About

I am a professor in the Sociology Department at LSU.

Research Interests: My research broadly addresses the social patterning of health and religion. I am principally focused on understanding the social drivers of population health including the effects of religious and social participation across the life course. I have studied these topics in national data on U.S. adults, national data from India, and in a variety of populations such as older Hispanic Americans and South Asian Americans. I am also interested in the causes and consequences of religious involvement more broadly. I have studied social drivers of religious involvement and how religious exposures shape outcomes ranging from social integration to homicide rates. I have also been involved in disaster and health research, studying child and parent health following the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. In terms of research methods, I use quantitative methods to analyze data from social surveys and administrative databases. You can find links to my published research on my Google Scholar profile. In addition to scholarly publications, my research has received coverage in media outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Teaching: I regularly teach courses on research methods, the sociology of medicine, and the sociology of religion at the undergraduate level. I have periodically taught graduate seminars including Sociology of Mental & Physical Health, Sociology of Religion, Data Visualization, and Methods of Social Investigation.