RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE PROGRAM The Religion and Public Life Program conducts research, trains scholars, and offers programs that advance dialogue about religion in the public sphere.
Rice University Social Sciences Research Institute Volume 11 - May 2014
LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR Spring 2014 has been an exciting time for the Religion and Public Life Program. Our mission to conduct research, train scholars, and offer programs that advance thoughtful conversation about religion in the public sphere guides our team each day as we seek excellence across the range of activities happening in Lovett Hall Suite 402, our new offices. As some of you may recall from previous RPLP communications, we are in the midst of three major research projects. This semester saw the completion of data collection for our Religious Understandings of Science study, a three-year effort including a 10,000-person survey and 320 interviews to examine the ways that religious people view science and scientists, as well as how scientists view religion and religious people in America. In conjunction with the Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion (DoSER) program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), we have begun the translation phase of this project, presenting results from our study to national and local audiences. Simultaneously, we are in the midst of conducting large-scale surveys and in-depth interviews with scientists from eight countries for the Religion Among Scientists in International Context (RASIC) study. Teams from RPLP will travel to the UK and India this summer to conduct interviews for the RASIC study, and also in the coming months, surveys will go live in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Italy. Our third major research endeavor, Ethics Among Scientists in International Context (EASIC), has just completed data collection, with interviews of scientists in China and the UK wrapping up as the semester came to a close. This summer we welcome five new undergraduate research fellows to RPLP. They will each serve our team in valuable ways, as they engage in data collection, review scholarly literature relevant to our work, contribute to papers currently in progress, and participate in our programming. The RPLP looks forward to a productive summer in which we will also begin preparations for our robust fall schedule. We hope to continue to connect with veteran followers and new supporters of our program at these events. Thank you for your support of our work. Warmly,
Elaine Howard Ecklund Founding Director, Religion and Public Life Program Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Sociology
CONTENTS
Religion and Public Life Program Rice University Sociology Department, MS-28 6100 Main Street Houston, TX 77005
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Spring Panel Event: The Impact of Asian Americans on the American Religious Landscape
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A Public Conversation on Spirituality, Health Behaviors, and Social Inequality
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Lunchtime Lecture Series: Red State Religion
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A Public Conversation on Religious Understandings of Science
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Staff Farewells
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Upcoming Events
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In the Public Square
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Research Updates
Fellows Roundtable Series: Gender, Religion, and Medicine
RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE PROGRAM
Meet the Team [SPRING 2014] Director Elaine Howard Ecklund Associate Director Julie Aldrich Senior Research Project Manager Laura Achenbaum Project Managers Nikita Desai Sarah Hamshari Program Manager and Faculty Rep. Hayley Hemstreet Post-Baccalaureate Research Fellows Esther Chan Virginia White
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Post-Doctoral Fellows David Johnson Brandon Vaidyanathan Graduate Student Fellows Di Di Adriana Garcia Simranjit Khalsa Alexa Solazzo Cleve Tinsley Undergraduate Student Fellows Peter Abraham ‘14 Bonnie Chan ‘17 Timothy Chang ‘16 Daniel Cortez ‘15 Kristian Edosomwan ‘14 Jacob Hernandez ‘15 Dylan Mendelson ‘16 Neethi Nayak ‘17 Amber Tong ‘17 Catherine Yuh ‘14 Yue Zhang ‘17 Melanie Zook ‘16 4
RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE PROGRAM
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THE RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE PROGRAM PRESENTS
[RPLP EVENt]
The Impact of Asian Americans
The Impact of Asian Americans on the American Religious Landscape
on the
American Religious Landscape February 18th 7:00-8:30PM McMurtry Auditorium Rice University Reception to Follow Join us for a panel discussion featuring Prema Kurien
