Members

John Schmalzbauer, Project Director

A sociologist by training, John Schmalzbauer teaches in the Religious Studies Department at Missouri State University, where he holds the Blanche Gorman Strong Chair in Protestant Studies. He is the co-author with Kathleen Mahoney of The Resilience of Religion in American Higher Education (Baylor University Press 2018), a book that grew out of an evaluation of Lilly Endowment’s religion and higher education initiative. Between 2004 and 2008 Schmalzbauer served as co-investigator on the National Study of Campus Ministry directed by Betty DeBerg. His first book, People of Faith: Religious Conviction in American Journalism and Higher Education (Cornell University Press 2003), explores the role of religion in the careers of 40 prominent journalists and scholars, including Cokie Roberts, Peter Steinfels, Andrew Greeley, and George Marsden. From 1998 to 2004, Schmalzbauer taught in the Sociology/Anthropology Department at the College of the Holy Cross, where he was an Edward Bennett Williams Fellow in Catholic Studies. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Wheaton College in Illinois.

His publications include the following articles and chapters on campus religion:

• Campus Ministry. In The Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Education, edited by Michael D. Waggoner and Nathan C. Walker. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018, 453-465.
• Marsden and Secularization. In American Evangelicalism: George Marsden and the State of American Religious History, edited by Kurt W. Peterson, Thomas S. Kidd, and Darren Dochuk. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2014, 283-311.
• Whose Social Justice? Which Evangelicalism? Social Engagement in a Campus Ministry. In The New Evangelical Social Engagement, edited by Brian Steensland and Philip Goff. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2013, 50-72.
• Campus Religious Life in America: Revitalization and Renewal. Society 50(2): 115-131 (2013). Symposium: The Changing Shape of Higher Education Since the 1960s.
• Religion and Knowledge in the Post-Secular Academy (with Kathleen A. Mahoney). In The Post-Secular in Question: Religion in Contemporary Society, edited by Philip Gorski, David Kyuman Kim, John Torpey and Jonathan VanAntwerpen. New York: New York University Press, 2012, 215-248.

Kathleen Garces-Foley, Researcher

Kathleen Garces-Foley is Professor of Religious Studies at Marymount University. Her scholarship focuses on contemporary religious trends in the United States, including such topics as young adult religious lives, spirituality, the religiously unaffiliated, and the intersection of immigration, race, and multiethnic congregations. She is the co-author (with Tim Clydesdale) of The Twentysomething Soul: Understanding the Religious and Secular Lives of American Young Adults (Oxford 2019), and author of Crossing the Ethnic Divide: The Multiethnic Church on a Mission (Oxford 2007). Garces-Foley is also an expert on end-of-life spiritual care in the United States and the Founding Director of the Coalition to Improve Advanced Care in Arlington, VA, which provides free support and education on end of life issues. She has published articles and book chapters on hospice care and funeral practices and is the editor of Death and Religion in a Changing World (Routledge 2006). She is currently researching the death positive movement and “death doulas.” Garces-Foley was a Fulbright scholar in Slovenia in 2014 and was awarded a Fulbright to Hungary in the fall of 2020, which was canceled due to COVID-19. She is one of 2 Virginia faculty members honored by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) with its 2012 Virginia Outstanding Faculty “Rising Star” Award.

• “Parishes as Homes and Hubs.” In American Parishes: Remaking Local Catholicism, edited by Gary Adler, Tricia C. Bruce, and Brian Stark, 173-195. Fordham Press, 2019.
• In Young Adult American Catholics: Explaining Vocation in Their Own Words, edited by Maureen K. Day, 54-60. Paulist Press, 2018.
• “Hospice and the Politics of Spirituality.” In Spirituality in Hospice Palliative Care, edited by Paul Bramadat, Kelli Stajduhar, and Harold Coward, 13-40. SUNY Press, 2013. Revised from earlier publication in Omega—Journal of Death and Dying 53: 1-2 (2006): 117-136.
• "Asian American Evangelicals leading Multiracial Churches" (with Russell Jeung), Religions 4: 2 (2013): 190-208.
• “Funeral and Mourning Rituals in America: Historical and Cultural Overview.” In Religion, Death and Dying in America, Volume 3: Bereavement and Death Rituals, edited by Lucy Bregman, 1-23. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2010.
• From the Melting Pot to the Multicultural Table: Filipino Catholics in Los Angeles, American Catholic Studies 120: 1 (2009): 27-54.
• Comparing Catholic and Evangelical Integration Efforts, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 47: 1 (2008): 17–22.
• New Opportunities and New Values: The Emergence of the Multicultural Church, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 612: 1 (2007): 209-224.
• Funerals of the Unaffiliated, Omega—Journal of Death and Dying 46: 4 (2002-2003): 287-302.
• Buddhism, Hospice, and the American Way of Dying, Review of Religious Research 44: 4 (June 2003): 341-53.

