Sociology of Religion

[Marcone]

Hey folks, 

 

I'm currently in the MA religion program at Duke and am finding myself being pulled rather strongly in the direction of sociology. I'm studying contemporary American atheism/humanism and am increasingly finding that sociology is where the action is. I'm also finding my study is more rewarding when considered in the context of social movements. 

 

I'm curious if anyone else here has made the jump from religious studies to sociology, what difficulties you may have gone through, and any advice you might have. More specifically, if anyone has any insight on how sociology departments might treat a departmental transfer like me in the application process, I would appreciate it. As someone currently in humanities who was an undergrad english major, I've already begun considering the inevitability of statistics and quantitative methods. Won't be fun but I get it. 

 

Anyway, thanks for any advice.

 

 

[dawgle]

I'm not coming from religious studies, but I'd never taken a sociology course per se and several of my letter-writers are in literature departments. I've received a few offers already, so I can't say I've been at much of a disadvantage. I would say it's a worthwhile investment to familiarize yourself with the history of sociology (I highly recommend Craig Calhoun's "Sociology in America") and the current state of the field. To the best of your ability, find a niche for yourself that plays to your strengths and interests and make sure that comes through in your application. You can show in some way that you're moderately competent in math (maybe with a decent GRE score), but in all likelihood most departments realize they can teach you that stuff later.

[Marcone]

Thanks, dawgle! it's good to know that i don't need to cram too much stats into my MA curriculum. Just to be more specific, I didn't mention I'm interested in soc PhD programs. 

[jacib]

I am a current sociology student, doing sociology of religion, with a religious studies undergrad.  I also applied for religious studies PhD programs, and even applied to Duke to work with Ebrahim Moosa (where I was rejected).  I'm definitely happy for so many reasons I ended up in sociology not religious studies.  Let me tell you though, I think you should apply to work as a social movements scholar looking at religious movements, rather than a sociologist of religion doing atheism/humanism as a social movement.  So look into social movements people and then augment them with religion people.  First of all, you're at Duke!  Go to talk to Mark Chaves this week.  He's huge and he's one of those figures that I think literally everyone in the field likes.  Seriously, he's great.  He's someone to even consider working with (though I don't know what his position is at the sociology department over there, and I don't know if he works with qualitative students, though his most cited article is qualitative).  Anyway, he'll give you better advice than anyone on the internet.

 

The "Dean of American Sociology of Religion" is Robert Wuthnow at Princeton.  If you look at current sociologists of religion, he trained a LOT of them.  He's getting up there in years.  But still, should definitely be on your list, even if it's a total reach, even if you're not particularly interested in Wuthnow's work, that needs to be on your list because that seems to be the place where people get the best sociology of religion training.

 

Phil Gorski at Yale does historical sociology, so if you're looking at this as a historical project (that is, archives not ethnography), he's a guy to look at working with.  He's working on civil religion right now and I really think he's going to push the field forward in a big way.  I can't say enough good things about his work.  If you're interested in ethnography, though, Yale's maybe not for you.

 

Minnesota has Peggy Edgell.  You should definitely apply to work with her.  There are a couple of other people to look at there as well.  Peggy Edgell recently co-edited a book that you should buy called Religion on the Edge, the first chapter of which is essentially a manifesto about the future of sociology of religion (there's an article version of the same ideas out there too, but you should buy the book).  The other editors are  Courtney Bender at Columbia, Wendy Cadge at Brandeis, and David Smilde at Georgia.  I like to think of them as a group of people desperately trying to remake sociology of religion (I was on a panel last week, and I had a question like "Wait, do you really have to argue against this kind of facile rational choice model [the economies of religion]?  Isn't that just a straw man?  Like, people don't take that seriously, do they?"  And I had to say "Yes, I do have to argue like that because yes they do take it seriously.  Sociology of religion is stupid, and we've taken a lot of wrong turns".  I'm optimistic about the future, but the sociology of religion has been a backwater for a number of years which is one of the reasons why you should really try to position yourself as someone working on social movements).  Brandeis and Georgia are smaller, less prestigious programs than the others on this list, but maybe worth a mention (Baylor might be in the same category; they're one of the few schools to really try to specialize in sociology of religion).  Courtney Bender is at Columbia's Religion Department even though she's a sociologist.  I know she works with sociology graduate students, but you'd have to find someone else in Columbia's actual Sociology Department to be your main adviser, and glancing quickly at their faculty list, I don't see anyone who does social movements stuff.  She just wrote a book though called The New Metaphysicals that might interest you and is really interested in testing the limits of "What do we study in sociology of religion?" (her first book/thesis was about religious discourse in a non-religious organization).

