The Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University

New research alert!

"The Association between Religious Discrimination and Health: Disaggregating by Types of Discrimination Experiences, Religious Tradition, and Forms of Health" has been published in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Using survey data from a probability sample of U.S. adults and measures representing a variety of discrimination experience types, our analyses suggest that religious discrimination is indeed harmful for health, but that experiences of religious discrimination do not universally affect mental and physical health in the same ways. Rather than significant differences in the health impacts of religious discrimination across different religious groups, we find more variation in the health impacts of different types of experiences with discrimination. Further, we find that mental health is negatively impacted by a wider range of experiences with religious discrimination than physical health. These findings are in line with social psychological research on the differential health impacts of discrimination, and they highlight the importance of context in studies of the health effects of religious discrimination.

https://buff.ly/3KADX08

SEEKING UNDERGRAD RESEARCH FELLOWS THIS FALL: The Boniuk Institute and the RPLP are hiring undergraduate students for research work this fall. Students will learn about and contribute to large-scale interdisciplinary research related to religion, religious tolerance, pluralism and discrimination, social inequality, race, gender, science, health, and the body.

In their work, undergraduate fellows will assist with data collection, analysis, and research administration related to several social science projects, and they will additionally assist with reviews of the academic literature, online data collection, collection and processing of qualitative data, and support of article and book writing efforts.

The deadline to apply is Friday, August 4th. For more information, please see here:

Fellowships & Employment Fostering diversity and an intellectual environment, Rice University is a comprehensive research university located on a 300-acre tree-lined campus in Houston, Texas. Rice produces the next generation of leaders and advances tomorrow’s thinking.

Coauthors Elaine Howard Ecklund and Dave Johnson were recently guests on the New Books Network podcast to discuss their 2021 book, Varieties of Atheism in Science. Listen here:

Podcast | Elaine H. Ecklund and David R. Johnson, "Varieties of… Elaine H. Ecklund and David R. Johnson, "Varieties of Atheism in Science" (Oxford UP, 2021)

Congratulations to our undergraduate fellow Lindsey Schirn who was inducted into the Rice chapter of Phi Beta Kappa today. She also graduates from Rice tomorrow!

CONGRATULATIONS to Esmeralda Sánchez Salazar on passing her doctoral dissertation defense earlier this month. Her thesis is entitled "Latinos, Faith and Education: Examining Religion's Role in Shaping Latino College and STEM Outcomes." We look forward to continuing to follow Dr. Sánchez Salazar and her work!