Rebecca Y. Kim, Researcher

Rebecca Y. Kim is the Frank R. Seaver Chair of Social Science. She is Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Ethnic Studies program at Pepperdine University. She specializes in immigration, race, and religion and has published widely on such topics, particularly related to Asian American evangelicals. She is the author of God’s New Whiz Kids? Korean American Evangelicals on Campus (New York University Press 2006) and The Spirit Moves West: Korean Missionaries in America (Oxford University Press 2015). Both of these books are on Korean American evangelicals on college and university campuses. She has also published articles on diversity, Asian Americans, and campus ministries like the of following:

• Kim, Rebecca Y. 2013. “Asian American Evangelicals on the College Campus” in Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political History. ABC-CLIO Greenwood.
• Kim, Rebecca Y. 2008. “Second-generation Korean American Campus Evangelicals on the College Campus: Constructing Ethnic Boundaries.” Pp. 172-192 in David Yoo and Ruth Chung, eds., Spiritual Practices: Mapping Korean American Religions. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
• Kim, Rebecca Y. 2007. “Asian Americans for Jesus: Changing the Face of Campus Evangelicalism,” in the Social Science Research Council’s Online Forums and Essays. http://religion.ssrc.org/reforum/Kim/
• Kim, Rebecca Y. 2004. “Negotiating Ethnic and Religious Boundaries by Asian American Campus Evangelicals.” Pp. 141-159 in Tony Carnes and Fenggang Yang, eds., Asian American Religion: The Making and Remaking of Borders and Boundaries. New York: New York University Press.
• Kim, Rebecca Y. 2004. “Made in the U.S.A.: Second-Generation Korean American Campus Evangelicals.” Pp. 235-250 in Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou, eds., Asian American Youth Culture: Culture, Ethnicity, and Identity. New York: Routledge.
• Kim, Rebecca Y. 2004. “Second-Generation Korean American Evangelicals: Ethnic, Multiethnic, or White Campus Ministries?” Sociology of Religion 65 (1): 19-34.

David Sikkink, Researcher

David Sikkink (Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame, and directs the Cardus Religious Schools Initiative at Notre Dame. He is a Fellow in the Center of the Study of Religion as well as the Institution for Educational Initiatives. His main research interests are in education, religion, and politics. Sikkink's publications include articles on pathways from religious participation of teenagers to educational outcomes (The Sociological Quarterly). It reveals how religious participation affects social capital and extracurricular participation of teenagers, which in turn leads to better educational outcomes. Sikkink has also investigated the relation between religious tradition and view of public schools, which resulted in an article in Social Forces "The Social Sources of Alienation from Public Schools." His current work focuses on school sector effects on outcomes in the young adult years, such as civic participation and political engagement, giving and volunteering, educational degrees, and occupation.

Catherine Hoegeman, Researcher/Quantitative Analysis

Catherine (Katie) Hoegeman has a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara and worked for several years as a computer. Katie then shifted direction and worked for various nonprofit organizations and continued computer support work. She completed a Master’s degree in Leadership and Liberal Studies from Duquesne University. Katie went on to earn her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Arizona in 2011 focusing on organizations, religion, leadership, and quantitative analysis. Katie is currently an Associate Professor of Sociology at Missouri State University and Sociology Program Coordinator where she teaches Introduction to Society, Statistics, Research Methods, Nonprofit Organizations, Religion and Society, and Leadership and Professional Development. In addition to providing support for the survey design and analyzing data for the Landscape of Campus Ministry project, Katie’s recent research includes work on Catholic bishops and Catholic dioceses, and women in religious leadership.

