My recent research
focuses on race and ethnic group relations, as well as the role of religion in
shaping group formation and mobilization among contemporary ethnic groups. I
bring the areas of race, religion, and social movements together by examining
how religious institutions and organizations often provide the setting within
which new ethnics confront the racialization they experience within the wider
society and engage with their homelands. I also focus on the ways in religion
becomes the axis around which such groups mobilize to challenge racial
discrimination and to make claims regarding their “cultural citizenship.” I
have received postdoctoral fellowships and grants from the National Science
Foundation, The Woodrow Wilson International Center, the Carnegie Corporation,
the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, the Pew Charitable Trusts,
the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University, the American
Institute of Indian Studies, the Louisville Institute, and the New Ethnic and
Immigrant Congregations Project. My work has been recognized with a
Contribution to the Field award, two national book awards, and three national
article awards.
Contribution to the
Field Award
2014, Asia and Asian
America section, American Sociological Association.
Book Awards:
2003 Book Award, Asia and Asian American section, American Sociological
Association Kaleidoscopic Ethnicity: International Migration and
the Reconstruction of Community Identities in India, Rutgers University
Press, 2002.
2009 Honorable Mention, Sociology of
Religion section, American Sociological Association
A Place at the
Multicultural Table: The Development of an American Hinduism. 2007.
Article Awards:
2005 Distinguished Article Award, Religion section, American Sociological
Association
and
2005 Distinguished Article Award, Society for the Scientific Study of
Religion “Multiculturalism and Ethnic Nationalism: The Development of an
American Hinduism. ” Social Problems, 2004, Vol 51 (3):
362-385.
2013 Research
paper award, Asia and Asian American section, American Sociological Association
“Decoupling Religion and Ethnicity: Second-Generation Indian American
Christians.” Qualitative Sociology 2012, 35(4):447- 468.
Research Projects
Books
My third book, Ethnic Church meets Mega Church: Indian American
Christianity in Motion was published recently (June 2017).
It examines how a new paradigm of ethnicity and religion is shaping
contemporary immigrant religious institutions and the intergenerational
transmission of religion. Classic assimilation theory was based on the
assumption of individualistic adaptation, with immigrants and their children
expected to shed their ethnic identities to become Americans. In the sphere of
religion, however, they could maintain their communitarian traditions through
American denominations. In contemporary society, multiculturalism, spiritual
seeking, and postdenominationalism have reversed this paradigm. First- and
second-generation immigrants integrate by remaining ethnic and
group-identified, but religion is viewed as a personal quest.
Drawing on multi-sited field research in the United States and India,
including interviews and participant observation in the Mar Thoma Syrian
Christian denomination belonging to an ancient South Indian community, it looks
at the shifts in the understandings of its members regarding their ethnic and
Christian identity as a result of their U.S. migration and the coming of age of
the American-born generation. The widespread prevalence of mega churches and
the dominance of American evangelicalism created an environment in which the
traditional practices of the Mar Thoma church seemed alien to its American-born
generation. Second-generation Mar Thoma Americans were caught between their
criticisms of the “ethnic” character of the Mar Thoma church and its
traditions, and their appreciation for the social support its warm community
and familial relationships provided them as they were growing up.
While showcasing these dynamics among the first and second generations in
the United States, this book is also a case study of global religion. It
examines how transnational processes shape religion in both the place of
destination and the place of origin. Taking a long view, it examines how the
forces of globalization, from the period of colonialism to contemporary
large-scale outmigration, have brought about tremendous changes in Christian
communities in the global South.
Book Manuscript in Progress
I am currently writing a book manuscript, “Race, Religion, and Citizenship:
Indian American Political Advocacy.” It examines how first- and
second-generation immigrants mobilize advocacy organizations around ethnic
(Indian-American), pan-ethnic (South Asian American), religious (Hindu, Muslim,
Sikh, Christian), and party-oriented identities (Democrat and Republican). My
research shows how these diverse forms of mobilization can develop within one
immigrant group, and how they interact with each other while advocating for
their respective goals. It also reveals how race and religion interact in
complex ways to shape the political integration of immigrants.
Research in Progress
My work on the political incorporation of Indian Americans showed me that
the way their ethnic advocacy organizations define grievances and develop
strategies are profoundly shaped by the US context. This led me to research
that examines how differences in political structures, policies regarding
immigrant integration and religion, as well as migration patterns, shape
immigrant political activism. I am working on a research project funded by the
National Science Foundation, “The Incorporation of Religious Minorities in
Canada and the United States” examining how the social, political, and
religious contexts of Canada and the United States shape the political
incorporation and mobilization of religious minorities from South Asia. This
research also examines how different opportunity structures (both national and
regional), and differences in the characteristics of the groups shape how they
frame their grievances and mobilize, and whether the mobilization takes an
“ethnic,” “racial,” or “religious” form.