Syracuse University
ARTICLE BY Kristian Edosomwan • PHOTOS BY Mathison Ingham
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Pawan Dhingra Tufts University
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Jerry Park
Baylor University
FAcilitated by Elaine Howard Ecklund Director of the Religion and Public Life Program
with sponsorship from Program for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, and Culture Chao Center for Asian Studies
On February 18, 2014, Elaine Howard Ecklund, Director of the Religion and Public Life Program, was joined by a panel of experts on Asian American religions within the United States: Prema Kurien, Professor of Sociology at Syracuse University; Pawan Dhingra, Professor of Sociology at Tufts University; and Jerry Park, Associate Professor of Sociology at Baylor University. The panel was formed to address how Asian Americans have transformed the American religious landscape. The guest scholars agreed that ethnic identity and acculturation are linked in Asian American religious organizations. Kurien mentioned that Christians are overrepresented in the Indian American population, partially because of church support for immigrants. Asian immigrants locate churches and other religious organizations as spaces in society where they can connect with co-ethnics and share information about jobs and legal issues, Dhingra said. Kurien explained further that within the U.S. Hindus use temples as networks and support groups by creating a congregational form that was not typical in India. For Sikhs temples have also provided jobs, temporary housing, and information about benefits. The congregation form of temples can enhance ethnic identity by offering cultural and language classes, hosting festivals and rituals, and conducting services in native languages. Simultaneously congregations lead to acculturation, by providing information on jobs, local schools, and SAT prep. Kurien said Asian Americans can not only preserve their religious traditions but enable their children to succeed. The speakers also noted that Asian American religions challenge the mainstream definitions and assumptions about religion. Park explained that some Asian Americans who practice Buddhism and folk religions do not show outwards signs of religion. For example, they may claim to have no religion
but perform traditional rites at the shrines they have at home. The idea of differing religious expectations also arose when Kurien responded to a question by Esther Chan, Post-Baccalaureate Fellow of the Religion and Public Life Program, about how Asian American religions challenge dominant American assumptions about religion. Asian American religions like Hinduism challenge our assumptions about the nature of religion, because many of the common practices of the Abrahamic religious traditions of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, such as attendance at religious services and reading a holy book, are not required or expected of adherents of religions like Hinduism. Furthermore, Asian religions like Hinduism allow people to practice multiple religions. Park said that the fact that we can pick multiple races but not multiple religions on most surveys of religion should make us “unpack assumptions and be more sensitive” to different religious identities. The question of Asian American involvement in interreligious dialogue stood out. Dhingra noted that the differences between Asian American religions and mainstream American religion have forced pluralistic religious conversations; this has happened when large religious structures, such as temples, are constructed and physically alter the landscape around them. Kurien added Sikhs want to change the public conversation and are currently trying to change textbooks to gain more respect. Kurien links all of this to second-generation Hindus who “demand recognition as equals” and desire to further their outreach in the community through activities that help temples engage with the broader public. Kurien, Park, and Dhingra recognized the need for Americans to begin critically thinking about how we define and talk about religions outside of the mainstream and how that dialogue affects the American religious landscape.
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S
IE R E S E L B A T D N U O R FELLOWS
Gender, Religion, and Medicine • Rene Almeling ARTICLE BY Melanie Zook
