Did Anti-Pornography Kill Femicide?
  Jiwon Yun  ~ CCS Junior Fellow ~ Yale University
  Distribution of Recognition as a Source of Privilege
  Respondent: Kamile Grusauskaite ~ CCS Visiting Fellow ~ KU Leuven, Belgium
12:05 - 1:30 Lunch
1:30 - 2:45 Session III: Arts and Letters
  Chair: Nicolás Rudas ~ CCS Junior Fellow ~ Yale University
  Yingyu Zang ~ CCS Predoctoral Fellow ~ University of Virginia
  Write of love: How texts interweave the Self and Revolution in 1920s China
  Guicheng Liu ~ CCS Visiting Graduate Student ~ Peking University, China
  Art Activism in the Chinese Context: Practical Strategies in Guangdong Labor Issues
  Asma Rahimyar ~ CCS Junior Fellow ~ Yale University
  Afghan “Legal Double Consciousness”: Lyricism and the International Humanitarian Regime’s Hermeneutical Paradigm
  Respondent: Jessie Dong ~ CCS Junior Fellow ~ Yale University
2:45 - 3:15 Coffee Break
3:15 - 4:55 Session IV: Democracy
  Chair: Golasa sadat Haji Mirzaei ~ Sociology Graduate Student ~ Yale University
  Sumrin Kalia ~ CCS Visiting Fellow ~ Free University of Berlin
  Co-Author ~ Gregory Jackson ~ King’s College London
  Civic Capacity: A Configurational Typology of Civil Society Organizations and Engagement Dilemmas
  Matthew Coetzee ~ CCS Predoctoral Fellow ~ University of Notre Dame
  Typologies of Civil Repair: Resisting Unrest in Post-Apartheid South Africa
  Shivani Choudhary ~ CCS Junior Fellow ~ Yale University
  Performing Democracy amid Backsliding: Election Campaigns and Citizen Meaning-Making in Bihar, India
  Danny Daniel Mollericona Alfaro ~ CCS Junior Fellow ~ Yale University
  The rise and fall of the “Southern Indigenous Chief”: Democratic Hope and Disappointment in Bolivia (2006 - 2020)
  Respondent: Ronald Jacobs ~ CCS Faculty Fellow ~ State University of New York at Albany 
4:55 - 6:00 Reception ~ 210 Prospect Street
TIME SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2026
8:30 - 9:00 Continental Breakfast
9:00 - 10:25 Session V: Enchantment
  Chair: Asma Rahimyar ~ CCS Junior Fellow ~ Yale University
  Dmitry Kurakin ~ CCS Faculty Fellow ~ University of Virginia
  Modern Enchantment: A Structural Theory
  Anne Taylor ~ CCS Faculty Fellow ~ Mount Holyoke College
  Performing the Sacred Nation: Travel, Music, and Dual Nationalisms in “Rick Steves’ Symphonic Journey”
  Steven Arrigg Koh ~ CCS Junior Fellow ~ Yale University
  “We Don’t Search for Songs, We Search for Memories”: Nostalgia, Iconicity, and Sacred Symbolic Longing
  Respondent: Eleanor Townsley ~ CCS Faculty Fellow ~ Mount Holyoke College
10:25 - 10:40 Coffee Break
10:40 - 11:45 Session VI: Dramatic Intellectuals
  Chair: Carla Escobar Ortiz ~ CCS Junior Fellow ~ Yale University
  Nicolás Rudas ~ CCS Junior Fellow ~ Yale University
  Who are the Dramatic Intellectuals and What do They Do 
  Federico Brandmayr ~ CCS Faculty Fellow ~ Yale University
  When Intellectuals Switch Sides in Polarized Societies
  Respondent: Zhe Xiang ~ Fox International Fellow  ~ Yale University
11:45 - 12:00 Closing Remarks: Jeffrey Alexander ~ CCS Director Emeritus ~ Yale University
12:00 - 1:30 Lunch
6:00 PM Banquet ~ Taste Of China