Ruth Braunstein
Ruth Braunstein is an Associate Professor of Sociology. Before joining JHU, she was Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. A cultural sociologist interested in the role of religion and morality in American political life, Ruth‘s award-winning research has been published in the top peer-reviewed journals in her field, and has been covered in major news outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Time Magazine. She also writes frequently for public audiences, including at The Guardian, Religion News Service, and The Conversation.
She is the author of My Tax Dollars: The Morality of Taxpaying in America (Princeton University Press), which examines how the mundane act of taxpaying can, under certain circumstances, become infused with intense moral significance — sometimes positive, sometimes negative — with major implications for American politics and institutions. This project is supported by grants from the Louisville Institute, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR), the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, and the University of Connecticut.
She also produced and hosts the audio documentary When the Wolves Came: Evangelicals Resisting Extremism, a documentary podcast that spotlights evangelical leaders who are resisting political extremism in their church and the country. When the Wolves Came is a project of the Meanings of Democracy Lab, which Ruth directs, and The Mash-Up Americans, and was created with support from the Henry Luce Foundation.
She is also the author of Prophets and Patriots: Faith in Democracy Across the Political Divide, a comparative ethnographic study of progressive faith-based community organizing and Tea Party activism; and co-editor of Religion and Progressive Activism: New Stories About Faith and Politics.
Ruth‘s research, writing and teaching have been recognized by numerous awards and fellowships. She received the inaugural Distinguished Early Career Award from the American Sociological Association’s Religion Section, and her department’s 2021 Faculty Mentor Award. She is a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University, and has previously been a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Religion; a Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) Public Fellow; a Public Discourse Project Faculty Fellow; and an American Fellow of AAUW. She was also a core faculty member of the UConn Humanities Institute’s Humility and Conviction in Public Life Project.
Ruth serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Sociological Forum, and Qualitative Sociology. She previously served as an Associate Editor of Sociology of Religion, and on the inaugural editorial board of The Immanent Frame, a digital forum on secularism, religion and the public sphere published by the Social Science Research Council. She is currently Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of PRRI, and President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR).
She earned her doctoral degree in sociology from New York University and her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University. She is originally from Atlanta, GA.