Rene Almeling, Rice University alumna and Assistant religious perspectives, Almeling did indicate that religion does Professor of Sociology at Yale University, participated in an play a role in her research on gender and medicine. informal breakfast discussion with the RPLP team Friday, “There’s no quesFebruary 21. The discussion included a presentation of survey tion that how people results analyzing attitudes toward genetic risk for disease and react is affected by an outline of Almeling’s work on sociological frameworks for religious beliefs,” Althe morality of egg and sperm donation. meling said. When Almeling offered a short presentation on the experoffering religious responses, some people cite God or a divine imental survey she conducted with Shana Gadarian of Syrabeing as taking care of them despite disease, while others see cuse University during their tenure as health policy fellows at God as the provider of technologies that should be used to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The eliminate disease. 75-question survey provided hypothetical “There are going to be variations,” Almeling said. situations asking respondents what actions “You can use God in a lot of different ways.” they would take if they had a certain level of To explore the religious aspects of related risk for a given disease. Building on previous topics, Elaine Howard Ecklund, Autrey Prowork in medical sociology, a key hypothesis fessor of Sociology at Rice and Director of the for the study was that women would be more RPLP, shared recent data from the RPLP’s proactive about responding to disease and Religious Understandings of Science (RUS) health risks than men. Almeling was fairly study. Questions about reproductive technolcertain at the beginning of the research that ogies and embryonic stem cell research reveal there would be a notable gender difference in higher-than-expected levels of support from responses to risk. The results religious people, although a sizable number of were surprising. “There’s only one place in all respondents are still unsure what these techthe data where I can show you a teeny tiny nologies actually are. gender difference,” Almeling said. “That’s re Almeling also fielded questions from RPLP ally unexpected.” fellows regarding her work on reproductive Almeling’s 2011 book One possible explanation for the lack technologies, specifically addressing sperm and of gender distinction may be the difference be- © University of California Press egg donation. This segment of the discussion extween self-reported hypothetical reactions and plored the role of the media and donation centers actual reactions, which, as one RPLP fellow pointed out in a in framing the gendered nature of these interactions. Almeling question, is one of the limitations of this type of survey. Almelsuggested that, in general, perspectives on gender differences ing emphasized that this dynamic, as well as the interaction can be traced to society’s view of motherhood versus fatherof the variables that were explored through survey questions, hood. Definitions of motherhood are more flexible than those means she must not claim too of fatherhood, because biological mothers, much from the data. egg donors, gestational surrogates, and adop “We were trying to quantive mothers could potentially all play differtify reactions, which is a difficult ent roles in the mothering process. Fathers, thing to do,” Almeling said. on the other hand, are seen as having one role Questions prepared in advance by RPLP fellows probed in reproduction: providing sperm. further into potential findings of the study, specifically regard “We see men as providing the ‘spark of life,’” Almeling the impact of religion on attitudes toward risk. While Aling said, a perspective that has been prevalent since Ancient meling and Gadarian have not analyzed the data according to Greece.
“... you can use God in a lot of different ways...”
“... how people react is affected by religious beliefs...”
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RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE PROGRAM Another aspect of Alemling’s work with respect to egg and sperm donation is the conceptualization and quantification of embodiment. RPLP graduate student fellow Cleve Tinsley is currently working on a project on embodiment and has studied the impact of egg donation among young women in urban African-American communities. Almeling remarked that the egg donation market is the only economic market in which women of color are paid more than white women for the same product, because so few women of color choose to donate. Almeling visited the Rice Campus as part of a speaker series sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Her talk the evening prior to the RPLP’s Roundtable centered on Almeling’s 2011 book Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm, which analyzes the gendered economic and social relations in egg and sperm donation. Almeling graduated from Rice with a double-major in Gender Studies and Religious Studies and received her Ph.D. in Sociology from UCLA in 2008.
[RPLP EVENt]
Does Religion Prevent or Promote Health? ARTICLE BY Catherine Yuh PHOTOS BY Mathison Ingham
Does Religion Prevent or Promote Health? The Religion and Public Life Program presents a public conversation on spirituality, health behaviors, and social inequality.
