The PSA is best known for its annual conference and academic journal Sociological Perspectives.
[1] The Pacific Sociological Association was established in October 1929, when Emory S. Bogardus of the University of Southern California called together a group of area sociologists for the purpose of organizing a society.
[2] The organization was originally called the Pacific Southwest Sociological Society.
The goal of the charter members was to emerge from the isolation in which they had been at their respective institutions in order to, in union, promote sociological research and teaching.
Recent Presidents include: 2014-15 Dr. Patricia A. Gwartney of the University of Oregon, 2015-16 Dr. Robert Nash Parker of UC Riverside, 2016-17 Dr. Karen Pyke of UC Riverside, 2017-18 Dr. Amy Orr of Linfield College, and 2018-19 Dr. Elaine Bell Kaplan of the University of Southern California.