 

However, I recently met someone looking at religious social movements who works with Craig Calhoun at NYU.  And she mentioned she also works with Courtney Bender who's at Columbia.  So that's something.

 

UNC has at least good people who do religion, though maybe neither of them doing it the way you want to do it.  Christian Smith (who seems to be the "Dean of American Quantitative Sociology of Religion") and Charles Kurtzman (who mainly works on Islam and terrorism and things, but is very interested in religion and politics) and Margarita Mooney (who blogs for the Christian sociology of religion blog called Black, White, and Grey, so possibly would be less interested in atheism, but who knows).

 

UT Austin has some people doing religion as well (I think) but the one I can think of most immediately is Mark Regnerus  who has been in hot water lately (and has moved away from straight "religion" in general).  Look to see who else they have.

 

Michigan has Geneviève Zubrzycki who works on religion and nationalism (her thesis was on this in Poland, but is now looking at in Quebec).  You should check with her what kind of students she takes (she's young, and if you're the kind of project she works on, I'd imagine you'd be one of the first students she'd really advise). 

 

Another outside the top 25 school is USC which has Paul Lichterman and also Richard Flory, (here is a mainly the top 25, because it occurs to me you might not know them; the embedded image on my original post doesn't work, it's this).

 

Notre Dame has people, too, or did rather, but I'm blanking on who; I think the lost some big people.  I don't know if Arizona has anyone now that Chaves is gone.

 

That's not an exhaustive list, but it's a good start.  Seriously though, go talk to Mark Chaves and become his best friend.  He will know what's what with sociology of religion and sociology in general. Oh, and half of my cohort had no strong sociology background so don't even worry about that.  If your question is sociological, you can become a sociologist.  I think also like 6 out of the 8 of us or something ridiculous like that had graduate degrees in something other than sociology (including on in public policy and two law degrees) so it's not rare to come to sociology a little later.  If anyone else sees this, no, it's not common for that high a percentage of people to have graduate degrees; it was just a weird thing my year.  Still, let me urge you to position yourself as someone interested in social movements with religion second, rather than religion with social movements second.  My adviser doesn't really do sociology of religion, for example, but I could teach myself it.  You don't necessarily need anyone in the department who works on religion.

[faculty]

You can move toward Sociology and quantitative methods without getting a degree in Sociology. The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion is one of the most interdisciplinary I've seen. To be well-versed in Sociology literature and methods will only improve your status in the field if you opt to stay in Religious Studies. I agree that Mark Chaves is a wonderful resource, but I would be surprised if you didn't already know him given his cross-listed appointments. You can ask him, or others, about taking some classes (stats or otherwise) in the Sociology department.

 

I realize that you're not thinking about PhD programs in Sociology right now, but just to clarify for you or anyone else, people have moved around a bit since Jacib was exploring religion programs. Craig Calhoun is now director of the London School of Economics. Chris Smith is no longer at UNC. He now heads the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at Notre Dame. UT Austin lost a lot of clout in the sociology of religion after they lost Ellison (exacerbated by recent controversies with Regnerus), but other Texas programs have gained significantly in the area (Rice and Baylor). 

[Marcone]

Wow, thank you! Actually, Mark Chaves is my adviser at the moment. He gave me advice very similar to yours jacib; that is to think about doing social movements rather than straight sociology of religion. He also strongly urged me to beef up my background in quantitative methods. 

 

Jacib, this is an amazing response and I'll consider everything you said very seriously. I was already planning on getting in touch with some of those UNC folks and it's nice to hear I was on the right track. 

 

Thanks again!

[jacib]

I realize that you're not thinking about PhD programs in Sociology right now, but just to clarify for you or anyone else, people have moved around a bit since Jacib was exploring religion programs. Craig Calhoun is now director of the London School of Economics. Chris Smith is no longer at UNC. He now heads the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at Notre Dame. UT Austin lost a lot of clout in the sociology of religion after they lost Ellison (exacerbated by recent controversies with Regnerus), but other Texas programs have gained significantly in the area (Rice and Baylor). 

Whoops!  Clearly, this was all off the top of my head and it is not an exhaustive search.   Turns out, Christian Smith hasn't been at UNC since 2006... and I only applied in 2009, so I can't even used the "things have changed since then".  I knew there were some good people at Notre Dame!  Craig Calhoun is not best known for working on religion; he was just happened to be the adviser of a student working on American religious social movements that I met at a conference.

 

Wow, thank you! Actually, Mark Chaves is my adviser at the moment. He gave me advice very similar to yours jacib; that is to think about doing social movements rather than straight sociology of religion. He also strongly urged me to beef up my background in quantitative methods.

