Award Recipients

2024 Jacquet Award Recipients

• Nicole Fox, “Rescue During War and Genocide in the Balkans: The Role of Religion”
  • Abstract: Croatian Catholics and Bosnian Muslims felt threatening to the creation of a “greater Serbia” by Serbian Orthodox President Milošević and his followers who were creating an ethnically homogenous Serbian state that included Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The quest for a “Greater Serbia” unfolded in genocide, genocidal rape, massacres, and forced removals, as well as the destruction of infrastructure. The primary victims were Bosnian Muslims, with perpetrators and victims primarily falling along religious lines. While many Orthodox Serbs and some Catholic Croats participated in genocidal violence, some choose not to, and instead rescued those who were being persecuted. Previous scholarship has found that religiosity shaped social networks, opportunity and resources in ways that impacted the form and success of rescue during mass violence. In line with past scholarship, this project asks: How did religion impact decisions and abilities to rescue in the Balkans, and how do present-day narratives of rescue actions evoke religion?
• Lucas Sharma, “Negotiating LGBTQ+ Catholic Identities”
  • Abstract: Sociologists of religion document how most LGBTQ+ religious individuals must negotiate their religious and sexual identities especially if they come from a tradition that rejects homosexuality. Unexamined is whether childhood religious messages about gender and sexuality remain internalized as adults. Previously, I conducted 31 interviews with former Catholic gay men and identified a continuum of lingering internalized shame. This proposal is for an additional 30 interviews with practicing Catholic gay men to identify whether those who continue to practice their faith also have lingering internalized shame from childhood religious socialization as well as their continued relationship with the Catholic Church. This study has implications for how Catholic clergy and lay leaders in parishes, schools, and universities work to be inclusive to LGBTQ+ Catholics given Pope Francis’ call to be a Church of mercy, accompaniment, and embrace.
• Jill Thornton, “The Influence of Christian Geopolitical Imaginaries in Missionary Intercultural Training”
  • Abstract: Interculturalism has become a particularly salient topic in missionary training in a world increasingly focused on diversity and globalization. My proposed research project will examine the role of geopolitical imaginaries in intercultural training courses that equip evangelical Christian missionaries to conduct ministry practices in foreign settings. I will examine how geopolitical imaginaries—that is, ways of understanding the world that inevitably shape practices and behaviors—are infused in intercultural training for missionaries. I highlight three principle ways that evangelical Christians mentally construct the world: 1) an existent imaginary; 2) a scriptural imaginary; and 3) a spiritual imaginary. Based on data collected from participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and content analysis with two U.S.-based intercultural training courses for missionaries, I will learn how courses convey these imaginaries prior to their participants’ entry into foreign settings. Research results will introduce a developed tripartite Christian geopolitical imagination concept to missionary training instruction and curricula.

2023 Jacquet Award Recipients

• R. Khari Brown, “Race, Religion, and Black Lives Matter”
• Andrew Whitehead, “Mapping Ableism Across American Religious Groups”
• Lynette Moran, “Schism in the UMC: Investigation of Grief as Emotion and Object in the Midst of Social Change”

2022 Jacquet Award Recipients

• Clara Gaddie, Exiting Evangelicalism: How Do Churchgoers Exit?
• Mary Elizabeth White Gently, “And Such Were Some of You:” Navigating Evangelicalism and Same Sex Attraction, 1973-2018
• Ignacio Cid, The Holy war of Banlieus: Muslim-Evangelical Fight over Paris’s Peripheries Souls
• Timothy Snyder Responsible Masculinity: An Ethnographic Study of Illuman’s “Men’s Rites of Passage”
• Joseph Yi, Promoting Liberty in North Korea: Faith-Based, Humanitarian Workers

• Audra Dugandzic, Polarization and the Production and Reception of Liturgical Change in the U.S. Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council
• Lucas Faure Muslim Philanthropy in Europe and the United States: A Comparative Approach
• Claire C. Gilliland White Supremacists are Sinful, but do Black Lives Matter? Comparing Clergy Responses across Racial Protests
• Kerby Goff Religion as Catalyst and Constraint for Women’s Collective Action: The Rise, Fall, and Legacy of the Protestant Woman’s Missionary Movement, 1861-1939
• Kelsey Hanson Woodruff Faithful Dissent: The Politically Progressive Women at the Margins of Evangelicalism

• Popy Begum God Does Not Judge: Mapping the Characteristics, Experiences and Service Needs of Muslim and Hindu Sex Workers on Garstin Bastion Road, New Delhi
• Jelani Ince, Between Controversy and Clarity: Managing Religion and Inhabiting Diversity at an Urban Church
• Sharan Kaur Mehta,  Divided by Faith or United by Race? Negotiating South Asian Racial Identity and Politics in a Climate of Islamophobia
• James V. Spickard and Erin Wiens St. John,  Keys to the Kingdom: How Have Selected Progressive Protestant Churches Created Thriving Multigenerational Congregations for the 21st Century?

