51茶馆

Nancy T. Ammerman is professor emerita at Boston University School of Theology, where she served as professor of sociology of religion (2003-2019), after having previously taught at Emory University鈥檚 Candler School of Theology (1984-95), and at Hartford Seminary鈥檚 Hartford Institute for Religion Research (1995-2003).聽 At Boston University, she also served the College of Arts and Sciences as associate dean of the faculty for the social sciences (2015-18), as chair of the department of sociology (2007-13), and director of the graduate division of religious studies (2014-15).聽Ammerman鈥檚 earliest work explored grassroots Fundamentalists and analyzed the organizational architecture of the 1980s conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. Her most recent research has focused on everyday lived religion across a wide religious and geographic spectrum, including working with Grace Davie (University of Exeter) to coordinate an international team of scholars to assess 鈥淩eligions and Social Progress鈥� for the International Panel on Social Progress.

Ruth Braunstein聽is associate professor of Sociology聽at the University of Connecticut, where she is director of Undergraduate Studies and director of the聽Meanings of Democracy Lab.聽A cultural sociologist interested in the role of religion and morality in American political life, Braunstein's award-winning research has been published in the top peer-reviewed journals in her field,聽and聽has been covered in major news outlets including the聽New York Times,聽Washington Post, and聽Time Magazine.聽She also writes frequently for public audiences, including at聽The Guardian,聽Religion News Service, and聽The Conversation.聽

Her forthcoming book,聽My Tax Dollars: The Morality of Taxpaying in America聽(Princeton University Press),聽examines how the mundane act of taxpaying can, under certain circumstances, become infused with intense moral significance -- sometimes positive, sometimes negative聽--聽with major implications for American politics and institutions.聽This聽project is supported by grants from聽the聽Louisville Institute, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR), the聽Swarthmore College Peace Collection, and the University of Connecticut.聽

Jack Delehanty is an associate professor of sociology at Clark University. His research addresses how religion and moral thinking contour American civic life and politics. His recent book,聽Making Moral Citizens, explains how community organizers bring people together across race, class, and religious lines to build collective political power. Delehanty has also studied how religion can animate conservative politics and fuel discriminatory attitudes.

Cheryl Townsend Gilkes is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor Emerita of African-American Studies and Sociology at Colby College (Waterville, Maine). An ordained Baptist minister, she is an assistant pastor for special projects at the Union Baptist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has served as visiting faculty at several seminaries and schools of divinity, most recently Chicago Theological Seminary and Yale University. She also serves as a Distinguished Professor, Community Liaison, and Research Consultant for the Hartford International University for Religion and Peace (formerly Hartford Seminary). She holds degrees in sociology from Northeastern University (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.), has pursued graduate theological studies at Boston University's School of Theology, and has received an honorary Doctor of Divinity (D. D.) from Ursinus College. In addition to her book, If It Wasn't for the Women: Black Women's Experience and Womanist Culture in Church and Community, she has published articles in scholarly journals and edited volumes on race and ethnicity, the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, and African American religion. She has also published sermons in several journals and edited volumes. Until the pandemic, she was "Dr. Dr. Cheryl" on Colby College's radio station where she hosted a gospel music radio show, "The Uncloudy Day," for 19 years. Since the pandemic, she has contributed several opinion pieces to Religion News Service and has written the introduction to the fiftieth anniversary publication of James Cone鈥檚 book, The Spirituals and the Blues: An Interpretation.

M. Cathleen Kaveny聽is a scholar who focuses on the relationship of law, religion, and morality, serves as the Darald and Juliet Libby Professor at Boston College, a position that includes appointments in both the department of theology and the law school. She is the first faculty member to hold such a joint appointment. A member of the Massachusetts Bar, Kaveny clerked for the Honorable John T. Noonan Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and worked as an associate at the Boston law firm of Ropes & Gray in its health law group. She was the 2018-2019 Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in Ethics and American History at the Kluge Center of the Library of Congress. Kaveny has published four books and over a hundred articles and essays, in journals and books specializing in law, ethics, and medical ethics. She serves on the masthead of聽Commonweal聽as a regular columnist. Her books include聽Law鈥檚 Virtues: Fostering Autonomy and Solidarity in American Society聽(Georgetown University Press, 2012);聽A Culture of Engagement: Law, Religion, and Morality聽(Georgetown University Press, 2016);聽Prophecy without Contempt: Religious Discourse in the Public Square聽(Harvard University Press, 2016); and聽Ethics at the Edges of Law: Christian Moralists and American Legal Thought聽(Oxford University Press, 2018). Kaveny regularly teaches contract law to first-year law students. She also teaches a number of seminars which explore the relationship between theology, philosophy, and law, such as 鈥淔aith, Morality, and Law,鈥� 鈥淢ercy and Justice,鈥� and 鈥淐omplicity.鈥� Kaveny is the chair of the board of trustees of the聽Journal of Religious Ethics.聽She has been the president of the Society of Christian Ethics, the major professional society for scholars of Christian ethics and moral theology in North America. It meets annually in conjunction with the Society of Jewish Ethics and the Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics. Kaveny has served on a number of editorial boards including聽The American Journal of Jurisprudence,聽The Journal of Religious Ethics, the聽Journal of Law and Religion, and聽The Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics. She has been a visiting professor at Princeton University, Yale University, and Georgetown University, and a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago鈥檚 Martin Marty Center. From 1995 until 2013 she taught law and theology at the University of Notre Dame, where she was a John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law.聽

