David Knight earns IAS Membership and Multiple ASA Honors

David Knight has been selected as a 2026–27 Member of the Institute for Advanced Study. This is an exceptional honor that recognizes the significance of his scholarship. You can read the announcement here.

David has also received the 2026 American Sociological Association Early Career Award for Community-Engaged Scholarship, an ASA-wide award recognizing outstanding contributions at the intersection of scholarship and public engagement. The ASA noted that the award recognizes David as “a scholar who has skillfully translated complex theoretical concepts into accessible and usable tools for social change” and as a scholar who is “poised to remain a leader in the field for years to come.” You can read the full citation here. 

Finally, David’s 2025 American Sociological Review article, “Contesting the State: Embodied Threat and the Emergence of Prisoner Mobilization,” has garnered remarkable recognition across the discipline. The article received the following honors:

• Winner, 2026 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Article Award from the ASA Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements
• Winner, 2026 Distinguished Article Award from the ASA Sociology of Law Section
• Honorable Mention, 2026 Distinguished Article Award, ASA Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance
• Honorable Mention, 2026 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Article Award, ASA Political Sociology Section