During the last fourteen years scholars have conducted more than 2,000 original research studies on the relationship between religion and march 28th am health outcomes. Many studies have 8:00-9:00 farnsworth pavilion rice university moved away from asking whether religion does or does not promote health, and, instead, now ask how or under what circumstances might religion impact health. Recent studies have suggested some positive correlation between religion and health in the United States, in part due to the psychological and emotional resources, community support systems, and healthier lifestyle factors that religion can provide. But what does the relationship between religion and health really look like? How do we define the variables that impact this relationship, and how do they correlate? On March 28, 2014, the Religion and Public Life Program asked, “Does Religion Prevent or Promote Health?” by Panelists:
Alejandro Chaoul, MD Anderson Ann Barnes, Baylor College of Medicine Mary Shaw, Florida International University
breakfast reception to follow event
WITH SPONSORSHIP FROM MD Anderson’s Department of Behavioral Science
May 2014
hosting a panel of distinguished speakers with a diverse array of expertise in religion, health, and medicine. Together, Ann Barnes, MD (Associate Professor, Baylor College of Medicine), Alejandro Chaoul, PhD (Assistant Professor, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center), and Mary Shaw, PhD (Associate Professor, Florida International University) discussed the ways in which religion can help and hinder health, particularly in underserved minority populations. According to Barnes, churches and other established religious institutions can increase access to healthcare and health education because they enable medical providers to meet low-income patients where they already are. This stands in contrast to the U.S. healthcare model, which typically requires patients to visit doctors’ places of work. For both historical and current reasons, underserved populations may be deterred from seeking care in these spaces. In church, or other organized religious setting, however, people can feel safe with a leader they trust, which creates more opportunities to encourage health-promoting messages. Chaoul added that religion provides both meaning and purpose to mobilize action toward healthier behaviors. As a specialist in African American health, Shaw noted that black churches can promote health as a community-based, social initiative. For underserved black communities, social networks are often paramount, and healthcare providers should leverage preexisting networks within the church to spread health awareness for better outcomes. All of the panelists agreed that social inequality is a significant concern with respect to healthcare delivery, carrying real consequences for patient outcomes. Both Barnes and Shaw highlighted underserved patients’ competing priorities that conflict with prioritizing health—such as paying bills and providing for children. Selflessness and caring for others are core tenants of many religions, and these tenants sometimes hinder patients’ abilities to care for themselves. Chaoul also noted that adopting healthier lifestyles can be beyond some patients’ means, and that organic and all-natural diets are often limited to those with greater disposable income.
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RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE PROGRAM
Religion can mitigate the effects of these obstacles. For example, Barnes suggested that religious organizations have the capacity to give disenfranchised communities the vocabulary and confidence to step forward and have honest conversations with their physicians. Additionally, healthcare providers can identify health experts and doctors within religious communities and work with these people to promote healthier habits specific to individual populations. Chaoul agreed that healthcare providers should communicate health messages not just at people attending a religious service, but with them, as equal partners. Such a partnership creates greater trust in the message and generates buy-in. Shaw’s community-based participatory model enhances this idea by facilitating collaboration between doctors and, in the case of her work, church members. A key step in partnering with religious organizations is to first educate religious leaders. According to Shaw, these organizations have an inherent capacity to mentor, model, and teach. Because religious leaders carry significant authority and influence within their communities, members of these organizations are typically more willing to adopt
May 2014
healthier lifestyles if they see leadership by example. Barnes also hypothesized that individual members of a religious group might emulate policies implemented at an organization or community-wide level; that is, if they see that sugary drinks have been banned from their churches and schools, they might also change their own shopping and snacking habits at home. Despite all of the benefits that religion brings to healthcare delivery, it can also be a hindrance in some cases. Barnes once treated a patient who ignored medical treatment for a growing tumor because she was convinced that God would take care of it. Barnes noted that this patient used religion as a way to deflect her own fear. Chaoul, too, considered an instance where a patient refused yoga as a method of integrative healing, arguing that yoga opposed his religious beliefs. However, our experts acknowledged that these cases were few and far between, and stood in unanimous agreement that interventions rooted in community-based religious organizations will likely play a central role in transforming healthcare delivery for underserved communities in the future.
