David A. Snow, UC Irvine sociology Distinguished Professor emeritus, has been named the recipient of the W.E.B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award. The honor is the American Sociological Association’s highest award, recognizing a lifetime of work, outstanding commitment to sociology, and research achievements that have reoriented the field.

“Snow’s research over the last fifty years has transformed the way we think about inequality and social movements,” says David John Frank, UC Irvine sociology professor and chair. “In fields dominated by attention to large-scale social structures, Snow refocused the spotlight onto the strategic dynamics of meaning-making. He brought people back to the center of sociology.”

Based on his research on religious movements and conversion processes in the 1970s and on homeless movements in the early 80s, Snow developed a new theory for better understanding how the interests and views of social movement leaders and participants align for the purposes of collective mobilization. Coined as “frame alignment,” his theory led to the now widely influential framing perspective on social movements, which has been applied in sociology, political science, public policy and organizational studies as a way to better understand collective mobilization of all kinds.

Snow has authored or co-authored more than 140 articles and chapters and 12 books, including the award-winning Down on Their Luck: A Study of Homeless Street People (with L. Anderson) and most recently, as lead co-editor, the five volume second edition of the Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements which includes 600 entries on initiatives spanning political and religious movements throughout history to socioeconomic and rights-based inequalities, offering a timely update on movements across the U.S. and worldwide.

“Professor Snow's scholarly output is notable for its volume and for its enduring reach and impact, thereby marking him as one of the most distinguished sociologists of his generation,” says Jyoti Puri, Boston University sociology professor and award committee chair.

A past president of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction and the Pacific Sociological Association and past vice president of the American Sociological Association, Snow has been lauded for his work. In 2008, the Society for the Study of Social Problems awarded him the Lee Founders Award for career contributions to the study of social problems. In 2011, he earned UCI’s highest campus-level distinction for faculty – the title of Distinguished Professor, and in 2012, the UCI Alumni Association named him the 2012 Lauds & Laurels Outstanding Faculty award winner. A year later, he received the John D. McCarthy Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Scholarship of Social Movements and Collective Behavior. Awarded by the University of Notre Dame Center for the Study of Social Movements, the honor recognized Snow for his extraordinary achievements in social movement research and mentorship of interdisciplinary scholars. In 2016, he received the George Herbert Mead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction in recognition of his contributions to the field of symbolic interactionism, a major sociological perspective that has influenced many sociological sub-fields – including Snow’s areas of expertise. And last year, he received the Aldon Morris Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Scholarship of Social Movements from ASA’s Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section.

“It was with shocking surprise and a humbling sense of honor to have been selected as the 2025 recipient of the W.E.B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award, especially given the esteemed list of previous recipients, including late UCI colleague Robin M. Williams, Jr,” says Snow. “I know well that such awards are not achievable alone. So it’s important to acknowledge the support of my many colleagues over the years at the Universities of Texas (1976-87) and Arizona (1987-2001) and UCI, as well as the many graduate students with whom I have worked, ranging from now retired Leon Anderson and Rob Benford at the University of Texas to Catherine Corrigall-Brown, Sharon Oselin, Dana Moss, and Pablo Victoria Torres, among others, at UCI, and most importantly my family, including my late wife Judy and my current wife and fellow sociologist, Roberta Lessor.”

“Without the support of my colleagues, students, and family members, the receipt of this professionally honorable award would have been improbable.”

Snow will receive his award at a ceremony during ASA’s annual meeting which will be held Aug. 8-12 this year in Chicago.