CHRISTIAN SMITH
Department of Sociology
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
CB #3210, Hamilton Hall
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599
EDUCATION
1984-1990 Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, M.A., Ph.D., Department of Sociology
1983-1984 Harvard Divinity School, one year of M.T.S. program
1980-1983 Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts, B.A., Sociology (magna cum laude)
1978-1980 Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois
EMPLOYMENT
2003-present Stuart Chapin Distinguished Professor and Associate Chair, Department of
Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
2000-2002 Professor of Sociology and Associate Chair, Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
1999-2000 Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
1994-1999 Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
1989-1994 Assistant Professor of Sociology, Gordon College
1987-1989 Instructor of Sociology, Gordon College
PUBLISHED
Books
Christian Smith. 2005. Soul Searching: the Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. New York: Oxford University Press.
Christian Smith. 2003. Moral, Believing Animals: Human Personhood and Culture. New York: Oxford University Press.
Christian Smith (Editor). 2003. The Secular Revolution: Power, Interest, and Conflict in the Secularization of American Public Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Christian Smith. 2000. Christian America?: What Evangelicals Really Want. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Michael Emerson and Christian Smith. 2000. Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America. New York: Oxford University Press. (Winner of the “2001 Outstanding Book Award,” Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.)
Christian Smith and Joshua Prokopy (Editors). 1999. Latin American Religion in Motion. New York: Routledge Publishers.
Christian Smith, with Michael Emerson, Sally Gallagher, Paul Kennedy, and David Sikkink. 1998. American Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Christian Smith. 1996. Resisting Reagan: The U.S. Central America Peace Movement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Christian Smith (Editor). 1996. Disruptive Religion: The Force of Faith in Social Movement Activism. New York: Routledge Publishers.
Christian Smith. 1991. The Emergence of Liberation Theology: Radical Religion and Social Movement Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Translation: 1994. La
Teología de la Liberación: Radicalismo Religioso y Compromiso Social. Barcelona,
Spain: Ediciones Paidós Ibérica.]
Articles
Mark Regnerus and Christian Smith. 2005. “Selection Effects and Social Desirability Bias in Studies of Religious Influences.” Review of Religious Research. 47(1): 23-50.
Christian Smith and Robert Faris. 2005. “Socioeconomic Inequality in the American Religious System—An Update and Assessment.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 44(1): 95-104.
Regnerus, Mark, Christian Smith, and Brad Smith. 2004. “Social Context in the Development of Adolescent Religiosity.” Applied Developmental Science. 8: 27-38.
Christian Smith and David Sikkink. 2003. “Social Predictors of Retention in and Switching from the Religious Faith of Family of Origin: Another Look using Religious Tradition Self-
Identification.” Review of Religious Research. 45(2): 188-206.
Christian Smith. 2003. “Theorizing Religious Effects Among American Adolescents.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 42(1): 17-30.
Christian Smith. 2003. “Religious Participation and Network Closure among American Adolescents” (research note). Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 42(2): 259-267.
Christian Smith. 2003. “Research Note: Religious Participation and Parental Moral Expectations and Supervision of American Youth.” Review of Religious Research. 44(4): 414-424.
Christian Smith, Robert Faris, Melinda Lundquist Denton, and Mark Regnerus. 2003. “Mapping American Adolescent Subjective Religiosity and Attitudes of Alienation Toward
Religion: A Research Report.” Sociology of Religion. 64(1): 111-123.
Christian Smith, Melinda Lundquist Denton, Robert Faris, and Mark Regnerus. 2002. “Mapping American Adolescent Religious Participation.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. December. 41(4): 397-612.
Christian Smith. 2002. “Las Casas as Theological Counteroffensive: An Interpretation of
Gustavo Gutiérrez’s Las Casas: In Search of the Poor of Jesus Christ.” Journal for the
Scientific Study of Religion. 41:1: 69-73.
Rory McVeigh and Christian Smith. 2000. “Who Protests in America?: An Analysis of Three Political Alternatives -- Inaction, Institutionalized Politics, or Protest.” Sociological
Forum. 14(4): 685-702.
Jerry Park and Christian Smith. 2000. “‘To Whom Much Has Been Given’: Religious Capital and Community Voluntarism Among Churchgoing Protestants.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 39(3): 272-86.
Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith. 2000. “Color Blinded.” Christianity Today. 44(11): Oct 2. 36 (not peer reviewed).
