Research Interests:

Cultural Sociology, Sociology of Education, Culture and Identity, Sociology of Religion, Sociological Theory.

Current Research:

My dissertation research aims to apply theories from cultural sociology (e.g. values and action; concerted cultivation; cultural matching) to the examination of parents’ school choice, notably private school choice in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

Beyond my dissertation work, I have published research on:

• the relationship between culture, values, identity and the inter-generational transmission of language among official-language minorities in Canada;
• cultural matching in the selection of cultural objects;
• social position, status and cultural tastes (distinction and omnivorousness);
• the relationship between school choice, culture and identity in the Franco-Ontarian context;
• the cultural association between Catholicism and French-Canadian culture and identity.

Comprehensive Exams:

I have completed comprehensive exams in the fields of Sociology of Culture (September 2015) and Sociological Theory (June 2016).

Publications:

Nault, J.-F., Baumann, S., Childress, C. and C. Rawlings (Forthcoming). The Social Positions of Taste Between and Within Music Genres: From Omnivore to Snob. European Journal of Cultural Studies.

Nault, J.-F. (2019). The Linguistic Retention of Canada’s Official-Language Minorities: A Case Study of Language Retention Rates among Ontario’s Francophone Population. Canadian Review of Sociology 56(4): 472-498.

Childress, C. and J.-F. Nault (2019). Encultured Biases: The Role of Products in Pathways to Inequality, American Sociological Review 84(1), 115-141.

Nault, J.-F. & E.M. Meunier (2017). Is Quebec Still a Catholically Distinct Society within Canada? An Examination of Catholic Affiliation and Mass Attendance, Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, 46(2), 230-248.

Nault, J.-F. (2015). Le choix de l'école catholique de langue française en Ontario: mutations du rapport identitaire des Franco-Ontariens au catholicisme, Études d’histoire religieuse, 80(1-2), 81-102.

Meunier, E.M. & J.-F. Nault (2014). Vers une sortie de la religion culturelle? Les transformations du catholicisme au Québec et au Canada (1968-2008): un tour d'horizon, in F. Mabille (Ed.) La longue transition du catholicisme: Gouvernementalité et influence, Paris, Éditions du cygne, pp. 27-63.

Meunier, E.M. & J.-F. Nault (2012). L'archidiocèse catholique d'Ottawa et sa francophonie: portrait statistique, comparaison et analyse sociohistorique (1968-2008), Francophonie d'Amérique, 34, 59-79.