Tricia Bruce, Researcher

Tricia C. Bruce (PhD, University of California Santa Barbara, 2006) is a sociologist of religion affiliated with the University of Notre Dame’s Center for the Study of Religion and Society. Her research expertise centers religion/Catholicism and the dynamics of political, social, and organizational change. Her award-winning books and reports include Parish and Place; Faithful Revolution; American Parishes; Polarization in the US Catholic Church; and How Americans Understand Abortion (cited in the Washington Post, Atlantic, The Hill, Commonweal, and elsewhere). She has authored numerous pieces in academic journals as well as in The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, LA Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and more. With funding from sources such as the National Science Foundation and US Conference of Catholic Bishops, she maintains an active research agenda with an eye toward applied audiences.

Cody Yanez, Student Researcher

Cody Yanez is a graduate student in the Missouri State Religious Studies program. He will be working alongside Dr. John Schmalzbauer as a research assistant throughout the 2020-2021 school year. A native of California, Cody spent his early childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area before moving to the rural Sierra Nevada foothills. In 2012, he moved to Springfield, MO to attend Evangel University where he earned a B.A. in Music and Biblical Studies. Cody resides in Springfield with his wife, Amber. He is a licensed Minister in the Church of God in Christ. He serves as the Youth Pastor and Choir Director of Sanctuary of Praise C.O.G.I.C. His theological and academic interests draw on African American Pentecostalism, Marxism, and Latino Liberation Theology.

 

Grant Besner, Student Researcher

Grant Besner is a first year Master's student in Religious Studies at New York University where he hopes to learn a thing or two about postsecularism in the digital age. Grant views himself, in order of personal significance, as an educator, storyteller, and an alpaca herder, having taught students in faraway lands such as China, Vietnam, and the 8th grade, and having produced Is (that)raeli? a narrative podcast series about Israeli identity, while volunteering and wrangling Hebrew-speaking llamas on The Alpaca Farm under the Negev sun. He has a degree in Computer Science from Duke University, wears exclusively Hawaiian shirts, and has just emerged to hatapauch hagado! (the Big Apple) after a month-long hike on the Appalachian Trail. Grant hails from South Florida but does not identify as a "Florida Man". He is thrilled to be a part of such a talented and excellent team of scholars and researchers trying to better understand the enduring impact of religion on the world today!

Isaac Kimmel, Student Researcher

Isaac Kimmel is a PhD candidate in sociology and a Graduate Sorin Fellow of the deNicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, and a Graduate Affiliate of the Center for Information Technology and Public Life at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. Apart from his work with LSCCM, Isaac's primary research interests lie at the intersection of cultural sociology and political communication. His dissertation uses data from congressional candidates' Twitter accounts to advance the current understanding of the cultural schemas underpinning American democracy, using COVID-19 as a lens. Isaac holds an MA in sociology from Notre Dame and a BA in philosophy from Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. A native South Texan, Isaac devotes his free time to his family, his quixotic search for decent tacos in Indiana, and cheering on the Fighting Irish.

Matthew Wynn, Student Researcher

Matthew Wynn is a 23-year-old graduate student in the Religious Studies program at Missouri State University. Raised in St. Louis, he originally came to Springfield to get his BA in Business Statistics and play for the Missouri State club soccer team.  After taking a general ed class in New Testament, where his interest in philosophy and religion came to fruition, he decided to change his career path. He works alongside Dr. Schmalzbauer as a research assistant while he completes his MA in Religious Studies. Matthew is also currently working on his thesis, A Critique and Sociological Examination on the Evolution of Original Sin, with Dr. Schmaulzbauer as his thesis advisor. His academic interests pertain to how people of the same religion can often hold different beliefs, and what these disparate views on seeing the world reveal about, or relate to, the decreased attendance in organized religion today. He is delighted to be a part of the research team to better learn about the role religion plays in people's lives today. 

Stephanie Teasley, Student Researcher

Stephanie Teasley is a graduate student in religious studies at Missouri State University. After bouncing around every few years, I most recently landed in southern Missouri where I built a really large garden and a good relationship with the school librarians who keep me stocked with reading materials. 

Danè Wallace, Project Manager

Dané Wallace has been the project manager for the Landscape Study of Chaplaincy and Campus Ministries since April 2020. Danè has an M.A. in Religious Studies and has been teaching at Missouri State University since 2005 in both the Global Studies and the Classical Studies program. Beyond the overall project management responsibilities, Danè oversees the project website and conducts investigatory research to help supplement the data collections for the study. She is very pleased to return to her academic roots in Religious Studies and to expand her intellectual and professional horizons in this new-to-her position.