Michael Emerson, Christian Smith, and David Sikkink. 1999. “Equal in Christ, But Not the
World: White Conservative Protestants and Explanations of Black-White Inequality.”
Social Problems. 46(3) (August): 398-417.
Gallagher, Sally K. and Christian Smith. 1999. “Symbolic Traditionalism and Pragmatic
Egalitarianism: Contemporary Evangelicals, Family, and Gender.” Gender and Society.
13(2): 211-233.
Mark Regnerus, David Sikkink, and Christian Smith. 1999. “Who Votes With the Christian
Right?: Contextual and Individual Patterns of Electoral Influence.” Social Forces. 77(4)
(June): 1375-1401.
Christian Smith and David Sikkink. 1999. “Is Private Schooling Privatizing?” First Things.
April. pp. 16-20. (not peer reviewed).
Mark Regnerus and Christian Smith. 1998. “Selective Deprivatization Among American Religious Traditions: the Reversal of the Great Reversal.” Social Forces. 76(4) (June): 1347-1372.
Sharon Erickson Nepstad and Christian Smith. 1998. “Rethinking Recruitment to
High-Risk Activism: The Case of Nicaragua Exchange.” Mobilization: the International Journal of Research and Theory about Social Movements, Protest, and Collective Behavior. 4(1): 25-40.
Jenifer Hamil-Luker and Christian Smith. 1998. “Religious Authority and Public Opinion on the Right to Die.” Sociology of Religion. 59(4): pp. 371-389.
Christian Smith, David Sikkink, and Jason Bailey. 1998. “Devotion in Dixie and Beyond: A Test of the `Shibley Thesis' on the Effects of Regional Origin and Migration on Individual Religiosity.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 37(3) (September): 494-506.
Mark Regnerus and Christian Smith. 1998. “Who Gives to the Poor?: The Role of Religious Tradition and Political Location on the Personal Generosity of Americans Toward the Poor.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 37(3) (September): 481-493.
Christian Smith and Liesl Haas. 1997. “Revolutionary Evangelicals in Nicaragua: Political Opportunity, Class Interests, and Religious Identity.” Journal for the Scientific Study of
Religion. 36(3) (Fall): 440-454.
Christian Smith, Michael Emerson, Sally Gallagher, and Paul Kennedy. 1996. “The Myth of
Culture Wars.” Newsletter of the Sociology of Culture Section of the ASA. 11(1) (Fall)
(not peer reviewed).
Christian Smith, Michael Emerson, Sally Gallagher, and Paul Kennedy. 1996. “The Discursive Environment is Rich and Multi-Vocal: Why Privilege Two Voices?” Newsletter of the Sociology of Culture Section of the ASA. 11(2) (Winter) (not peer reviewed).
Christian Smith. 1994. “The Spirit and Democracy: Protestantism, Base Communities, and
Democratization in Latin America.” Sociology of Religion (formerly Sociological
Analysis). 55(2) (June): 119-143.
Chapters
Christian Smith. 2003. “Secularizing American Higher Education: The Case of Early American Sociology.” In The Secular Revolution: Power, Interest, and Conflict in the
Secularization of American Public Life. Christian Smith (ed.). Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Sharon Erickson Nepstad and Christian Smith. 2001. “Emotions in the Central America Peace Movement.” In Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper, and Francesca Polletta (eds.). Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Robert Woodberry and Christian Smith. 1998. “Fundamentalists, et al.” In John Hagan (ed.). Annual Review of Sociology—1998. Vol. 24. Palo Alto: Annual Reviews. pp. 25-56.
Christian Smith and Gerry Huiskamp. 1998. “Marxism.” In Robert Wuthnow (ed.). The
Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion. Washington, D.C.: CQ Books. pp. 497-501.
Christian Smith and Robert Woodberry. “Sociology of Religion.” In Judith Blau (ed.). The
Blackwell Companion to Sociology. Cambridge: Blackwell. (forthcoming).
Ray Swisher and Christian Smith. 1997. “The Christian Right in North Carolina: the 1996
Elections,” in Mark Rosell and Clyde Wilcox (eds.). God at the Grassroots: 1996. New
York: Rowman and Littlefield. pp. 67-77.
