Penny Edgell

Sociology

909 Social Sciences Building

267 19th Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Curriculum Vitae

Collegiate Affiliation

Sociology

Links

Personal Website

Educational Background & Specialties

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Educational Background

Ph.D.: , University of Chicago, , 1995 - none
M.A.: Sociology, University of Chicago , Chicago , 1989 -
A.B. : Sociology, magna cum laude, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 1986 -

Specialties

Culture
Sociology of Religion & Nonreligion, Focus on the United States
Gender & Family
Symbolic Boundaries & Inequality

Publications

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Publications

Congregations in Conflict: Cultural Models of Local Religious Life. 1999. UK: Cambridge University Press.
"Profiles of Anticipated Support: Religion’s Place in the Composition of Americans’ Emotional Support Networks," with Darin Mather and Eric Tranby. 2013. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 52(2):293-308.
Religion and Family in a Changing Society. 2005. NJ: Princeton University Press.
"Atheists and Other Cultural Outsiders: Moral Boundaries and the Non-Religious in the United States," with Douglas Hartmann, Evan Stewart, and Joseph Gerteis. 2016. Social Forces 95(2):607-638.
"From Existential to Social Understandings of Risk: Examining Gender Differences in Nonreligion," with Jacqueline Frost and Evan Stewart. Social Currents, 6(4):556-74, 2017.
"Atheists as ‘Other’: Moral Boundaries and Cultural Membership in American Society".with Joseph Gerteis and Douglas Hartmann. 2016. American Sociological Review 72(2):211-234.
"Distinctiveness Reconsidered: Religiosity, Structural Location, and Understandings of Racial Inequality," with Jacqueline Frost. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 56(2):277-301, 2017.
"Loose Connections and Liberal Theology: Blurring the Boundaries in Two Church-Based Communities of Spiritual Practice," with Derek Robey. 2015. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 54(4):649-67.
"A Cultural Sociology of Religion – New Directions ." 2012. Annual Review of Sociology (38):247-265.
"Christian America? Secularized Evangelical Discourse and the Boundaries of National Belonging," with Jack Delehanty and Evan Stewart. 2019. Social Forces 97(3):1283-1306.
“Reasoning Together Through Telling Stories: How People Talk About Social Controversies,’” with Kathleen Hull, Kyle Green, and Daniel Winchester. 2016. Qualitative Sociology 39(1):1-26.
Religion is Raced. 2020. Edited with Grace Yukich. NY: New York University Press.
"The Politics of Religious Prejudice and Tolerance for Cultural Others" with Evan Stewart and Jack Delehanty. The Sociological Quarterly 59(1):17-39, 2018.

Activities

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Activities

Professional

Assistant Professor: Cornell University. 1995 - none
Member: American Academy of Religion. none - none
Member: American Sociological Association. none - none

Research

: Prof. Edgell is currently working on two NSF-funded research projects. One focuses on how religious, scientific, and legal frameworks intersect to shape citizens’ understandings of controversial social issues (faith-based prison ministry, genetic reproductive technologies, and faith-based refusal of medical treatment for a dependent child). And using the second wave survey data for the American Mosaic Project, she is analyzing Americans’ attitudes towards religious and racial outgroups, public religious expression, and the civic involvement of the non-religious. She is interested in how religion is a simultaneous source of inclusion and exclusion in American life, shaping symbolic boundaries and understandings of moral worth.

Awards

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Awards

Best Book Award, American Sociological Association Religion Section, 2000 - none

Visiting Faculty Fellow, Princeton University, none - none

American Sociological Association Sociology of Religion section Book Award, 2006

Courses Taught

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Courses Taught

Soc 3701 - Social Theory

Soc 3309: Atheists and Others in the U.S.

Soc 4309/4309H - Religion in American Public Life: Culture, Politics, & Communities

Soc 8735 - Sociology of Culture

FSEM 1905 - Religion in America

Soc 8790 - Adv. Topics in Social Theory: Religion and Public Life

Soc 8801: Research Methods

Soc 8890 - Advanced Research Methods: Qual Methods