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[RPLP EVENt]
Red State Religion ARTICLE BY Catherine Yuh • PHOTOS BY Frankie Huang THE
RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE PROGRAM PRESENTS
Red State Religion: Faith and Politics in Kansas and Texas
March 28th 12:00 PM
Lecture by Robert Wuthnow Professor of Sociology, Princeton University
Rice Memorial Chapel Rice University Reception to follow in Ray Courtyard
On April 10, 2014, members of the Rice and wider Houston communities joined the RPLP for a public lecture featuring Robert Wuthnow, Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor of Sociology at Princeton University. An expert on religious pluralism, Wuthnow discussed two of his recent books, Red State Religion: Faith and Politics in America’s Heartland (2012) and Rough Country: How Texas Became America’s Most Powerful Bible-Belt State (2014). Wuthnow’s talk centered on the relationship between conservative Christian religion and conservative politics, specifically within the contexts of Kansas and Texas. These states, according to Wuthnow, are particularly compelling case studies given their paradoxical differences and similarities. While Kansas entered the Union as a free state, Texas was annexed a slave state. Kansas’s population is relatively small; Texas is the second most populous state in the U.S. Much of Kansas’s political history has been rooted in the Republican Party in contrast to Texas’s support for the Democratic “Solid South” (1877-1964). Despite their historic political differences, however, both states passed constitutional bans on same-sex marriage in 2005 and share a long, storied history of controversy over science textbooks and the teaching of evolution and intelligent design. The 2012 election saw strong Republican victories in
With Sponsorship From The Department of Sociology
both states. Kansas and Texas both honor the separation of church and state, making it all the more intriguing to see religion and politics mingling in these states. Wuthnow highlighted various historical processes in Texas and Kansas that explain the current trend of Republican politics’ close ties with certain groups of Christians. He argues that grassroots processes, particularly at the state level, gave rise to legitimating precedents for churches and church leaders to be involved in politics. Wuthnow suggested that Prohibition is the best example of a legitimating precedent: A long-lasting, mobilizing cause, Prohibition centered on what was seen to be a moral issue, thus breaching the separation of church and state. Wuthnow also stressed the importance of activist precedents in both states. “Bleeding Kansas” and the Texas Alamo are two narratives deeply intertwined in their respective state histories. “It’s how these stories are told that make them about civil religion,” Wuthnow said. Anti-government sentiment, too, proved its importance. Texans fought a vivid battle against the carpetbaggers during America’s Reconstruction period; Kansans harbored early animosity toward the Pierce administration, and fueled by the 1890s Dust Bowl, anti-Washington sentiment
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continued. Wuthnow deemed 1964 a “critical year” for the religious right, the same year that saw Billy Graham decry the moral decay of American society and Ronald Reagan deliver perhaps his most persuasive speech while campaigning for Barry Gold-
May 2014
water. The religious right thus formed from the conjuncture of ideas and necessary resources. Churches, anti-government sentiment, and the mobilization of clergy and laypeople facilitated a profound connection between religion and politics.
THE RELIGION
[RPLP EVENt] [RESEARCH]
AND PUBLIC LIFE PROGRAM PRESENTS
A Public Conversation on
Religious Understandings of Science
RUS Study Debut: A Public Conversation on Religious Understandings of Science
Prof. Elaine Howard Ecklund, Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Sociology, will present findings from largest survey to date of what religious people think about scientific issues, from stem cells to evolution to climage change. Fellow panelists will respond to findings.
Dr. Jennifer Wiseman American Association for the Advancement of Science
Monday, April 14 7:00 PM McMurtry Auditorium Duncan Hall Rice University Reception to follow
Prof. Philip Clayton Claremont School of Theology
Fr. Donald Nesti University of St. Thomas
ARTICLE BY Catherine Yuh • PHOTOS BY Laura Sponaugle
From Galileo to the Scopes Monkey Trial, a narrative of conflict between science and religion has dominated the landscape of the science-religion dialogue. To explore perceived divisions and what the American public really thinks about the relationship between science and religion, the RPLP launched the Religious Understandings of Science (RUS) study in 2011. RUS is the largest survey to date of what religious people think about different scientific issues, ranging from stem cells to evolution to climate change. RPLP researchers completed 320 in-depth interviews with Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Hindus in Houston and Chicago, and conducted a nationally representative survey of 10,000 Americans. Initial data analysis from the study reveals that conflict between religion and science isn’t the only story. Some of these results have already gained a foothold in the public conscience over recent months, following coverage by popular media outlets including the Economist, the BBC, Huffington Post, and the Houston Chronicle. April 14, 2014, marked the RPLP’s first event at which we invited the public to hear initial findings from the RUS study. The event brought experts in theology, science, and religion to the table as RPLP Director Elaine Howard Ecklund was joined by fellow panelists Jennifer Wiseman, astrophysicist and Director of the Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion (DoSER) program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Philip Clayton, Professor of Theology at Claremont
