Rice sociologist Long honored with festschrift

Colleagues, former students and friends honored the career of Elizabeth Long with a festschrift Nov. 13 and 14 for her 35 years of distinguished service as a professor, researcher and recent chair of the Department of Sociology at Rice University. Long retired from Rice July 1.

Titled “Celebrating the Sociology of Culture: A Festschrift for Elizabeth Long,” the festivities included a reception, a conference with presentations on different cultural sociology topics by former Long students Rene Ameling, assistant professor of sociology at Yale University; Tony Chen, associate professor of sociology at Northwestern University; Kimberly Hoang, assistant professor of sociology at Boston College; Kristen Schilt, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Chicago; and longtime colleague Elaine Howard Ecklund, the Herbert S. Autrey Chair and Professor of Sociology. The celebration also included a panel discussion titled “Fertility Gods: A Public Conversation on Reproduction and Religion.”

Long called the event “the most wonderful present I can possibly imagine.”

“It was a remarkable honor to be remembered by the students and younger colleagues who are so brilliant and accomplished and who made my years at Rice so rewarding,” she said. “And it was so moving to realize that I was part of the wind beneath their wings, as they provided, in their papers, an example of the best of intellectual life — engaged, rigorous, passionate scholarship that transforms knowledge and reaches out into the world.”

Long said she’s been teary-eyed since the end of the festivities, but also “so very, very happy.”

“And happy, too, about our continuing endeavors as scholars and teachers: With people like this at the helm, the university has a bright future ahead and will continue to be a beacon for the world,” she said.

Chen said it was Long’s mentorship that helped him realize that he really wanted to pursue a career as a sociology professor.

“She gave me the belief that such a career was within my capabilities,” he said. “As a sociology professor myself now, I look back on how skillfully Professor Long taught and mentored her students, and I am amazed and humbled by what she was able to accomplish. I try my best to honor what I see as her legacy by putting my students first.”

Heidi Kahle, a Will Rice College senior, collaborated with Long on a summer research project.

“She loves to be a mentor and give personalized advice,” Kahle said. “She always had us come to her office for long discussions, which was really a unique opportunity because not all professors do that.”

Kevin Smiley, a sociology Ph.D. student, said Long has been “a really great mentor as we’ve been building our program up.” The Department of Sociology’s Ph.D. program began in 2010.

“[Dr. Long] always wants to meet and talk with people and see how we’re doing, how we’re adjusting to life in Houston,” Smiley said. “She’s always the friendly face we can find in and around the office. There’s about 22 graduate students, and likewise there’s about 22 graduate students in the Elizabeth Long fan club.”

As a researcher, Long published in the fields of cultural sociology, sociology of gender, the sociology of knowledge, qualitative sociology and contemporary sociological theory, as well as in the interdisciplinary fields of American studies, cultural studies and women’s studies. She served on several editorial boards, including Communication Review, Book Research Quarterly and Socialist Review and also served as chair of the culture section of the American Sociological Association and on the program committee for the American Sociological Association and the American Studies Association. At Rice, she won several teaching awards, including the George R. Brown Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Julia Miles Chance Award for teaching excellence and gender sensitivity.

When asked about Long, Jenifer Bratter, acting chair of the Department of Sociology said, “She’s wonderful, and not enough can be said.”

“For my work, discussions with Elizabeth gave me a new appreciation for what was beyond my reach – for the way the culture shapes the census and survey data I was pouring through,” Bratter continued. “I realized these questions were not the end of my research but rather a happy beginning for new projects.  This potential not only signified a new door for my work, but allowed me to do my work better.”

Ecklund called Long “one of — if not the — most significant academic mentors I’ve had.”

“I’ve known her for 10 years, but she’s the kind of person who makes you feel like you’ve known her your entire life,” Ecklund said. “What’s interesting about Elizabeth is that I feel especially close to her, and she’s had an especially huge impact on my scholarship, but we actually do research that is quite different. I’m sure there are many, many people who are here who would say with as much conviction as I just did that she’s also had an impact on their scholarship in their area of work and been a mentor in their lives as much as she has mine, and I think that’s actually quite remarkable.”