Penny A Edgell
Affiliations
Links
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Educational Background & Specialties
Educational Background
- Ph.D.: University of Chicago, 1995.
- 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
- Symbolic Boundaries & Inequality
- Gender & Family
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Courses Taught
- FSEM 1905 - Religion in America
- Soc 3309: Atheists and Others in the U.S.
- Soc 3701 - Social Theory
- Soc 4309/4309H - Religion in American Public Life: Culture, Politics, & Communities
- Soc 8735 - Sociology of Culture
- Soc 8790 - Adv. Topics in Social Theory: Religion and Public Life
- Soc 8890 - Advanced Research Methods: Qual Methods
- Soc 8801: Research Methods
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Research & Professional Activities
Professional Activities
- Assistant Professor: Cornell University , 1995
- Member: American Academy of Religion
- Member: American Sociological Association
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
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Publications
- "Christian America? Secularized Evangelical Discourse and the Boundaries of National Belonging," with Jack Delehanty and Evan Stewart. 2019. Social Forces 97(3):1283-1306.
- "The Politics of Religious Prejudice and Tolerance for Cultural Others" with Evan Stewart and Jack Delehanty. The Sociological Quarterly 59(1):17-39, 2018. Download
- "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.Download
- "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.Download
- "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.
- “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.
- "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.
- "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.
- "A Cultural Sociology of Religion – New Directions ." 2012. Annual Review of Sociology (38):247-265.
- "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.
- Religion and Family in a Changing Society. 2005. NJ: Princeton University Press.
- Congregations in Conflict: Cultural Models of Local Religious Life. 1999. UK: Cambridge University Press.
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Awards
- American Sociological Association Sociology of Religion section Book Award, 2006
- Best Book Award, American Sociological Association Religion Section, 2000
- Visiting Faculty Fellow, Princeton University