Professional Positions
2007 Professor, Sociology Department, University of Minnesota
2002 Associate Professor, Sociology Department, University of Minnesota
1995 Assistant Professor, Cornell University Associate Professor, Sociology Department, University of Minnesota
Administrative Experience
Associate Dean for Social Sciences, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota (2015-present)
Religious Studies Steering Committee, University of Minnesota (2008-2011, 2014-2015)
Chair, College of Liberal Arts Faculty Assembly (2014-2013)
Director of Graduate Studies, Sociology Department, University of Minnesota (2005-2010)
Professional SErvice (Selected)
Editorial Board, American Sociological Review (2016-2018), Social Problems (2009-2018), American Journal of Sociology (2003-2005)
Advisory Editor, Sociology of Religion (2014-2017)
Panel Reviewer for the European Research Council (2013-2015) and National Science Foundation (2010-2013, 2015-2017)
Chair of the Religion Section, American Sociological Association (2012-2013)
Education
1995 Ph.D., Sociology, University of Chicago
1986 A.B. Sociology, magna cum laude, Princeton University
Fields of Interest
Culture; Religion in the United States; Sociology of Religion; Gender, Family, and Work
publications, selected
For full CV, see here.
Books:
Religion is Raced. 2020. Editors: Grace Yukich and Penny Edgell. New York: NYU Press.
Religion and Family in a Changing Society. 2005. Penny Edgell. Princeton University Press Series in Cultural Sociology.
Distinguished Book Award 2006, American Sociological Association Religion Section.
Congregations in Conflict: Cultural Models of Local Religious Life. 1999. Penny Edgell Becker. Cambridge University Press.
Best Book Award 2000, American Sociological Association Religion Section.
Contemporary American Religion: An Ethnographic Reader. 1997. Penny Edgell Becker and Nancy Eiesland, editors. Alta Mira Press/Sage.
Articles and Book Chapters:
“From Politics as Vocation to Politics as Business: Populist Social Performance and Narrative Fusion in Trump Rallies.” Social Forces, online at https://academic.oup.com/sf/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/sf/soab150/6462542.
“’I Believe in Taking Care of People’: Pushing Back Against Rationalized Institutions with a Logic of Care.” Jacqui Frost, Penny Edgell. Poetics, online at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2021.101593
“How Americans Talk about Separation of Church and State: Moral Frameworks of Justice and Care.” Kathy Hull, Penny Edgell. The Sociological Quarterly 62(2):258-81.
“Racial, Religious, and Civic Dimensions of Anti-Muslim Sentiment in America.” Joseph Gerteis, Douglas Hartmann, Penny Edgell. Social Problems 67(4):719-40.
“Christian America? Secularized Evangelical Discourse and the Boundaries of National Belonging.” Jack Delehanty, Penny Edgell, Evan Stewart. Social Forces 97(3):1283-1306.
“Rescuing Nones from the Reference Category: Civic Engagement Among the Non-religious in America.” Jacqueline Frost, Penny Edgell. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 47(2):417-38.
“The Politics of Religious Prejudice and Tolerance for Cultural Others.” Evan Stewart, Penny Edgell, Jack Delehanty. The Sociological Quarterly, 59(1):17-39.
"Cultural Schemas of Religion, Science, and Law in Talk about Social Controversies." Penny Edgell and Kathleen Hull. Sociological Forum 32(2):228-320.
"From Existential to Social Understandings of Risk: Examining Gender Differences in Non-religion." Penny Edgell, Jacqui Frost, Evan Stewart. Social Currents 4(6):556-574.
"Distinctiveness Reconsidered: Religiosity, Structural Location, and Understandings of Racial Inequality." Jacqui Frost and Penny Edgell. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 56(2):277-301
"Atheists and Other Cultural Outsiders: Moral Boundaries and the Non-Religious in the United States." Penny Edgell, Douglas Hartmann, Evan Stewart, Joseph Gerteis. Social Forces 95(2):607-638.
“Reasoning Together through Telling Stories: How People Talk About Social Controversies.” 2016. Penny Edgell, Kathleen Hull, Kyle Green, Daniel Winchester. Qualitative Sociology 39(1):1-26.
"Work-family Conflict among Black, White and Hispanic Men and Women." 2016. Samantha Ammons, Eric Dahlin, Penny Edgell, and Jonathan Bruce Santo. Community, Work, and Family. Published online 04/06/16. Forthcoming in print.
“Loose Connections and Liberal Theology.” 2015. Penny Edgell and Derek Robey. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 54(4): 649-667.
“The Relevance of Place and Family Stage for Styles of Community Involvement.” 2015. Heather Hofmeister, Penny Edgell. Community, Work, and Family. 1(18):58-78.
