Center for Social Research

CSR Fellows Mulder and Smith to present at Yale conference

Constructing a study of faith and cities

CSR’s faculty Fellows for 2006-2008 are Drs. Mark Mulder of Sociology (on left above) and James K. A. Smith of Philosophy (on right above). The duo will present a report on their work in progress, “Subdivided by Faith,” at the conference on Ecclesiology and Ethnology at Yale University’s Center for Faith and Culture on Saturday morning, September 28.

In Spring 2007, students from Dr. Smith’s Philosophy of the Social Sciences class (PHIL 201/SOC 395) and Dr. Mulder’s Urban Sociology class (SOC 302) interviewed local residents from a wide range of religious traditions and geographies to gain insight into religious believers’ attitudes toward urban areas. The presentation at Yale will draw on the scholars’ early readings of these interview transcripts.

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Leading Scholar of Religion and Sociology Visits Calvin!

February 26, 2007. 3:30 p.m. Meeter Center Lecture Hall Scholar Nancy Ammerman, Professor of Sociology of Religion at Boston University will be giving a lecture entitled “Doing Good in the World: How Congregations Make a Difference.” Dr. Ammerman’s studies over the last decade have been devoted to American religious congregations. She is the author of nearly a dozen books and is active in educating the public on matters of American religious life. Her books have focused on patterns in faith communities, conservative religious movements and the role of religion in American life. In 2005 she discussed the religion and American family in an interview with Kim Lawton. (read it here) In addition to her many scholarly endeavors, Dr. Ammerman was involved as an advisor in the U.S. government’s investigation of the confrontation with the Branch Davidians at Waco. She served on a panel of experts convened by the U.S Departments of Justice and Treasury and testified before the Judiciary Committee. She also spent time in Israel, lecturing under U.S. State Department sponsorship. To find out more about Dr. Ammerman and see a list of her publications, visit her website. Also, view a transcript of an interview she gave on American congregations.

February 13, 2007 Lecture by Kevin Bales, President of Free the Slaves

The president of Free the Slaves and professor of sociology at Roehampton University will be giving a talk on his book, “Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy,” and the disturbing reality of modern slavery.  As an expert in the field of modern slavery, Bales has presented his scholarly work at many venues.  In 2000, Bales worked to produce the documentary, “Slavery: A Global Investigation,” which has won several awards, including the Peabody Award in 2000 and two Emmy Awards in 2002.  For more information on Bales’ work, please visit Free the Slaves and come to the Commons Lecture Hall on Tuesday, February 13, 2007 from 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM.

Methods:  Survey Experiments and Resilience

Some meaty methodological advice on experimentation in surveys is found in the Winter 2007 issue of Political Analysis (the journal of the Methodology Section of the American Political Science Association). In “The Logic of the Survey Experiment Reexamined,” authors Gaines, Kuklinski and Quirk (2006, pages 1-20) offer an overview of the power of survey experiments to identify causal relationships, along with a bundle of caveats scholars should keep in mind when designing, conducting and interpreting survey experiments. (The article is available to the Calvin community through the publisher’s web site).

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CSR Project Fellows Mulder and Smith gearing up

Jamie Smith (Philosophy) and Mark Mulder (Sociology) are the CSR Project Fellows for the 2006-2008 academic years. They’re planning a pilot study of evangelical Christians’ attitudes and beliefs about cities and residential patterns. Read on for excerpts from their proposal…

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