The Mary Ellen Konieczny Award
An award for the best graduate student Sociology of Religion Paper at the University of Notre Dame.
Mary Ellen Konieczny, a native of Buffalo, NY, studied earth science and philosophy as an undergrad at Notre Dame and had worked for the Archdiocese of Chicago. She earned a master of divinity from Weston Jesuit School of Theology and a PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago.
Much of her work focused on religion and society in the US, including an exploration in her book The Spirit's Tether: Family, Work, and Religion among American Catholics of how religion and family life shape Catholic Americans' moral and political polarization. She also wrote an organizational culture case study of the US Air Force Academy that explored polarization in US religion.
This Year's Recipient
2018 Sarah Johnson