The Gould Prize is given annually to the article that best exemplifies the qualities that made Roger Gould’s own work so remarkable. From articles published over a two-year period, the American Journal of Sociology editorial boards select a piece that is empirically rigorous, theoretically grounded, and lucidly written. The prize was established not merely to remember Roger as a colleague and friend, but to embrace and promote his standard of scholarship as a model for our community. The Gould Prize is made possible by donations from Roger’s friends and colleagues and a grant from the Gould Family Foundation. The Gould Prize may not be given for work done at the University of Chicago, and individual scholars are eligible to receive the prize only once.

Previous Recipients

2022
Robert Faris, Diane Felmlee, and Cassie McMillan, “With Friends Like These: Aggression from Amity and Equivalence,” AJS 126, no. 3 (November 2020): 673-713.

2021
Mark A. Hoffman, “The Materiality of Ideology: Cultural Consumption and Political Thought after the American Revolution,” AJS 125, no. 1 (July 2019): 1–62.

2020
Argun Saatcioglu and Thomas M. Skrtic, “Categorization by Organizations: Manipulation of Disability Categories in a Racially Desegregated School District,” AJS 125, no. 1 (July 2019): 184–260.

2019
Lynne Haney, “Incarcerated Fatherhood: The Entanglements of Child Support Debt and Mass Imprisonment, AJS 124, no. 1 (July 2018): 1–48.

2018
Daniel Navon and Gil Eyal, “Looping Genomes: Diagnostic Change and the Genetic Makeup of the Autism Population,” AJS 121 (March 2016): 1416–71.

2017
Paul Ingram and Brian Silverman, “The Cultural Contingency of Structure: Evidence from Entry to the Slave Trade in and around the Abolition Movement,” AJS 121 (November 2016): 755–97.

2016
Delia Baldassarri, “Cooperative Networks: Altruism, Group Solidarity, Reciprocity, and Sanctioning in Ugandan Producer Organizations,” AJS 121 (September 2015).
Ivan Ermakov, “The Structure of Contingency,” AJS 121 (July 2015).

2015
Daniel A. McFarland, Dan Jurafsky, and Craig Rawlings, “Making the Connection: Social Bonding in Courtship Situations” AJS 118 (May 2013): 1596–1649.

2014
Christopher Muller, “Northward Migration and the Rise of Racial Disparity in American Incarceration, 1880–1950” AJS 118 (September 2012): 281–326.

2013
Aliya Saperstein and Andrew Penner, “Racial Fluidity and Inequality in the United States” AJS 118 (November 2012): 676–727.

2012
James Montgomery, “The Population Dynamics of Black-White Mulatto Racial Systems”AJS 117 (July 2011): 46–89.

2011
Balazs Vedres and David Stark, “Structural Folds: Generative Disruption in Overlapping Groups” AJS 115 (2010): 1150–90.

2010
Patrick Sharkey, “The Intergenerational Transmission of Context,”AJS 113 (2008): 931–69.

2009
Shelley J. Correll, Stephen Benard, and In Paik, “Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?” AJS 112 (2007): 1297–1339.

2008
Roberto Garvia, “Syndication, Institutionalization, and Lottery Play,” AJS 113 (2007): 603–52.

2007
Elizabeth E. Bruch and Robert D. Mare, “Neighborhood Choice and Neighborhood Change,” AJS 112 (2006): 667–709.

2006
Michael Rosenfeld, “A Critique of Exchange Theory in Mate Selection,” AJS 110 (2005): 1284–1325.

2005
Peter Bearman, Kate Stovel, and James Moody, “Chains of Affection: The Structure of Adolescent Romantic and Sexual Networks,” AJS 109 (2004): 44–91.

2004
John Levi Martin, “Power, Authority, and the Constraint of Belief Systems,” AJS 107 (2002): 861–904.