Christian Smith, Michael Emerson, Sally Gallagher, and Paul Kennedy. 1997. “The Myth of Culture Wars: American Protestantism.” in Rhys Williams (ed.). The Culture Wars
Debate. New York: Aldine. pp. 175-195.
Christian Smith. 1995. “The Spirit and Democracy: Protestantism, Base Communities, and
Democratization in Latin America.” in William Swatos (ed.). Religion and Democracy in
Latin America. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. pp. 1-25.
Sarah Brooks and Christian Smith. 1998. “The Catholic Church in Latin America: From
Privilege to Protest.” in Gladys Varona-Lacey and Julio Lopez-Arias (eds.). Latin
America: A Panorama. New York: Peter Lang (forthcoming).
Research Reports
Phil Schwadel and Christian Smith. 2005. A Portrait of Protestant Teens: A Report on Teenagersin Major U.S. Denominations. Chapel Hill, NC: National Study of Youth and Religion.
Christian Smith, Robert Faris, and Melinda Lundquist Denton. 2004. Are American Youth
Alienated from Organized Religion? Chapel Hill, NC: National Study of Youth and
Religion.
Christian Smith and Phillip Kim. 2003. Family Religious Involvement and the Quality of
Parental Relationships for Families with Early Adolescents. Chapel Hill, NC: National
Study of Youth and Religion.
Christian Smith and Phillip Kim. 2003. Family Religious Involvement and the Quality of Family Relationships for Early Adolescents. Chapel Hill, NC: National Study of Youth and
Religion.
Christian Smith and Robert Faris. 2002. Religion and American Adolescent Delinquency, Risk Behaviors, and Constructive Social Activities. Chapel Hill, NC: National Study of Youth and Religion.
Christian Smith and Robert Faris. 2002. Religion and the Life Attitudes and Self-Images of
American Adolescents. Chapel Hill, NC: National Study of Youth and Religion.
Mark Regnerus, Christian Smith, and Melissa Fritsch. 2002. Religion in the Lives of American Adolescents: A Review of the Literature. Chapel Hill, NC: National Study of Youth and Religion.
AWARDS
Winner of the 2001-2002 Excellence in Mentoring Award, Graduate Student Association,
Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Co-author on “Outstanding Book Award, 2001,” Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, for Michael Emerson and Christian Smith, Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Co-author on 1999 Outstanding Article Award, the American Sociological Association Section on the Sociology of Religion, for Mark Regnerus and Christian Smith. 1998. “Selective Deprivatization Among American Religious Traditions: the Reversal of the Great Reversal.” Social Forces. 46(4) (June): 1347-1372.
Winner of the 1995-96 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Sociology Graduate Student Association Award for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring.
MAJOR GRANTS
$289,440 grant (PI) to develop and launch a new academic minor at UNC Chapel Hill on
Christianity and Culture, from the John Templeton Foundation, August 1, 2007-December 31, 2007.
$1,101,092 grant (PI with Lisa Pearce as Co-PI) on “Wave Two of The Religious Practices of American Youth,” from Lilly Endowment Inc., December 1, 2004-December 31, 2007.
$3,960,000 grant (PI) on “The Religious Practices of American Youth,” from Lilly Endowment Inc., August 1, 2001-July 31, 2005.
$270,000 grant (PI) on “Morality, Culture, and the Power of Religious Faith: Explaining the Effects of Religion in Social Life,” from The Pew Charitable Trusts through the University of Notre Dame. October 2000-October 2002.
$136,610 planning grant (PI) for project on “American Youth and Religious Practices,” the Lilly Endowment, Inc. June 2000-May 2001, to lay the foundation for a much larger subsequent research grant on youth and religion.
$640,000, PI on Pew Charitable Trusts award for an historical sociology research project, 1998-2000, on “Religion and the Social Construction of American Public Life: Cultural Elites and Institutional Processes in Historical Perspective.” September 1998-December 2000.
$25,000, PI on Pew Charitable Trusts Program Development and Evaluation Grant for a
proposed research project on “Religion and the Social Construction of American Public Life: Cultural Elites and Institutional Processes in Historical and Contemporary Perspective,” December 1997-April 1, 1998.
$348,000, PI on Pew Charitable Trusts award for a 1995-97 “Evangelical Identity and Influence” research project, for which I was the P.I., supervising 3 co-investigators and 8 graduate researchers. Involves 325 in-depth interviews and a national RDD phone survey of 2,591 church-going Protestants.