I am Associate Professor of Sociology, and Public Policy and Political Economy in the School of Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences (EPPS) at The University of Texas at Dallas. I received my Ph.D. from Columbia University in Religious Studies in 1985; I also was awarded a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology by Union Theological Seminary in New York in the same year. I was awarded a Master of Philosophy in Religious Studies by Columbia in 1981, and a Master of Divinity in Systematic Theology by Union Seminary in 1976. I received my Bachelor of Arts in Religion, and in English Literature from Baylor University in 1973.  In 1973 I joined the UTD faculty as Adjunct Lecturer in the formerly named School of Social Sciences before being appointed Senior Lecturer in that school and in the School of Arts and Humanities in 1999. Prior to joining the faculty, I was Assistant Professor of Religious Studies in Dedman College at Southern Methodist University. Before that, I was Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Program in Religion in the Department of Philosophy at Hunter College of the City University of New York and, previously, while working on my dissertation, Adjunct Faculty in the same program at Hunter College.

I have published in the fields of social-scientific study of religion, Religious Studies, anthropology of religion, and Ritual Studies. I have authored two book monographs, originally published by the American Academy of Religion and currently in the catalog of Oxford University Press. A recently completed book, of which I am co-editor and a principal author, is under contract with The Edwin Mellen Press. The book is based on a U.S. Department of Education FIPSE grant, for which I was Project Director. I am currently working on a book monograph and related single-authored journal articles, and articles co-authored with a member of UTD’s Asylum Research Team.  I have single-authored journal articles in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Journal of Ritual Studies, Semeia: Journal for Biblical Interpretation, and Listening: Journal of Religion and Culture, and was the lead author of an article in the Journal for Hispanic Higher Education.  I have published book chapters in edited books by Sage Publications, Inc. and Greenwood Press. I authored articles in two editions of The Encyclopedia of Religion, the Encyclopedia of Protestantism, and Encyclopaedia Britannica. I have served as a reviewer for professional journals in social-scientific study of religion, ritual studies, and anthropology. 

My research and publications treat religion and social change. Informed by theories of religion and ritual as agents of social change found in sociology, anthropology, Religious Studies, and Ritual Studies, my research examines social change within the overlap of religion and other social forces. A special focus has been ways in which minority and marginal social groups have engaged their religious institutions, ideologies/theologies, and ritual in social change within the context of broader patterns of social conflict and change. I employ participant-observation ethnography as my primary research method. My research has been funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the AAR’s Southwest Commission on Religious Studies, CrossCurrents: The Association for Religion and Intellectual Life, the Overbrook Foundation, and Southern Methodist University. I am a member of the American Academy of Religion and a former member of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.

I teach courses in research writing in sociology, a Core Course in UTD’s Sociology program required of undergraduate majors in Sociology; immigrants and immigration in U.S. society; post-1965 immigrants, their religious organizations, and assimilation; and race and ethnicity. I serve on dissertation committees in the School of Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences. A two-time recipient of the Student Choice Teaching Award presented by students in the School of Social Sciences at UTD, I was a 2011 recipient of an Outstanding EPPS Faculty Comet Award, which is based on student nominations, and a Distinguished Teacher in Diversity and Multicultural Education Award, which is presented by UTD’s Office of Diversity and Community Engagement. I was twice nominated by UTD students for the Chancellor’s Council Outstanding Teaching Award. I was a three-time nominee for the Margareta Deschner Teacher Award given by the Women’s Center at Southern Methodist University.

I am a member of the Sociology Program Committee in EPPS and the Graduate Admissions Committee in the program, Public Policy and Political Economy. I have been a member of UTD’s Committee on Education Policy (CEP), which I served as Chair; the Committee on Core Curriculum (CCC); Committee on Student Scholarships, which I have served as Vice Chair; the Advisory Committee of the Office of International Education; the Council of Masters, comprised of Assistant and Associate Deans of Undergraduate Studies in their respective schools - I was Assistant Dean and College Master in UTD’s School of Social Sciences; the President’s Ad Hoc Committee for Community Outreach; and the Planning Committee of the UTD-U.N. Conference on Women, sponsored by the School of Social Sciences and the Dallas Chapter of the United Nations. I served as Faculty Advisor in UTD’s Office of Undergraduate Education under the Dean of Undergraduate Education. Long-time Faculty Advisor to the UTD Baha’i Association, I am currently advisor to the UTD Intercultural Women Students Association.

I am a member of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and am a past member of its Ritual Studies Steering Committee. I am a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University, known as Friends of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music (Yale ISM), an advisory body appointed by the Director of the Institute. I am past President of the Board of Directors of the Oak Cliff Center for Community Studies, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization I founded together with principals of the FIPSE grant, and honorary Lifetime Member of the Board. I am a former member of With One Voice, a Dallas-based coalition of public and government institutions and non-profit organizations providing a variety of services to immigrants in North Texas.