BU professor wins 2020 Emerald Literati Outstanding Author Contribution Award

A research paper by Brandon University (BU) professor Dr. Christopher J. Schneider has been recognized with an international award from one of the world’s largest academic publishers.

Schneider was the recipient of a 2020 Emerald Literati Outstanding Author Contribution Award announced in November, recognizing his contribution to updating sociological frameworks for the 21^st century.

The award was given for Schneider’s 2019 published paper, “2017 Couch-Stone Symposium Keynote Address: The Interaction Order in the Twenty-First Century and the Case of Police Legitimacy,” which appeared in Volume 50 of Studies in Symbolic Interaction, and was originally presented as an invited keynote address in Milwaukee in 2017.

“The paper can be read as a summation of the analytical approach used across my scholarly work,” Schneider said. “It draws on a few examples from my policing research to illustrate the importance of sociologist Georg Simmel’s theoretical approach in amending Canadian-born sociologist Erving Goffman’s analytical interaction order framework as it relates to social interaction in a mediated social context, like on social media.”

While the interaction order framework was originally developed under Goffman’s assumption that most people spent much of their daily lives in the direct presence of other people, the rise of electronic communication and social media means that face-to-face interaction is now paralleled by online and digital interaction that must also be considered and addressed.

“This is a wonderful recognition for the type of important research that helps further an entire discipline, and we are all extremely proud of Dr. Schneider,” said Dr. Lisa Robson, Acting Dean of Arts at BU. “This international award shows once again that Brandon University produces top-calibre work and is making a difference around the world.”

Schneider says he is pleased by the Emerald Literati Award recognition, especially given that his paper was invited for publication by esteemed emeritus professor Norman K. Denzin, the series editor, who called the paper a “major statement.”

“I am very honored and grateful to have my work recognized with this prestigious award as having in some small way contributed to the larger body of scholarship.” Schneider points out that a young Erving Goffman, who originated the interaction order framework, spent his early formative years in Dauphin and Winnipeg. “The paper engages with Goffman’s work, who was a towering figure of 20th century sociology, so it is nice to bring this award a little closer to his early homestead, as it were.”

The Emerald Literati Awards have celebrated scholarly excellence in author contributions in Emerald Publishing for over 25 years. Founded in the United Kingdom in 1967, Emerald Publishing operates worldwide and manages over 300 journals and more than 3,000 books and series volumes across many academic fields.

The 2020 Emerald Literati Awards recognize outstanding author contributions published in 2019. The Outstanding Author Contribution Award is given in recognition of “authors who have contributed something new or of significant value to the body of knowledge, either in terms of approach or subject matter.”

Schneider is currently on sabbatical leave from Brandon University and is working on several research and writing projects. He has a forthcoming peer-reviewed academic paper that looks at policing during the COVID-19 pandemic, has authored several opinion essays including a satirical piece drawing attention to automation in law enforcement published in the Ottawa Citizen, and has given numerous news media interviews including NBC and WGN-TV in Chicago.

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