School of Theology; and Donald Nesti, Director of the Center for Faith and Culture at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. RUS data show that 50% of Evangelicals and 40% of Catholics claim that religion and science can help support one another, suggesting that areas of perceived cohesion exist between them. According to Clayton, “Cohesion is when we get to the level of worldview, [and] as we struggle to make sense of the world, together we can [all] contribute to that worldview.” Clayton further argued that we all ask similar questions pondering the meaning of life. Nesti agreed: “Once we respect that there are different ways of knowing, the actual pursuit of unity is the very thing that binds us.” Speaking from a scientist’s perspective, Wiseman said that both scientists and religious
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Staff Farewells
communities are primarily interested in making the world a better place through the pursuit of knowledge: “I see curiosity and interest in exploring the natural world common to both of these groups, as well as a high regard for truth.” While sci- Three valuable team members will be finishing entists and religious communities may have different concep- their time at RPLP this summer. tions of truth, whether grounded in science, philosophy, history, or religion, together they seek what is best for the world at Esther’s colleague says: Since starting at large. RPLP in summer 2012, Esther has been an au While RUS data suggest potential for collaboration bethor on two papers and three conference pretween the two groups, Ecklund reminded the audience that, sentations, conducted or contributed to almost “we’re here because of a perceived conflict.” Where, then, is 30 interviews, and in the process logged more that conflict coming from? Given the diversity of perspectives than 26,000 miles of travel domestically and across the scientific professions, Wiseman cautioned against abroad. Esther says: Over the past two years, I generalizing an attitude of conflict from all sides, but admitted participated in the research process: from data that many scientists are “baffled” when their measurements Esther Chan Post-Baccalaureate Fellow management, to data collection and analysis, to and studies aren’t accepted at face value. Despite strong evidence for climate change and the age of the universe, for ex- scholarly and publicmodes of dissemination. Although the RPLP ample, scientists’ ideas can be rejected because “the public has values research, at its heart is the desire to mentor individuals at other ways of seeking knowledge beyond science.” Nesti said all academic levels. The mentorship I have experienced here has that Catholics’ religious beliefs are, for them, core tenants of been invaluable. knowledge, and that conflict results when Catholics see a violation of their beliefs about either the human person or the uni- Virginia’s colleague says: Virginia started with verse. Clayton, too, saw potential conflict arising from certain RPLP as an undergraduate student, when the tenants within the Protestant Christian tradition: scriptural RUS study was still in its formative stage. Since authority, or sola scriptura, the origin of life, human uniqueness, then she has conducted interviews and carried the project through to the completion of data coland the sanctity of life, among others. Each of the panelists agreed that, ultimately, there can lection. Fast forward to today, she is contributing be positive intersections between religious communities and to the study’s translation phase in a significant Virginia White scientists. According to Wiseman, frustration results when way. Virginia says: As an undergraduate fellow, Post-Baccalaureate Fellow RPLP provided me unique intellectual opportuscientists meet pushback against ostensibly valid results; likewise, religious communities are frustrated when scien- nities that complemented my academic studies while pushing me tists seemingly fail to acknowledge ethical concerns present to develop new skills. This year, I’ve had the opportunity to grow in scientific work. Wiseman believes that acknowledging in administrative, writing, and leadership skills beyond what I both groups’ points of view can resolve these obstacles and expected. offer harmony between them. In order to do so, Nesti advised Niki’s colleague says: Niki has had a tremenscientists and religious communities to engage in the “art of dous impact on our work here since her arrivdialogue” in a public forum. “We [must] be ready to listen, al last summer. She has led the EASIC project respond, and create environments where both groups can through to the end of data collection! Because come together, dispassionately but with conviction.” Clayof her efforts, we are in a terrific position with ton supported his colleagues’ ideas, suggesting that scienEASIC, faced with an entire year more of fundtists and religious communities must dialogue on the level of ing, which we can devote to analysis and writing. worldviews—an area of perceived cohesion— rather than on Niki Desai This wouldn’t have been possible without her individual data points. With this common ground as the con- Assistant Project Manager hard work and the countless emails she sent to text for discussion, scientists can present data that religious scientists convincing them an interview is well worth their time! communities can accommodate through the lens of their scripNiki says: Coming in new to sociological research, I have been tures. Wiseman concluded the panel by saying that scientists inducted in the best possible way by a team of people willing to and religious communities must make contact to inform themgo out of their way to offer training and guidance. The focus on selves about differing beliefs and values; interaction between encouraging every team member to explore their interests is truly the two groups can mitigate perceived conflict and facilitate exemplary at RPLP. I am so grateful to have been a part of such a greater understanding. welcoming work environment.