Sarah Riccardi-Swartz is an assistant professor of religion and anthropology at Northeastern University, where she is also an affiliate faculty member in the Women鈥檚, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. Her research focuses on conservative politics, race, media worlds, gender and sexuality, and Orthodox Christianity. She is the author of聽Between Heaven and Russia: Religious Conversion and Political Authority in Appalachia聽(Fordham University Press, 2022). She produced and directed聽Pixelating Holiness, a short documentary film which screened at the Margaret Mead Film Festival in 2018. Beyond academic work, she has appeared on numerous podcasts and has written for The Immanent Frame, The Conversation, Canopy Forum, and Religion Dispatches. Her work on religion and politics in the United States has been supported by the Social Science Research Council, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Citizens and Scholars (formerly the Woodrow Wilson Foundation), the Fetzer Institute, and the Louisville Institute, among others.

Mark Silk is Professor of Religion in Public Life Emeritus at Trinity College, from which he retired in June 2023. After receiving his Ph.D. in history from Harvard University, he edited the聽Boston Review聽and spent 10 years as a reporter, editorial writer, and columnist for the聽Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In 1996 he became the founding聽director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life as well as a faculty member at Trinity College. He is the author of聽Spiritual Politics: Religion and America Since World War聽II,聽Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America, and (with Andrew Walsh)聽One Nation, Divisible: How Regional Religious Differences Shape American Politics. He has co-edited two book series, Religion by Region (8 vols.) and The Future of Religion in America (5 vols.). Currently he is a contributing editor and weekly columnist for the Religion News Service and a visiting scholar at the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.

Evan Stewart is an assistant professor of sociology at University of Massachusetts Boston. His research centers on a variety of topics focused on the stakes of pluralism in social life: what brings diverse groups of people together and what breaks them apart? This work currently focuses on climate inequality, religious pluralism, and belonging in public life. This work has appeared in American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Problems, and Sociological Theory, among other outlets. Stewart is also an associate editor at the journal Sociology of Religion. Public sociology is an important part of his scholarly work. He was a 2021-2022 fellow with the Public Religion Research Institute and the editor and principal author at Sociological Images - one of the largest sociology blogs in the country. Stewart's research has also been featured on media outlets including WBUR Boston, The Conversation, Washington Post鈥檚 Monkey Cage, and FiveThirtyEight. Stewart earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Minnesota, where he worked as an Edelstein Fellow with the 聽and an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellow with the .聽He also holds an M.A. in Sociology from UMN and a B.A. in Political Theory and Social Policy from Michigan State University鈥檚 James Madison College.

Dr. Aaron Q. Weinstein is an assistant professor in the Department of Politics at Fairfield University. He specializes in American political thought, with a particular emphasis upon the American Civil Religion (ACR). His research has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed scholarly outlets, including Politics, Religion & Ideology; American Political Thought; and New Political Science, among others.

Rhys H. Williams (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, 1988) is professor emeritus of Sociology at Loyola University Chicago.聽 His research interests focus on religion in American politics and culture, including recent attention to the politics of immigration in public discourse and attitudes.聽 His books include聽A Bridging of Faiths: Religion and Politics in a New England City聽(Princeton 1992; w/ N.J. Demerath III),聽Cultural Wars in American Politics聽(Aldine 1997),聽Religion & Progressive Activism聽(New York University Press, w/ Ruth Braunstein and Todd Fuist), and聽Civil Religion Today: Religion and the American Nation in the 21st聽Century聽(NYU Press, w/ Ray Haberski and Philip Goff).聽 Williams鈥� articles have appeared in the聽American Sociological Review,聽Social Problems,聽Sociological Theory,聽Theory & Society,聽Sociology of Religion, and the聽Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, among others.