Associate Chair Steven J. Gold

Associate Chair

Steven J. Gold is professor and graduate program director in the Department of Sociology at Michigan State University. Educated at Brandeis University, UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley, his interests include international migration, ethnic economies, ethnic community development and qualitative field methods. The past president of the International Visual Sociology Association, and past chair of the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association, Gold is the author, co-author or co-editor of six books including Refugee Communities: A Comparative Field Study (Sage 1992); From The Workers’ State to The Golden State (Allyn and Bacon 1995); Immigration Research for a New Century: Multidisciplinary Perspectives with Rubén G. Rumbaut and Nancy Foner (Russell Sage Foundation, 2000); and Ethnic Economies with Ivan Light (Academic Press, 2000). The Israeli Diaspora (Routledge/University of Washington Press 2002) won the Thomas and Znaniecki Award from the ASA’s International Migration Section for the best book on international migration in 2003. His most recent book, The Store in the Hood: A Century of Ethnic Business and Conflict (Roman and Littlefield) was published in 2010.

Together with Rubén G. Rumbaut, Gold is the editor of The New Americans book series from LFB Academic Publishers which includes over 70 volumes. He has published several articles about visual sociology. His photographs have appeared in numerous sociological monographs and textbooks and are part of the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Library and the Museum of Chinese in the Americas in New York City. Gold received the Charles Horton Cooley Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Sociology from the Michigan Sociology Association in October 2007.

A member of the editorial boards of Sociological Methodology and Qualitative Sociology, he is currently editing The International Handbook of Migration Research with Professor Stephanie Nawyn of Michigan State University.

Research Interests

• Ethnic Economies and Communities, Ethnic Conflict.

Areas of Specialization: Migration; Community and Urban

Subareas: Ethnic Community Development, Ethnic Economies, International Migration, Qualitative Field Methods, Race, Visual Sociology

Selected Publications

Steven J. Gold “Israelis and Israeli Americans, 1940-Present” in Elliot Barkan (ed.) Immigrants in American History: Arrival, Adaptation and Integration, Volume 3, pp. 1029-1039, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC Clio, 2013.

Steven J. Gold “Enhanced Agency for Recent Jewish Migrants to the US,” Contemporary Jewry Online First, April 2013

Steven J. Gold “Three Studies of the Portuguese Diaspora in North America” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 2012 19:1, 103-112.

Recent Publications

Gold, Steven J. and Nawyn, Stephanie J. (eds.). 2013. The Routledge International Handbook of Migration Studies. London: Routledge Press.

Steve Gold recently published a photo essay in ASA's journal Contexts entitled "Michigan's Public Square". The article discusses "certain public places locations that continue to be important places where people meet to advance various causes and to bask in the proximity of shared symbols." (read photo essay)

More Publications

Awards and Honors

Charles Horton Cooley Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Sociology, Michigan Sociology Association, East Lansing, October 2007

Award for Exemplary Work for the Mid-Michigan International Community from the American Red Cross and Refugee Services, Lansing Michigan, March 22, 2007

The Israeli Diaspora receives American Sociological Association International Migration Section Thomas and Znaniecki Book Award, for Best Book in International Migration, 2003