Faculty | SIU

Dr. Darren E. Sherkat (B.A. Tulsa, 1987; M.A. Duke, 1989; Ph.D. Duke, 1991), Professor and Director of the School of Anthropology, Political Science, and Sociology. My research involves quantitative investigations about religion, politics, family, and stratification.

 

Much of my work has focused on the sociology of religion, with special emphasis on individual-level changes in participation, Christian fundamentalism, African American religion, religion and politics, religion and sexuality, and religion and stratification. My studies include investigations of: the political and individual bases of religious change in the Black Church, the influences of religious fundamentalism on child-rearing attitudes and stratification outcomes, religion and opposition to same sex marriage, and the impact of fundamentalism on verbal ability and scientific literacy. My recent articles appear in The Sociological Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and Social Currents, among other places. And also, Changing Faith: The Dynamics and Consequences of Americans’ Shifting Religious Identities (2014 NYU Press), and with Lisa Keister, Religion and Inequality in America (2014), Cambridge University Press.

My scholarly works have been cited in over 11,000 articles and books. I have served as Chair of the Department of Sociology, Director of Graduate Studies in Sociology, and now as Director of the School of Anthropology, Political Science, and Sociology. I was a tenured professor of Sociology and Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University (1991-2001). I have been a tenured professor of Sociology at SIU since 2001