• Cory Anderson, “Healthcare, Hate Crimes, Horse Droppings, and More: Toward an Empirically-Grounded Amish Policy Handbook for Practitioners”
• Chad Briggs, Judson University, “The Prevalence of Religious Service Attendance in America: A Review and Meta-Analysis”
• Nicole Fox, California State University, Sacramento, and Hollie Nyseth Brehm, Ohio State University, “’It Was Part of God’s Plan’: The Role of Religion in Narratives and Acts of Rescue During the Rwandan Genocide”
• Claire Gilliland and Laura Krull, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “Are All People of Sacred Worth?: How United Methodist Church Clergy Respond to the Denominational Vote on Homosexuality”
• Benjamin Lowe, University of Florida, “Analyzing Opportunities and Barriers to American Evangelical Engagement on Environmental Concerns”
• Gina Zurlo, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, “Women in World Christianity Project: A Mixed-Methods Study of Gender in the World’s Largest Religion”

• Christine Cusack, University of Ottawa, “Disenchantment and Transition among Mainstream Mormon Women: Understanding Non-Religious Identity Construction and Organized Unbelief”
• David Eagle, Duke University, “Evaluating Clergy Mental Health and Attitudes Towards Mental Health in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo”
• Linda Kawentel, University of Notre Dame, and Maureen Day, Franciscan School of Theology, “Ministerial and Formation Experiences Among Catholic Campus Ministers: A Qualitative Study to Expand Upon the 2017 National Survey of Catholic Campus Ministers”
• Rodrigo Serrão, University of South Florida, “Winning ‘Americans’ for Jesus?: Second-Generation, Racial Ideology, and the Future of the Brazilian Evangelical Church in the U.S.”

• Di Di, Rice University, “Getting Enlightened: A Comparative Study of Buddhist Temples in Mainland China and the U.S.”
• Lindsay Glassman,, University of Pennsylvania, “No Use for Doctors’ Orders: An Exploration of Religion, Gender and Class in Deliberate Refusals of Medical Care”
• Ian Gutierrez,, University of Connecticut, “Exploring the Impact of Involuntary Job Loss and Unemployment on Meaning Violation and Spiritual Struggle”
• Andreea Nica, Portland State University, “Exiters of Religious Fundamentalism: Reconstruction of Identity, Meaning, and Social Support Related to Well-Being”
• Stephen Offutt, Asbury Theological Seminary, “Religion, Global Poverty and International Development (Stage 2)”

• Elisabeth Becker, Yale University, “From Danger to Purity: Destigmatization Strategies in European Mosques”
• Yen-Chiao Liao, City University of New York, “Dynamics between LGBTI Movement and Christian Conservatives in the East Asian Society: The Case of Taiwan”
• Collin Mueller, Duke University, “Understanding and Addressing Barriers to Accessing the Faith-Based Safety Net and Unmet Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Health Needs among Uninsured Residents of a Southern City”
• Marjorie Royle, Clay Pots Research; Jon Norton, Reformed Church in America; Thomas Larkin, Reformed Church in America; “Studying the Psychological Type of Congregations as a Tool for Reaching Religious ‘Nones’ and ‘Dones’”
• Landon Schnabel, Indiana University, “Gender, Religion, and Social Risks: Do Social Psychological Risks and Rewards Explain Gender Differences in Religion?”

