Projects
"But did you know...": Joy, myth, and liberation
Research questions: How does focusing on strategies of joy, especially the act of constructing a vision of the future, shape social movement actors’ implementation of strategy and the definition of a “political” act? Is it possible that “joy for the sake of joy” can be a transformative act alongside “joy as resistance”? What social impacts do actions that are “joy for the sake of joy” have when done in an intentionally justice-oriented community?
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Status: Ongoing multi-sited project
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Black oral storytelling [Primary site: New England region, USA]
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Phase 1 [Community-engaged research design]: In progress
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Dalit rights activism [Primary site: India]
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Phase 1 [Community-engaged research design]: In progress
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Re-imagining within-movement conflict
Research questions: How do the networks of a transnational social movement manage within-movement ideological conflict? What does a study of this conflict reveal about creative pathways of collaboration where collaboration could not be seen previously?
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Status: Ongoing
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Anti-sex trafficking movement [Primary site: India]
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Phase 1 [Dissertation]: Complete
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Phase 2 [Public scholarship & publications]: In progress
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For India ASTM stakeholders (general): Executive summary of research​
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For India ASTM practitioners & funders: Slide deck of funding recommendations
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Black Lives Matter movement [Primary sites: USA, India, Brazil]
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Phase 1 [Research design]: On hold for Joy, Myth, and Liberation research
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"Until we weep": The spiritual and emotional dimensions of improving race relations
Research question: What can the work of Protestant Christian churches reveal about the emotional and spiritual dimensions of addressing racism and improving race relations?
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Status: Ongoing
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Phase 1 [Thesis]: Complete
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Phase 2 [Public scholarship]: In progress
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I work with churches and parachurch organizations around Rhode Island to help them intentionally pursue anti-racist action in a way that holistically addresses the impacts of racism.
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Course design
The following are courses that I teach or have designed so I can teach them in the future. (Further details about them are forthcoming.)
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Principles of Sociology
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The Human Spark (formerly "Sociology of Innovation and Creativity")
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Crime and Justice
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Race and Ethnicity
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Questioning Citizenship: Critical Civic Engagement
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The Global Color Line and Ethno-Racial Justice Movements
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The Love Ethic of Social Movements
Sociology of love
Love is too expansive and transformative to remain bounded simply as a research area of interest. Earnest, thorough, rigorous study of love requires that we spend extended time with it. Doing so heightens the possibility that love will do what it inevitably does – infuse and transform that with which it comes into contact. Love is a transformative force, a boundless, creative infinity that can become an entire world paradigm, as it has become for me.​
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Status: Infinitely ongoing [specific theory, method, and conference projects pending]
