Academics & Publications
I do research in a few interrelated fields, but primarily work in theology and education. My doctoral training was in a discipline that is called “Practical Theology,” which for me means that I combine social science methods with philosophy and theology to study practices. In particular, I’m interested in the ways that regular patterns of behavior can shape how people see the world, think about well-being, and make meaning in their lives. Among the practices I’ve studied are US public schooling, the use of art for faith-based social justice, and forms of prayer used for communal discernment. A fairly exhaustive listing of my academic work is included in the CV below, so you can check that out for the details if you want to know more, but the basic gist of my work is that I tend to use mixed-methods approaches, love working across disciplines, and think qualitative and quantitative methods make good friends. Data processing-wise I’m competent with NVivo and use SPSS for statistics work.