I am Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at Southern Illinois University. I have published 47 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including many in top general interest sociology journals like Social Forces, American Sociological Review, and Social Science Research. I do a lot of editorial work, and have served on the editorial boards of American Sociological Review, Social Forces and American Journal of Sociology, and I am currently on the editorial boards of Social Science Research and Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. I was editor and book review editor of Review of Religious Research from 1999-2001.
On a personal note, I race road bikes, cyclocross, and even mountain bikes sometimes. I race for Team Mack Racing, which is a nice bunch of mostly master's racers.
Most of my work has been on the intersection of religion, family, and politics. I tend to explore individual level theories and data, with a quantitative bent for most of my work. Much of my earlier work hailed from the rational actor tradition, and I still find that perspective quite useful. I have also melded rational actor models with structuration theories to provide more nuances for explaining social processes.
While the bulk of recent studies of religion in the US have tended to focus on the benefits of religion for individuals and society, I tend to focus on features of religion that are not necessarily so wholesome, with a particular focus on contemporary American conservative Christianity. My previous investigations have included inquiries into harsh parenting practices among fundamentalist Christians, Fundamentalists’ opposition to civil liberties, and the negative impact of fundamentalism on educational and occupational attainment.
Substantively, I continue to work on several projects investigating the character and dynamics of religious beliefs and affiliations in the contemporary United States. Among these are: examinations of the religious propensities of US immigrants, and how these are influenced by nativity and contexts of mobility (with Fawaz Alanezi and Nadia Amin); the impact of religion on opposition to same sex marriage (with Melissa Powell-Williams and Gregory Maddox); the influence of sectarian affiliation and fundamentalist beliefs on verbal ability (with Yang Yang and Chris Ellison); and the effect of conservative religion on hostility towards U.S. Immigrants. Currently, I’m gearing up for a major assault on the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, where I’ll be investigating the impact of religious factors on sexuality, cognitive development, educational attainment, and early career and family formation. I’ll be on sabbatical in 2008-2009. Finally!!!- sociology of religion
- social movements and collective behavior
- statistics and methods
- medical sociology
- contemporary sociological theory
SOC 551: Sociology of Religion
SOC 526a: Quantitative Methods in Sociology
SOC 510: Quantitative Sociological Research
Lecture 1 and 2: Sociology as a Social Science.
Biology, Culture and Society: Chapter 5
Stratification and Social Class