About
I am a sociologist of religion and a postdoctoral research associate in the Future Communities Lab at Baylor University. I am a mixed-methods sociologist who studies how voluntary associations produce commitment they cannot compel. Congregations, like civic associations and volunteer-led programs, ask members for time, money, and care while holding little power to enforce those claims, and they vary widely in how much commitment they sustain. That variation makes them a useful site for testing theories of group solidarity.
My work pairs national survey data with local field research, and it moves between sociology and practical theology. I currently conduct fieldwork for a John Templeton Foundation–funded collaboration among Baylor, Harvard Medical School, and The Congregational Collective in San Antonio on mental health care in congregations. I also co-teach an undergraduate research lab course in which students work on the lab’s projects.
Education
PhD, Sociology
Baylor University
MA, Sociology
Baylor University
Master of Divinity
George W. Truett Theological Seminary
BA, History and German
Southwestern University
Research interests
Commitment without compulsion. Two accounts compete to explain why some voluntary groups secure costly contributions. One holds that strict demands screen out free riders. The other, following Michael Hechter, locates commitment in members’ dependence on the group and the group’s ability to see who contributes. Using the National Congregations Study, I test where each account holds.
Commitment produced outside the group. My book project, developed from my dissertation, studies intensive Christian formation programs that operate apart from congregations and send participants back into them. My fieldwork with the Tapestry of Care collaboration extends the question to networks of congregations, where an external convener helps congregations discern and sustain a shared commitment to mental health care.
Religious experience over time. A second line of work measures prayer and sacred awareness, from longitudinal survey data on emerging adults (the National Study of Youth and Religion) to photo elicitation that asks people to reflect on moments of closeness and distance as they happen.