Rural Sociology Society annual meeting explores spectrum of rural experiences

For the sixth time in its 86-year history, the Rural Sociological Society (RSS) held its annual meeting in Madison, Wisconsin, July 24-28, 2024. This year’s conference, with the theme “Reconceptualizing Rurality: Toward a More Diverse and Inclusive Understanding,” brought together experts from around the nation to share their work – including research, teaching and outreach – showcasing the full spectrum of rural experiences, challenges and opportunities.

From left, Kelli Jackson Russell of Auburn University’s Rural Partnership Institute, Dean Glenda Gillaspy of UW–Madison’s CALS and Rural Partnerships Institute, and Tricia Coates, director of the Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships at the University of Vermont, speak in a session about community-university partnerships during the annual meeting of the Rural Sociological Society. Photo: Michael P. King

“Rural areas struggle with very serious problems, but they are also sites of beauty, resilience and transformation, and there is an urgent hope in sharing new knowledge about them,” says Nan Enstad, professor and chair of Department of Community and Environmental Sociology.

Community and environmental sociology faculty were involved in planning and hosting the RSS conference as well as a pre-conference field trip, and the UW Rural Partnerships Institute provided support as a major sponsor. The RSS is a professional organization that promotes the generation, application, and dissemination of sociological knowledge with the goal of enhancing the quality of rural life, communities, and the environment.

Specific research topics covered at the conference included farm and land ownership, migration and aging populations, labor, health, race and gender, class and poverty, technology, food systems and environmental sustainability.

Michaela Hoffelmeyer, assistant professor in community and environmental sociology, was among dozens of UW–affiliated faculty, staff and students who attended and presented at the event. Hoffelmeyer’s talk, titled “The Slow Violence of Dull Knives and 0.22 Rifles in Small-Scale Meat Processing,” shared findings about the physical and emotional labor of those working in small Iowa meat processing facilities. The goal of this research is to understand how workers create strategies to enhance their well-being on the often-dangerous processing floor and to enable policy change based on workers’ priorities.

The RSS traces its beginnings back to the turn of the 20th century. First organized as a section of the American Sociological Association in 1922, it grew alongside increased interest in applied research and rural concerns. The passing of the Purnell Act in 1925 was a watershed moment, specifically providing funding to agricultural experiment stations for the research of economic and sociological factors. With the broader field of sociology becoming less applied and more academic in its orientation, rural sociologists decided in 1937 that it was time to start their own national professional organization.

In an event barn at White Oak Savanna, Dan Cornelius, a member of the Oneida Nation and outreach program manager at UW–Madison, speaks to attendees about their lunch of indigenous foods that he prepared during a field trip for the annual meeting of the Rural Sociological Society. Photo: Michael P. King

“The earliest rural sociologists sought to shed light on rural life by producing not just systematically gained knowledge but knowledge that could be useful,” says RSS historian Julie Zimmerman, a professor at the University of Kentucky. “The agricultural depression of the 1890s really started to reveal to people that scientific techniques of agriculture alone weren’t going to be enough to support farms, farm families and rural communities.”

UW–Madison was among the pioneering institutions in the burgeoning field. One of the earliest examples of scholarly research in rural sociology was written by Charles Galpin, a faculty member in the Department of Agricultural Economics (now Agricultural and Applied Economics). The paper, titled “Social Anatomy of an Agricultural Community,” which meticulously examined the farming communities of Walworth County, Wisconsin, was highly influential in the field, establishing a methodology for community research that would be replicated nationwide. In 1930, the Department of Rural Life (now Community and Environmental Sociology) was founded in what is now the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

Since then, the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences has played a leading role in the field of rural sociology, in terms of scholarly contributions, research impacts and PhD graduates. Not surprisingly, UW–Madison has been a pipeline for RSS leaders: at least eight past presidents were UW–Madison faculty, at least six were former or future faculty, and at least 16 received their PhDs from UW–Madison.

“How do I summarize the impact of the University of Wisconsin on the history of rural sociology? It cannot be overstated,” says Zimmerman.

Attendees listen to farmers Maureen and Ron Bula of Bula’s Pleasant Valley Farm during a field trip for the annual meeting.
Photo: Michael P. King
In an event barn at White Oak Savanna, Taylor Ackley, an ethnomusicologist and assistant professor of music at Brandeis University, gives a lecture and performance on “The Music of Rural Precarity” during a field trip for the annual meeting. Accompanying Ackley is UW–Madison community and environmental sociology professor Michael Bell, background. Photo: Michael P. King
Attendees listen to Aldo Leopold Foundation staffer Caty Abitz give a tour of Aldo Leopold’s shack during a field trip for the annual meeting. Photo: Michael P. King