I am a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where I work on organizations,  movements, social theory, religion, and social interaction. My research has been published in Social Forces, Social Psychology Quarterly, Review of Religious Research, Discourse Studies, Journal of Pragmatics, and Frontiers in Sociology.

 

My dissertation investigates how incumbents within organizations targeted by social movements respond to activists’ demands. Drawing on archival material and qualitative interviews, I engage in close analysis of the International Mission Board (IMB), the Southern Baptist Convention’s main agency for international evangelism and church planting. I trace how IMB leaders adapted to pressure from conservative activists in the 1980s and outline the long-term impact of this pressure on the organization’s structure. 

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Beyond my dissertation, I use conversation analysis—a method that uses recordings of naturally occurring interaction to ground the interpretation of actions in their sequential contexts—to explore how people manage intersubjectivity, morality, and joint solidarity on a moment-by-moment basis.

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