“Profiles of Anticipated Support: Religion’s Place in the Composition of Americans’ Emotional Support Networks.” 2013. Penny Edgell, Darin Mather, Eric Tranby. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 52(2):293-309.
“A Cultural Sociology of Religion – New Directions.” 2012. Penny Edgell. Annual Review of Sociology Vol. 38:247-65.
“Making Ends Meet: Insufficiency and Work-Family Coordination in the New Economy.” 2012. Penny Edgell, Samantha Ammons, and Eric Dahlin. Journal of Family Issues 33(8):999-1026.
“How Americans Understand Racial and Religious Difference: A Test of Parallel Items from a Recent National Survey.” 2011. Doug Hartmann, Daniel Winchester, Penny Edgell, and Joe Gerteis. The Sociological Quarterly, 52(3):323-45.
“Shared Visions? Diversity and Cultural Membership in American Life.” 2010. Penny Edgell and Eric Tranby. Social Problems, 57(2):175-204.
“Religious Influences on Understandings of Racial Inequality in the United States.” 2007. Penny Edgell and Eric Tranby. Social Problems, 54(2):263-288.
“Religious Influences on Work-Family Trade-offs.” 2007. Samantha Ammons and Penny Edgell. Journal of Family Issues, 28(6):794-826.
“Beyond the Nuclear Family? Familism and Gender Ideology in Diverse Religious Communities.” 2007. Penny Edgell and Danielle Docka. Sociological Forum, 22(1):25-50.
“Atheists as ‘Other’: Moral Boundaries and Cultural Membership in American Society.” 2006. Penny Edgell, Joseph Gerteis and Douglas Hartmann. American Sociological Review, 72(2):211-234. Reprinted in Secularization, ed. Bryan Turner, Sage Publications, 2010.
Muley Point Overlook, Valley of the Gods, 2010
“Work, Family, and Religious Involvement for Men and Women.” 2001. Penny Edgell and Heather Hofmeister. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40(4):707-722.
“Religious Involvement and Volunteering: Impacts for Civil Society.” 2001. Penny Edgell Becker and Pawan Dhingra. Sociology of Religion, 62(3): 315-335.
“Boundaries and Silences in a Post-Feminist Sociology.” 2000. Penny Edgell Becker. Sociology of Religion, 61(4):399-408.
“Scaling Back: Dual-Earner Couples’ Work-Family Strategies.” 1999. Penny Edgell Becker and Phyllis Moen. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61:995-1007.
“Making Inclusive Communities: Congregations and the ‘Problem’ of Race.” 1998. Penny Edgell Becker. Social Problems, 45(4):451-472.
"Congregational Models and Conflict: A Study of How Institutions Shape Organizational Process." 1998. Penny Edgell Becker. Pp. 231-255 in Sacred Companies: Organized Aspects of Religion and Religious Aspects of Organization, Demerath, Dobkin Hall, Schmitt, and Williams, editors. Oxford University Press.
“‘What is Right’ and ‘What is Caring’: Identifying a Religious Logic in Local Congregations.” 1997. Penny Edgell Becker. Pp. 121-145 in Contemporary American Religion: An Ethnographic Reader. Becker and Eiesland, editors. Alta Mira.
GRANTS AND HONORS, SELECTED
For full CV, see here.
Principle Investigator, $265,199 grant from the National Science Foundation, Sociology Program. 2013. Doug Hartmann, Eric Tranby, Paul Croll, co-PIs. “Boundaries in the American Mosaic: Inclusion and Exclusion in the Contemporary United States.”
Sabbatical Grant, $40,000, Louisville Institute for the Study of Protestantism in American Culture, Louisville Seminary. 2012.
Lebanon Hills, MN, Summer 2015
Principal Investigator, $283,443 grant from the National Science Foundation, Sociology Program. 2011. Kathy Hull, co-PI. “The Role of Cognition in the Development of Social Fragmentation, Commonalities, and Consensus.”
Principal Investigator, $700,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment for a national survey of religion, work, and family. 2002-2006. Christopher Ellison and Brad Wilcox, co-PIs.
Principal Investigator, American Mosaic Project, $340,000 grant from Edelstein Family Foundation to study race, religion, and tolerance in U.S. 2002-2006. Douglas Hartmann and Joseph Gerteis, co-PIs.
Sabbatical Grant, $45,000, Religious Institutions Grant Program, Louisville Institute for the Study of Protestantism in American Culture, Louisville Seminary. 2004-2005.
Visiting Faculty Fellow, Center for the Study of Religion, Princeton University. 2000-2001.
Principal Investigator, $280,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment for a comparative study of institutional links between religion and family in four communities in upstate New York. 1997-2000.
Ford Foundation Undergraduate Teaching Program, Summer Stipend, Cornell University. 1995-1996.
Robert Park Prize Lecturer in Sociology, University of Chicago. 1993.
