Changing SEA Project Research Fellows
Walt Bower received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Kentucky in 2009. His dissertation examined how a multiracial church and a historic African American congregation adapted to racial and ethnic transformation in an urban neighborhood. His research focuses on the sociology of religion, critical race theory, and the sociology of gender.
Walt Bower is studying a large African-American church in the Baptist tradition.
Tricia C. Bruce is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Maryville College in Maryville, TN. She received her PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2006. Previous appointments include Research Assistant Professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA). Her book Faithful Revolution: How Voice of the Faithful is Changing the Church (Oxford University Press, 2011), examines a lay Catholic movement that emerged in response to child abuse by clergy. Dr. Bruce’s research focuses on Catholic identity, culture, social movements, organizations, and discourse.
Tricia Bruce is studying a large Catholic parish in Texas.
Richard Cimino received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the New School for Social Research in 2008. He was recently a research fellow at the Ecologies of Learning project at New York Theological Seminary. He is also editor of Religion Watch, a newsletter monitoring trends in contemporary religion. His interests include Sociology of Religion and Urban Sociology.
Richard Cimino is studying a large, non-denominational, multiracial church in New York City.
Justin Farrell is currently a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. Most of his work involves in some way the intersection of religion, the environment, and social movements. He is interested in the role of religion in various environmental issues (public perceptions, politics, activism, inequality, moral language, etc.). Does religion make a difference in attitudes and behaviors relating to the natural environment? How is moral language used in discourse relating to the environment? His research includes both qualitative and quantitative methods.
Justin Farrell is studying a large, mainline Protestant church with dedicated programming for young adults.
Hillary Kaell completed her doctorate in American Studies at Harvard University in 2010 and begins as an Assistant Professor at Concordia University (Montreal) in September 2011. She specializes in the history and practice of North American Christianity and her dissertation looked at American Catholic and evangelical Holy Land pilgrimage. She has worked as a researcher and consultant for various projects, most recently for PBS on God in America, a multi-part TV series that aired in October.
Ashley Palmer is a doctoral student in Sociology at Baylor University, where she specializes in the sociological study of religion. Her research interests include Latino Catholicism and gender and religiosity. Ashley is also a Graduate Fellow with Baylor's Academy of Teaching and Learning and teaches courses in the Sociology of Religion and Marriage and the Family.
Ashley Palmer-Boyes is studying a Mexican-American Catholic parish that serves young families.
Grace Yukich is the Religion & Public Life Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University's Center for the Study of Religion. She is working on a book on the intersections of religion, politics, and race in the New Sanctuary Movement, an interfaith immigrant rights movement in the U.S.. She recently started a longitudinal project examining how theological education shapes future religious leaders' beliefs about and relationships with people from other faith traditions. She received her Ph.D. from New York University in 2010.
Grace Yukich is studying a progressive mainline Protestant church in the heart of New York City.