Visiting Faculty and Scholars
Roger Baumann
Roger Baumann is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Hope College. His research and teaching focus on race, religion, and global political solidarities.
Janna Hunter-Bowman
Janna L. Hunter-Bowman is Associate Professor of Peace Studies and Christian Social Ethics and Director of Peace Studies at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, In. Her first book Witnessing Peace: Becoming Agents Under Duress in Colombia (Routledge 2022) is rooted in 10 years of peacebuilding and research in Latin America. Additional publications include essays in the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, Political Theology, the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, and Mennonite Quarterly Review. Her research and teaching interests occur at the intersection of international peace studies, peace theology, political theology, action research, ethnographically driven theology, and Latin American critical studies. Her second book-length project focuses on undocumented immigrants in the United States as agents under duress. Louisville Institute’s Sabbatical Grant for Researchers supports this project titled “Beyond sanctuary: new orientations for church support of immigrants.” She received her PhD from the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and the Theology Department at the University of Notre Dame.
Khari Brown
Dr. R. Khari Brown is a sociology professor at Wayne State University. He teaches classes and does research on the sociology of religion. His research explores how race impacts the relationship between religion and social-political behaviors and attitudes. He is a co-investigator of National Politics Study, a project funded by the Louisville Institute, the Issachar Fund, and the University of Michigan. The National Politics Study is a bi-annual study that assesses American political attitudes and behaviors and religious life. He also was the 2021/2022 President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.
Tricia Bruce
Tricia C. Bruce (PhD, University of California Santa Barbara) is a sociologist of religion who researches Catholicism and the contours of organizational and attitudinal change. Her award-winning books and reports include Parish and Place; Faithful Revolution; American Parishes; Polarization in the US Catholic Church; and How Americans Understand Abortion (cited in the Washington Post, Atlantic, Commonweal, and more). Her writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Science Advances, Review of Religious Research, U.S. Catholic Historian, and elsewhere. Dr. Bruce serves as Chair of the American Sociological Association’s Sociology of Religion Section and council member for the Association for the Sociology of Religion. Personal website: triciabruce.com.
Katie Comeau
Research Interests: Religion, Organizations, Development, Theory
Shanna Corner
Research Interests: Global and transnational sociology, cultural sociology, political culture, human rights, law and society, gender, religion, intergovernmental organizations, comparative-historical sociology
Michael Emerson
Research Interests: Race and Ethnic Relations, Religion, Urban, and Methods
Jacqui Frost
Jacqui Frost is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Purdue University. She is a mixed-methods scholar whose research integrates cultural sociology, sociology of religion, science and technology studies, and sociology of health. Most broadly, her work investigates the causes and consequences of religious disaffiliation in the United States. She is currently working on projects that examine conceptions of ritual and community in nonreligious congregations, the ways religious change shapes health and wellbeing, and conceptions of science as sacred in the transhumanist movement. Her recent research has been published in American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Poetics, and Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. You can learn more about Jacqui's research at jacquifrost.com.
Donna Freitas
Interests: Religion, Spirituality, Young Adults, Hookup Culture, Social Media, The Big Questions, and Meaning-Making
Edwin Hernandez
Interests: Latino Religious Experience, Theological Education, Congregational Studies, Evaluation, Education Initiatives
Ricardo Martinez-Schuldt
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Rutgers University. Generally, my research examines how local contexts shape human behavior and institutional actions in the areas of criminology and international migration. My current research, for example, considers the impact of immigrant “sanctuary” policies, immigration, and non-profit organizations on city-level violence as well as their effects on the likelihood that individuals report crime victimization to law enforcement officials.
Bridget Ritz
Interests: Culture, Religion, Science, Pragmatism, Critical Realism, Qualitative Methods
Megan Rogers
Interests: Religion, China, culture, social theory, qualitative methods
Jason Klocek
Research Interests: Religion in Conflict, State Counterinsurgency and Repression, and Civil Wars and Political Violence
Roberta Ricucci
Research Interests: Migration in Europe, Second Generation and School Integation, Muslims in Western Societies, Religious Diversity and Pluralism, Multiculturalism
Nathanael Sumaktoyo
Research Interests: Religion and Politics, Voting Behavior, Political Psychology, and Social Networks
Michael Skaggs
Research Interests: History of American religion
Michael Wood
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology
Brigham Young University