I am an assistant professor of sociology at University of Massachusetts Boston. I do research on a variety of topics that all address one core question: what brings diverse groups of people together, and what breaks them apart?

This work has appeared in American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Problems, and Sociological Theory, among other outlets. I am also an associate editor at the journal Sociology of Religion.

Public sociology is an important part of my scholarly work. I was a 2021-2022 fellow with the Public Religion Research Institute and I am the editor and principal author at Sociological Images - one of the largest sociology blogs in the country. My research has also been featured on media outlets including WBUR Boston, The Conversation, Washington Post’s Monkey Cage, and FiveThirtyEight.

I earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Minnesota, where I worked as an Edelstein Fellow with the American Mosaic Project and an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellow with the Center for the Study of Political Psychology. I also hold an M.A. in Sociology from UMN and a B.A. in Political Theory and Social Policy from Michigan State University’s James Madison College.