The 95th Annual Meeting of the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences took place on October 4th, 2024 at University of Southern Indiana (USI) in Evansville, Indiana. The theme of the meeting was “A Beacon of Hope: Social Sciences Providing Light in Turbulent Times.” Over 100 IASS members hailing from 25 colleges and universities from throughout Indiana, the Midwest, and the world presented research papers spanning over twenty panels representing the disciplines of geography/urban studies, sociology, political science, education, public health, business/economics, history, criminal justice, and psychology. The Undergraduate and Graduate Student Poster sessions had a dozen submissions, collectively representing the work of almost 40 students. 

At the Executive Business Meeting, held during the Meeting’s luncheon, President Melissa Stacer, University of Southern Indiana, welcomed attendees and USI Interim President, Mr. Steve Bridges, who spoke about how the social sciences impacted him in his career and emphasized the value of the social sciences.

Mark your calendars: The 96th annual meeting will be held on Saturday, October 4, 2025 at Hanover College in Hanover, IN. 

The IASS bestowed the George C. Roberts Award for Best Paper in the Midwest Social Science Journal Volume 26, Issue 1 (2023) to Bryant Wyant (Criminal Justice and Sociology Department, LaSalle University), Holly Harner (Center for Global Women’s Health, University of Pennsylvania), and Brian Lockwood (Criminal Justice, Monmouth University) for their paper “Denied, Disrespected, Doubted, and Discarded: Women’s Criminal Convictions and Experiences of Discrimination.” This study surveyed over 400 incarcerated women in a medium-maximum security prison in the United States to assess their experiences of discrimination.

Dr. Jokima L. Hiller (Business and Economics, Indiana University-Northwest) and Dr. Laura McClelland (Psychology, Taylor University) each won Faculty Research Awards. Dr. Hiller proposed to study gender and race-based pay disparities in the hospitality industry, while Dr. McClelland will be investigating the impact of restorative spaces on Taylor University students. 

We enthusiastically encourage everyone to submit a proposal for the Faculty Research Awards. Two $500 awards are awarded annually.

Huda Hamed (Biology and Psychology, University of Southern Indiana) won the undergraduate student poster award for her collaborative project titled “ACEs, Psychopathology, and Resilience: A Follow Up-Study” about the relationship between adverse childhood experiences, depression, and resilience.

Jillian Jones (Master’s in Public Administration, University of Southern Indiana) won the graduate student poster award for her project titled ““Space, Place, and Queer Experiences on a College Campus” about the campus experiences of LGBTQIA+ faculty and staff. Poster award winners receive $100 in recognition of their work. 

Please encourage your students to submit a poster presentation to the next annual meeting. 

Awards

Demetra Andrews (Clinical Professor of Marketing, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University Indianapolis) was selected as the 2025 University College IU Trustees' Teaching Award winner. The IU Trustees' Teaching Award honors outstanding teaching during the previous academic year and is awarded to no more than 6% of the full-time faculty. This represents the second time Dr. Andrews received the Trustees' Teaching Award having been awarded the Kelley School of Business IU Trustees' Teaching Award in 2022. 

Margarita Rayzberg (Assistant Professor, Sociology and Criminology, Valparaiso University) was awarded the Creative Works and Research 2025 Summer Research Fellowship to conduct follow-up research for her book, Controlling the Field: Experimental Social Science and the Politics of Evidence in International Development about the politics of implementing randomized controlled impact evaluations of global antipoverty programs.

Publications and Presentations

David P. Nalbone (Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences, Purdue University Northwest) published “Teaching Statistics: Tips, Tricks, and Traps” in Teaching tips: A compendium on conference presentations on teaching 2023-2024. Available here.

David P. Nalbone (Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences, Purdue University Northwest) presented a poster (in Feb. 2025) entitled “Using a Tentative Grade Calculator to Foster Statistics Learning” at the Annual Meeting of the SoTL Commons Conference, Savannah, GA.

J. Michael Raley (Professor, Department of History and Medieval & Renaissance Studies Program, Hanover College) published "Friar Matthew Grabow and the Devotio moderna at the Council of Constance” in Ons Geestelijk Erf (Journal for the History of Spirituality in the Lowlands), Vol. 93, Issue 3-4 (2023), pp. 228-292. Available here. 

J. Michael Raley (Professor, Department of History and Medieval  & Renaissance Studies Program, Hanover College) and former student Lauren Rippy co-authored "We Have a Right to Live in This Country': Reverend Moses Broyles and the Struggle for Social Justice and Racial Equality in Nineteenth-Century Indiana” in the Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 120, No. 1 (2024), pp. 32-71. Available here. 

Promotions

Demetra Andrews (Clinical Professor of Marketing, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University Indianapolis) was promoted to Clinical Full Professor in the Spring of 2024. 

Research Updates

David P. Nalbone (Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences, Purdue University Northwest) was Principal Investigator ($7,500) on the project Support for democratic principles and institutions (June 2024 – August 2024), funded by the PNW CHESS Summer Scholarship Award Program.

Five board positions are opening this coming Fall and we would love for you to consider joining! It is a wonderful opportunity to contribute to the Society and is a very reasonable time commitment. If you are interested, please email questions and/or a brief statement of interest to Melissa Stacer at mjstacer@usi.edu.

Midwest Social Sciences Journal is inviting submissions for publication in Volume 27. Midwest Social Sciences Journal is a Diamond Open Access Journal of the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences. We encourage and welcome research and scholarship in social sciences, capaciously defined, including but not limited to anthropology, criminology and criminal justice, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology and behavioral sciences, sociology, international studies, gender and sexuality, and all topics in business. For submission instructions and policies, please click here.

We want to hear from you, our members! Endnotes is the official biannual newsletter of the IASS. It contains reports and updates on the IASS annual conference, news from IASS members and other information relevant to the social sciences in Indiana. Tell us what you’ve been up to! Have you published an article, earned a promotion, or won an award? Have you been out in the field or taken your students on a cool field trip? We want to know. We’re interested in reporting on all the academic achievements and cool endeavors of our members, so we are inviting you to submit a brief academic blurb here.