• Richard Cimino, University of Richmond, “Church Planting and the Reproduction of Denominational Identity”
• Diego de los Rios, Northwestern University, “Religion on the Move: Evangelical Christians in Colombia, the United States, and Spain”
• Rebecca Fradkin, University of Oxford, “Nation Building and the Co-optation of Islam in a Nation and Multination State: Kazakhstan and Russia”
• Christopher Gillett, Brown University, “Catholicism and the Making of Revolutionary Ideology in the British Atlantic, 1630-1673”
• Yuksel Sezgin, Syracuse University, “The Impact of Religio-Legal Plurality on Women’s Rights: A Global Survey”
• Patricia Tevington, University of Pennsylvania, “Too Soon to Say ‘I Do’?: Exploring Social Class, Religion, and Family Life through Early Marriage”
• Hannah Waits, University of California Berkeley, “Missionary Positions: American Evangelicals and the Transnational History of the Culture Wars, 1945-2000”

• Rachel Ellis, “Conviction Behind Bars: Religion & Faith Among Incarcerated Women.” Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania.
• Zainab Kabba, “The Education of Young American Muslims.” Department of Education, Oxford University, UK.

• Hyun Jeong Ha, a graduate student in the Department of Sociology, University of Texas, Austin, for her dissertation research “Crosses in the Islamic State: Nationhood and Citizenship Movements among Coptic Christians in Egypt.”
• Alana M. Henninger, a graduate student in the Department of Criminal Justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice CUNY, for her dissertation research, “A Cross-country Comparison of Institutional Responses to Honor Violence.”
• Samuel Perry, a graduate student in the Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, for his dissertation research: “The Cause of the Fatherless: Mobilizing to Long-Term, Sacrificial Activism in the Evangelical Adoption and Orphan Care Movement.”
• Bethany Weed, a graduate student in the Department of Sociology, University of, for her dissertation research, ” Religion, Gender, and Assimilation: West African Teenagers.”

• Katharine A. Boyd, a Doctoral Student of the John Jay College of Crimqal Justice, CUNY, Graduate Center. The title of her study is: “Ecology of Religious Conflict: Cross-National Comparison of Violent Attacks.”
• Reid J. Leamaster, a Ph.D. Student at Purdue university: West Lafayette, Indiana. The title of his study is: “Gendered Resistance and Compliance in the LDS Church.”
• Mark McCormack, a Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt University, Nashville Tennessee. The title of his study is: “Negotiating Women of Faith: A Multilevel Analysis of Interfaith Group Formation and Maintenance.”
• Aida Isela Ramos, a Ph.D. student from the;University of Texas in Austin. The title of her study is “Schools, Community, and Religious Volunteers: The Role of Faith-Based Organizations in Providing Social Support to U.S. Mexican Youth.”
• Laura Schneebaum, a student pursuing an M.A. in Mental Health and Wellness at New York University. The title of her study is: “Religious perceptions on Mental Illness: Orthodox Jewish Women’s Narratives.”

• Laura Andrews, University of Arizona, “The Role of Religious Meanings in Human Action: The Case of Environmental Conflict.”
• Zahra Ayubi, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “What is Islamic? Debates over Ethical Approaches to Muslim Gender Reform.”
• Eileen Barker, London School of Economics, “NRMs and their Aging Converts.”
• John Eicher, University of Iowa, “How States and Interest Groups Defined their Identities through Interaction with Mennonites.”
• Justin Farrell, University of Notre Dame, “The Role of Religious Meanings in Human Action: The Case of Environmental Conflict.”
• Brad Fulton, Duke University, “Congregation-Based Community Organizing: The State of the Field.”
• Daniel Loss, Brown University, “The Afterlife of Christian England, 1944-1994.”

• Melissa Browning, Loyola University of Chicago, applied research as part of her PhD program in Christian Ethics, “Patriarchy, Christianity, and the African AIDS Pandemic: Rethinking Christian Marriage in Light of the Experiences of HIV Positive Women in Tanzania.”
• Harriet J. Hartman, Sociology Department, Rowan University, basic research, “Jewish Identity and its Influence on Secular Pursuits.”
• Kent R. Kerley, Department of Justice Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, basic research with an applied emphasis, “Freedom in life, freedom in faith: Understanding the impact of a faith-based transitional center for women.”
• Benjamin Meagher, University of Connecticut, basic research as part of his PhD program in Social Psychology, “Judgments of Religious Qualities and the Identification of Spiritual Exemplars.”
• Kevin Taylor, Boston University, basic research as part of his PhD program in Religious and Theological Studies, “Habits of the Hearth: Parenting, Religion, and the Good Life in America.”
• Jeremy Thomas, Purdue University, basic research as part of his PhD program in Sociology, “Identifying Underchurched and Overchurched Counties: An Application for a New Approach to the Analytic Separation of Religious Supply and Demand.”