My research focuses on one core question: what brings diverse groups of people together, and what breaks them apart? I tackle this question across many topics using insights from cultural sociology, social psychology, and political science. In doing so, I lead collaborative teams that do dynamic research with survey methods and big data to understand cultural change in three areas:
Fewer Americans identify with any religious tradition, but many still call themselves “spiritual” and do a wide variety of meaningful practices together. How is religious change shaping our social and political lives? My work on voting, volunteering, and other forms of civic engagement examines how our community wellbeing changes as religious experiences change.
Evan Stewart. 2023. "Rethinking Religion And Political Participation: The Case of Voting Among Religiously Unaffiliated Americans." Sociology of Religion.
Evan Stewart, Penny Edgell, and Jack Delehanty. 2023. “Public Religion and Gendered Attitudes.” Social Problems.
Jaime Kucinskas and Evan Stewart (Equal Authorship). 2022. “Selfish or Substituting Spirituality? Clarifying the Relationship Between Spiritual Practice and Political Engagement.” American Sociological Review. 87(4): 584–617.
Who has legitimacy, who has authority, and what are the stakes of those questions for social problems? My work in this area focuses on “the stakes of symbolic boundaries” - how our implicit and explicit social assumptions about belonging have material consequences for our collective wellbeing.
Evan Stewart and Diane Beckman. “Shifting or Settled? Tracking Racial Animus During COVID-19.” Social Psychology Quarterly 86(3):312-333.
Joseph W. Silcox and Evan Stewart. 2024. “The Professionalization of Stigma: The Novel Case of Recovery Coaching.” Journal of Applied Social Science 18(1):204–21.
Evan Stewart and Douglas Hartmann. 2020. “The New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere” Sociological Theory 38(2): 170–191.
In an era of escalating climate crisis, whether people “believe” in climate change is increasingly irrelevant. Instead, how do our collective moral foundations shape our willingness to support resilience policies, prepare for environmental change, and help others? My current work with doctoral advisees is increasingly focused on new directions in public opinion research on climate resilience and activism.
Stewart, Evan, Katsyris Rivera Kientz, and Timothy Dacey. "Mapping Racial and Ethnic Variation in Climate Belief Networks." Conditionally Accepted at Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.
Timothy Dacey and Evan Stewart. 2023. “The Green Elephants in the Room: Perceived Environmental Harm and Support for Regulation Among Republicans.” Sociological Inquiry 93(2):250–72.
Johnna Flahive, Katsyris Rivera Kientz, Dlynzee Damas, Chris Watson, Evan Stewart, Ellen Douglas. 2023. “Who Counts in Climate Resilience? Transient Populations and Climate Resilience in Boston and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.” University of Massachusetts, Boston Sustainable Solutions Lab.