Panelist and Discussant Bios

Panelists and Discussants

Ruth Braunstein is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut and an Affiliate Fellow at Princeton University's Center for the Study of Religion. For more information, click here.

Penny Edgell is a professor in the department of sociology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and (with Grace Yukich) editor of Religion is Raced. For more information, click here.


Joseph Gerteis is an associate professor in the department of sociology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. For more information, click here.

Philip Gorski is a professor in the department of sociology at Yale University. For more information, click here.

Douglas Hartmann is a professor in the department of sociology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. For more information, click here.

Sikivu Hutchinson is an author and playwright. Her books include Humanists in the Hood: Unapologetically Black, Feminist, and Heretical, Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars , and the novel/play White Nights, Black Paradise on Black women and the 1978 Jonestown massacre. She is a recipient of the 2020 Harvard Humanist of the Year award. For more information, click here.

Eric McDaniel is an associate professor in the department of government at the University of Texas at Austin. For more information, click here.

Omar McRoberts is an associate professor in the department of sociology at the University of Chicago. For more information, click here.

Samuel Perry is an associate professor in the department of sociology at the University of Oklahoma. For more information, click here.

Andrew Whitehead is an associate professor of sociology and director of the Association of Religion Data Archives at the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. For more information, click here.

Rhys H. Williams is Professor and Chair of Sociology at Loyola University Chicago. He studies religion in American politics and culture. He has a forthcoming co-edited book Civil Religion Turns 50: Religion and the American Nation in the 21st Century (New York University Press, with Ray Haberski and Philip Goff). For more information, click here.

Grace Yukich is Professor of Sociology at Quinnipiac University and (with Penny Edgell) editor of Religion is Raced. For more information, click here.