RESEARCH
Concern for social inequality animates my research. Justice is expressed in varied ideas about goodness, fairness, and equality, and it is embodied in social movements and institutions as they apply or subvert these contested values. Both criminology and the sociology of religion address the issue of justice with complementary yet distinct theorizing; I attempt to blend both as I study the combined role of religious values, norms of deviance, and racialization in different social outcomes. All of these factors are dynamic; for instance, religion can serve as an agent of informal social control and justify maintenance of the status quo, but it can also inspire activism and social change.
I am trained in the use of quantitative methods and have proficiency with Stata, SAS, R, SPSS, GeodaSpace, and ArcGIS. My published research draws upon a variety of quantitative techniques, including linear regression, hierarchical linear modeling, structural equation modeling, and spatial modeling. Through past and ongoing research, I am familiar with a number of data sets, including the FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), the Social Reality Index: A National Survey of Fears (2015), the National Survey of Youth and Religion, the Baylor Religion Surveys, the US Religious Congregations and Membership Study (2010 RCMS), Religion Among Scientists in International Context (RASIC), the US Census, and the American Community Survey (ACS).
Current and Future Research
Black or Blue? A Pilot Study of Religious and Political Sources of Moral Attitudes Towards Police and Protest
UPDATE (8/3/18): I recently received a Jack Shand Research Grant from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion to conduct pilot interviews of individuals from a variety of Christian communities in Houston, Texas. I seek to understand perceptions of police and emerging protest movements, such as Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, Antifa, and white nationalism. I will study how religion and politics frame responses to incidents of police-minority violence, as well as attitudes toward and participation in social movements responding to racial and economic injustice.
Religion & Differential Justice
Extending my dissertation research, I continue to explore how religious, political, and media-related influences relate to racial inequality in the US criminal justice system. Specifically, I am currently studying how racial privilege influences attitudes about the police in an emerging era of smartphones and online video-sharing, how the traditional Black Church assuages crime in the South, and whether religion improves or exacerbates post-incarceration health outcomes.
Stratification among Scientists
Using Religion Among Scientists in International Context, a cross-national study on the attitudes, values, and behaviors of biologists and physicists, I am exploring dynamics related to race, gender, immigration, and religiosity among scientists across the globe. Two papers related to this research have been submitted to the upcoming annual meeting for the American Sociological Association in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Faith at Work: An Empirical Study
The Faith at Work project explores how people of all faiths understand the relationship between their religious faith and their work, including issues related to religious discrimination and religious inequality in the workplace. It will include focus groups, a large national survey (N=12,000), and follow up interviews. My roles in the project include leading instrument design and recruiting focus group participants.