Founded in 1976 by the late Covenant Professor of Sociology Russell Heddendorf, the annual Association of Christians Teaching Sociology conference allows Christian scholars in sociology to share their research and enter dialogues with colleagues and students.

Graduating students Caleb Mask ’10 and Adrienne Saxon ’10 joined Sociology Professors Marr Vos and Toni Chiareli at the 2010 ACTS conference, where all four presented papers.

“ACTS is the most active association of Christian sociologists in the country,” says Dr. Chiareli, who served two years as president. Dr. Vos is currently vice president of the association.

The group began in 1976, when Dr. Russell Heddendorf, then Chair of the Department of Sociology at Geneva College, invited sociologists from various Christian colleges to come to Geneva College for a meeting of dialogue and exchange. At that time the group was informally known as STCC (Sociologists Teaching in Christian Colleges).

Since then about 25 to 50 people have met each June, at various colleges. In 1985, several officers from CSS (the Christian Sociological Society) met with ACTS, strengthening the working relationships between these two groups, which has existed from the inception of ACTS.

At this year’s ACTS conference, Vos presented “Those Who Mourn,” a personal essay dealing with the reality that the world is not as it should be. He also invited two graduating sociology majors to present their senior integration papers as part of the undergraduate research portion.

Adrienne Saxon presented “May I Borrow Your Glasses? – Seeing Life Through the Lens of Five African American Girls.”

Caleb Mask’s paper, “Watches and the Grip of Time,” explored man’s alienation from and submission to time, manifest in the portable measuring device, the watch.

“It was wonderful,” says Mask. Saxon agrees, noting “the conference broadened my understanding of the discipline.”

Involving students in the wider academic community is a vital part of Covenant’s sociology department, says Chiareli. “We are a close-knit department. Our goal is to give students the experience of doing scholarly work and presenting that work professionally.”

Chiareli’s paper, entitled “That’s Amore,” reviewed the preliminary findings of research he conducted in Rome, Italy, along with five Covenant students: Michael Bowser ’10, Ashley-Marie Chinchen ’11, Haley Garis ’11, Jane Travis ’12, and Amanda Van Camp ’10.

The 35th annual meeting of the Association of Christians Teaching Sociology will be held June 9-12, 2011 at St. Olaf College www.stolaf.edu in Northfield, Minnesota – about 40 miles due south of the Twin Cities. For information on the Call for Papers contact Val Hiebert at [email protected]