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RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE PROGRAM
[UPCOMING EVENtS]
[IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE]
View from the Top: How Religion Shapes Those in Power
Faraday Institute Summer Course: University of Cambridge
Elaine Howard Ecklund and Michael Lindsay May 21, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. McMurtry Auditorium, Duncan Hall, Rice University
Guest speaker Elaine Howard Ecklund July 5-8, 2014 Cambridge, UK
THE
May 2014
RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE PROGRAM PRESENTS
View from the Top: How Religion Shapes Those in Power A Public Conversation on Religion and Leadership with Michael Lindsay and Elaine Howard Ecklund
May 21st • 7:00 PM McMurtry Auditorium • Duncan Hall • Rice University Exclusive Houston book release Book-signing reception to follow
American Sociological Association 2014 Annual Meeting Presentations on the RASIC data by Elaine Howard Ecklund, David Johnson and Brandon Vaidyanathan August 16-19, 2014 San Francisco, CA
Uses and Abuses of Biology Workshop Matter and Meaning: Exploring the Religion & Science Dialogue Guest scholars for day-long conference include Katharine Hayhoe, Ronald Numbers, John Evans, Norbert Samuelson, John Mark Reynolds, Alejandro Chaoul, and others October 24, 2014 at 8:30 a.m. BRC Auditorium, BioScience Research Collaborative, Rice University
Guest speaker Elaine Howard Ecklund September 19-21, 2014 Cambridge, UK
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[RESEARCH] Religion Among Scientists in International Context Religion Among Scientists in International Context (RASIC) is our ongoing transnational study of physicists and biolgoists across eight different countries. We are excited about the progress that has been made on data collection in the United Kingdom and India. This summer members of our team will travel to India for continued data collection, and we will field surveys of scientists in Taiwan and Hong Kong. “In March I traveled to India to conduct eleven interviews with scientists in Bangalore—a successful trip that has generated many insights on the social context of science in India. In the next couple of weeks, Dave Johnson and I will conduct additional interviews in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Delhi. Though traveling can be taxing in many ways, we’re very much looking forward to visiting the country’s largest cities and major scientific institutions.” -Brandon Vaidyanathan, Post-Doctoral Fellow
Ethics Among Scientists in International Context Ethics Among Scientists in International Context (EASIC) has wrapped up the data collection phase of the project as of this month. This means that we have completed our target number of interviews with physicists in the US, UK, and China. Our team now begins the task of analyzing the data both for the academy and for the wider religious and scientific communities. “Doing EASIC interviews has offered the exciting opportunity to understand ethics through the eyes of scientists in the US, UK, and China. With 200 interviews under our belt, it’s an exciting time to begin analyzing data and share what we learn with the the scientific community and the public.” -David Johnson, Post-Doctoral Fellow
Religious Understandings of Science
The Religious Understandings of Science (RUS) study wrapped up data collection at the end of January 2014. We have already begun publicizing the findings through presentations at national conferences and by publishing articles. In addition to the event hosted at Rice in April to highlight findings from the study, we will be hosting a large conference later this fall to continue the outreach aspect of this study (please see “Upcoming Events” for details). Article published in 2014 based on RUS data: Peifer, Jared L., Elaine Howard Ecklund and Cara Fullerton. “How Evangelicals from Two Churches in the American Southwest Frame Their Relationship with the Environment.” Review of Religious Research. 56(1): DOI 10.1007/s13644-014-0153-6.
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Religion and Public Life Program Rice University Sociology Department, MS-28 6100 Main Street Houston, TX 77005
For more information about RPLP, or if you would like to support our program by making a financial contribution, please contact Associate Director Julie Aldrich at julie.aldrich@rice.edu.
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