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Dean Robert Andersen awarded Outstanding Contribution Award by the Canadian Sociological Association
June 22, 2017
Robert Andersen, Dean of the Faculty of Social Science and Professor of Sociology, Political Science, Statistics and Actuarial Science, has been awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award by the Canadian Sociological Association (CSA).
The award was presented on May 30, 2017 at the CSA’s annual Banquet and Award ceremony.
Rima Wilkes, Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia, and CSA President said that the awards selection committee was impressed with the diversity and impact of outlets where Dr. Andersen’s work has appeared. Andersen, she said, has published many papers in a relatively short academic career.
The Outstanding Contribution Award “is generally awarded for lifetime career contributions,” said Wilkes. “It is pretty rare that someone would receive it this early in one’s career.”
“Dr. Andersen is that rare scholar who has published in both the Canadian Review of Sociology and the American Sociological Review,” said Wilkes. “He has also published in both the Canadian Journal of Political Science and the American Journal of Political Science.”
Wilkes said the only person comparable in terms of his connections between both disciplines was noted political sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset, who was the only person to have been President of both the American Political Science Association and the American Sociological Association.
Andersen has made major contributions to the understanding of quantitative research methods, including publishing Modern Methods for Robust Regression, from SAGE Publications.
“If you want to learn a method, these would be the go to books,” said Wilkes. “Only the top people who do methods are asked to write them, meaning they’ve made a major contribution to understanding method.”
“Dr. Andersen has made major contributions to the study of class, voting and public opinion,” said Wilkes. “Using the most advanced quantitative methods, Dr. Andersen shows that class and economic inequality continue to matter for voting, for support for democracy, and for policy.”
From the CSA website: The Canadian Sociological Association Outstanding Contribution Award honours colleagues who have significantly contributed to Sociology in Canada. The Outstanding Contribution Award shall be a means of recognizing exceptional scholarly merit. The contribution should extend beyond the specialization(s) in which the candidate has primarily worked and their scope should be widely recognized within the Canadian sociological community. The award provides recognition of outstanding scholarly contributions, and will normally be awarded to scholars at an advanced stage in their career, with a well-established record of multiple contributions throughout his or her career.