I'm happy to know that I'm giving the same advice as someone I respect as much as Mark Chaves!  If you're working on American religion, you certainly need to be able to read and interpret quantitative articles, but every sociology PhD program will teach you how to do that much.  More generally, you need to know the methods that will best answer your research questions.

 

Start getting (even) more into social movements literature. Here's a link to the American Sociological Association section caled "Collective Behavior and Social movements".  Look who is on the board, who is mentioned in their sample syllabi, etc. and where those people teach at.  Also, look at their awards page which will tell you who is "hot" in the field (don't just choose "hot" people--see if the work they do interests you).  Start reading the blogs Mobilizing Ideas and Org Theory, and look at the journal Mobilizations, while peaking at Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion and Sociology of Religion.  The University of Arizona's sociology department makes public the reading lists for its qualifying exams, which also kind of make handy self-teaching guides.  They took down the one for Religion (which is too bad, it was a good resource) but there is still one for Collective Behavior and Social Movements and Political Sociology.  Again, it's useful to see where the people on those reading lists teach. Oh wait, they didn't take down the Religion one, they just no longer link to it.  It's still online (though it hasn't been updated since Chaves left, apparently).  Section 2.D might be of particular interest to you.  Which reminds me, I think Melissa Wilde at UPenn is also someone to look at. 

[ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid]

Obviously biased, but Notre Dame is where it's at. Check out http://csrs.nd.edu http://cssm.nd.edu (new website coming soon for that) and http://mobilizingideas.wordpress.com/   The best thing (coming from someone with religious movements as my focus) is that there are a lot of faculty and a lot of grad students that will share interests in religion with you.  We have weekly workshops for culture, movements, education, and religion that allows peer to peer support. It is a very collaborative environment. People present drafts, paper ideas, r&r's, etc. at these workshops and the professors and students who attend read the paper and offer constructive feedback. It's a great place to be, plus you can really get plugged in fast with the department.

 

So, long story short, if you're interested in religion check out ND - especially if you also have any interests in culture, family, education, social movements, or social networks.

Edited February 6, 2013 by ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid

[jacib]

Minnesota has Peggy Edgell.  You should definitely apply to work with her.  There are a couple of other people to look at there as well.  Peggy Edgell recently co-edited a book that you should buy called Religion on the Edge, the first chapter of which is essentially a manifesto about the future of sociology of religion (there's an article version of the same ideas out there too, but you should buy the book).  The other editors are  Courtney Bender at Columbia, Wendy Cadge at Brandeis, and David Smilde at Georgia. 

Another mistake I realized I made when I was sitting at my desk looking at that book--the fourth person is *Peggy* Levitt at Wellesley, not *Penny* Edgell at Minnesota.  Oops!  Third mistake.  Anyway, clearly my advice is more of a sketch than a blueprint.  Penny Edgell and the people at Minnesota are still worth looking out.

[FertMigMort]

UT Austin lost a lot of clout in the sociology of religion after they lost Ellison (exacerbated by recent controversies with Regnerus), but other Texas programs have gained significantly in the area (Rice and Baylor). 

I can second this. I know people at UT Austin that have been told that they no longer want people to comp in religion as one of their major areas. This is echoed by Ellison's move to UTSA and someone else that I'm blanking on at the moment.

[Goobah]

Thankyouthankyouthankyou for taking the time to respond to this topic.  For many reasons, I decided to apply to master's programs this round (not sure if I really ready for a PhD) but this area of research is my love.  I kinda gave up on it when I first looked into because it is sooooo small, and does seem to not have a lot of direction.  I went ahead and chose to do my undergrad thesis on religious bias and I think almost every author jacib has listed up there is one of my references.   I even had people tell me that if I did research on this subject I would go nowhere (lurvely), but I decided to move forward with it anyway.  My advisor has been very supportive, and we even decided to present the research as something that presented discrimination issues, so now it's got a wider base.  I guess we sorta applied our own "social movements" slant to it.

 

I am currently a psych undergrad, and I realized that I was in the wrong field during my thesis lit search!  I have developed my own practical plan to continue on with  research in this area, but you all have certainly given me food for thought. 

 

Thanks again

 

*edit*  Also Marcone -- if I took stats etc, and did well and passed it, I'm sure you can as well.  I know that sounds glib, but I really mean it. hahaha.  General Stats was the hardest, but then once we got to Stats of Psychology -- it became easier for me because I could relate the computations to a purpose.  General stats has this too, I know, but it seemed to flow better in the directed stats.   I'm sure you'll do well!

Edited February 11, 2013 by Goobah