Yuki Kato is a recipient of the 2026 Morris Rosenberg Award for Outstanding Sociological Achievement from the DC Sociological Society. Kato is an urban sociologist whose research interests intersect the subfields of social stratification, food and environmental justice, culture and consumption, and symbolic interaction. In addition, her nomination for the Rosenberg award highlights her contributions to teaching and community service. Kato is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Georgetown University and earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology at the University of California-Irvine.
In the words of her nominator, Professor Kato’s work “shows how urban politics and social relations structure the production and consumption of food.” Her new book, Gardens of Hope: Cultivating Food and the Future in a Post-Disaster City (NYU Press, 2025) is based on ethnographic observation, interview data, and content analysis of archival material drawn from urban growers’ experiences in post-Katrina New Orleans. In the book, Kato introduces the concept of “prefigurative urbanism” to account for the motivations and experiences of urban growers. She describes prefigurative urbanism as “a form of civic engagement to enact alternative futures now, but as individuals not as a collective social movement. … growers prioritized ‘doing something now’ over theorizing and organizing as they continued to innovate, adapt, and experiment in the garden. The book offers both inspirational and cautionary tales for those of us moved to take actions in times of crisis and uncertainties, and reveals what we often do not understand about what it takes to start and sustain a cultivation project in the city.” Professor Kato has also published 14 peer-reviewed articles and a 2020 co-edited volume, A Recipe for Gentrification: Food Power, and Resistance, which also includes a chapter she co-authored with a community grower/scholar. Her nominator notes that “her entire body of work stimulates both academic research and urban policy.” She is currently working on several research projects, including one that uncovers and examines the history and memories of local food provisioning practice in DC’s Black communities.
Regarding her teaching, the award nomination explains that “Dr. Kato teaches courses that apply sociological insights to a range of pressing social issues to integrate the classroom and the ‘real world.’” These include a community-based learning course called Environmental and Food Justice Movements, which examines environment and food through the lens of social justice and human inequality, specifically focusing on categories of race, class, and gender. “This course reflects her fundamental sociological approach, sensitive to both human action and the social context. Students from the class praise the way the course makes connections in the classroom that introduce and inspire efforts to remove barriers in society.”
Kato’s community engagement includes contributions to conversations across the Georgetown campus and the broader DMV community, including talks such as “Cultivating DC’s Food Economy to Sustain Racial Justice” for the Georgetown MLK Initiative. She has participated in the Georgetown Prison Initiative, serving on the faculty advisory council for the Bachelor of Liberal Arts and teaching a course at DC Jail through the Georgetown Scholars program. She has been an active member of the DC Food Policy Council’s Urban Agriculture Working Group, and has consistently involved local urban farmers and advocates as research and teaching collaborators. Her nomination concludes that “Professor Kato’s service to her department, university, discipline, and the broader DMV community is outstanding” and “the intellectual community of sociologists in the DMV is improved by her presence.”
Yuki Kato will receive the Rosenberg award at the annual DCSS Awards Reception on April 30, 2026.
The Morris Rosenberg Award is presented for outstanding sociological achievement during the past three years by any member of DCSS. Nominations are encouraged for individuals from any career setting, including but not limited to: academics, government service, private research, consulting, retirement and/or independent scholarship. Achievements may include—but are not limited to—scholarship, teaching and mentoring, use of sociology in public policy analysis, contributions to professional organizations, advancement of public awareness of sociological practice, or leadership in the use of sociological knowledge in non-traditional settings.
Morris Rosenberg began his career as Assistant Professor of Sociology at Cornell University in 1955, and moved to the Laboratory on Socio-environmental Studies of the National Institute of Mental Health in 1957. He re-entered the academic world in 1974 as Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1974, and joined the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park in 1975, where he taught until his death in 1992. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale is a widely-used measure in social science research. Read more about the Rosenberg award, including a list of past winners, on the DCSS website.
