the moral meaning of taxes

Through a multisite comparative ethnography of tax protest and resistance across the political spectrum, this project explores the moral meaning of taxpaying itself. For many Americans the act of paying taxes is more than a bureaucratic hassle; it is an opportunity to enact and contest competing visions of good citizenship and political community. 

American religion, humility & democracy

This project, launched with an interdisciplinary conference and continued through an essay series at The Immanent Frame and a special volume of Political Power and Social Theory, asks whether religious conviction and humility are at odds with one another, and what the study of religious groups can tell us more generally about the possibility of communicating across social and political differences in an era of heightened polarization.

the politics of (in)civility

This article calls for greater attention to civility contests, in which people demarcate civility from incivility and assign individuals, groups and behaviors to these categories. Through a focus on political protest in the U.S., it reveals how institutionalized power holders, opposing social movements, and the media engage in civility contests in order to justify the control or (de)legitimation of protest, and highlights patterned  disparities in the outcomes of these contests

religion and the 2016 election​

A series of articles analyzes the role of religion in the 2016 election, including one in the American Journal of Cultural Sociology showing that Muslims were framed by GOP candidates as "outsiders, enemies and others" and a second in Sociology of Religion exploring the role of progressive religious groups as carriers of an alternative to Trump's "MAGA" narrative.   

religion and progressive politics

This line of research investigates how progressive religious leaders and communities inject their voices and values into public debates in the United States. My co-edited book (withTodd Nicholas Fuist and Rhys H. Williams), Religion and Progressive Activism: New Stories About Faith and Politics, was published by NYU Press. Additional findings are reported in the American Sociological Review, the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and other outlets.

faith in democracy across the political divide

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a Tea Party group and a progressive faith-based community organization, this project portrays grassroots organizing and active citizenship across the political divide. A book based on this research, entitled Prophets and Patriots: Faith in Democracy Across the Political Divide, was published by the University of California Press. Additional findings are reported in the American Sociological Review, Contexts, Qualitative Sociology and Understanding the Tea Party Movement.