ASA 2015

Site Updates and Upcoming Events

There are a number of updates to the site, with links for a number of new book reviews on the links page (for Chris Smith's Sacred Project of American Sociology and Paradox of Generosity) and a new article for both the Mobilizing Ideas and Fare Forward sites.

CV page is updated so it looks a bit cleaner and has a link to a pdf of my full CV.

My solo authored article “Voice of the Masses: the Internet and Responsive Authoritarianism in China” comes out in the edited volume Urban mobilization and new media in contemporary China in April. 

I will be attending the AAS-SSRC dissertation workshop on religion and the state in Asia from March 23-26th.

Interview with Robert Bellah

I recently had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Robert Bellah in preparation for his upcoming visit and lecture at Notre Dame. Not only was it a pleasure to talk with such a giant in my discipline, but Bellah is incredibly approachable. If you want to read the results of the interview, my write up is here. There is also a College of Arts and Letters piece that references the interview and the Fare Forward post that grew out of some thoughts I had after the interview.

Fare Forward review and blog post

It's been a while since I had something to update with.

Recently, I started working with a new magazine called Fare Forward. I will be writing as a regular contributor to both the magazine itself (I have a review of Dambisa Moyo's recent book  in there) and to the site's blog. You can find my most recent post on "faithful presence" in the digital world there.

Review: God is Red

I have a new book review up at the Global China Center site. It looks at Liao Yiwu's new book God is Red, an interesting investigation of Christianity's history and growth in China. Check out the review here.

Young Scholars in Social Movements Conference

I had been trying to take it easy in regards to conferences after this last year (AAS in Hawaii, Church in Asia con in Hong Kong as well as ASA in Las Vegas and 3 paper presentations at SSSR in Milwaukee had tired me out), but it looks like I will have one more before the lull.

I will be presenting at the Young Scholars in Social Movements Conference hosted here at ND. My paper is the latest draft of my masters thesis on political opportunity perception in social movements.

***UPDATE***
Here is the presentation schedule: [link]

***UPDATE 2***
My presentation went well enough it seems. The feedback from those who stopped me afterward to comment on it was mostly positive. I had felt a little incoherent (likely because it was a theoretically heavy paper and I didn't read from a script), but it seems to have not come off that way.

The best part was the feedback I received from Hank Johnston, the discussant for our session. He had structured his comments like a peer-review, which was exactly what I need for this paper. He also was kind enough to pull me aside and we had a really helpful conversation about the paper and where my work is at. This was the first time being on a panel with a discussant, and it was a great first experience.

New Site

My old professional site was looking haggard and, frankly, unprofessional. This new one will house a number of my projects on the various pages as well as periodic research/work updates.