Daniel Winchester

Becoming Religious as an Education of Attention A vast literature in the social scientific study of religion demonstrates that religious people are made not born. More specifically, researchers have shown that becoming religious is something that ...

ATTENTION PLEASE. Open access in current issue of @jssreligion.bsky.social

"...[J]ust like the people we study, how scholars make meaning of religious worlds is dependent on what we learn to bring into focus and what we are taught to ignore. As such, we must learn to pay attention to attention."

Use of the word "evil" in official congressional e-newsletters, over time, by party

Amid the stress of the shutdown and the Trump administration’s ethical transgressions with trying to influence military leaders to be a politicized for force— how does this affect civ servants and their choices to stay, speak up, or go?

DOJ Quietly Deletes Study After Charlie Kirk's Death That Says Right-Wing Extremists Engage in 'Far More' Political Violence The Department of Justice is backtracking on information regarding right-wing violence following the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Down the memory hole, comrade...

Republicans celebrate Kirk as free speech champion, demand critics be fired A coordinated pressure campaign has cost dozens of people their jobs.

1. In the wake of the murder of Charlie Kirk, his admirers are venerating him as a principled champion of free speech.

Ironically, some of the same people are participating in an organized campaign demanding that anyone with a different view of Kirk's political legacy be fired.

🤖✝️

Thanks, @jlkucinskas.bsky.social! It was a pleasure to host you and learn more about your fantastic book!

Looking forward to it!

Thread explaining how warped coverage that constantly promotes bad news (e.g. about crime rates) and ignores good news about the same topics, creates a distorted perception of reality — dynamics that make it difficult for a democratic country to identify, diagnose, and address actual problems.

People make people do things but not always the things they please.
--Karl Merton

This is a very thoughtful document, Jack. I'm definitely going to adapt some of it. But I'm going to need to make it much shorter b/c most of my students won't read a policy doc this long 🤦‍♂️

NEW PREPRINT: RELIGION UNBUNDLED
Earlier this week at #ASA2025, @ruthbraunstein.bsky.social, @jlkucinskas.bsky.social, Brian Steensland, and I presented ideas for a new paradigm for the 21st-Century sociology of American religion. Full MS at SocArXiv for all those interested:
osf.io/preprints/so...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

It has come my attention that, thanks to a reddit post on r/science, this article with @drmann.bsky.social on the quasi-religious characteristics of right-wing news media is trending. A temporary open access link from Sage below for anyone interested in digging into the argument and framework.

First Publics The Society Pages (TSP) is an open-access social science project headquartered in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota

As a part of our Teaching Theory Special Series, First Publics invited Drs. Wesley Longhofer and Daniel Winchester to talk about their theory reader, Social Theory Re-Wired.

Check it out via the link 🔗 in our bio or by visiting:

The Not-So-Great Replacement Theory, Revisited The success of Zohran Mamdani in the mayoral primary in New York City has predictably set off the worst possible takes from the worst possible people. And while I'm generally loathe to drag out any po...

"There's no greater proof of the elasticity of American identity than the fact that the descendants of immigrants...have wormed their way into the heart of nativist politics to the point they can pretend they have belonged here all along and now they get to judge who should and shouldn't belong."

Making a Martyr?: Scandal, Symbolic Power, and the Controversial Death of Evangelical Missionary John Chau - Qualitative Sociology How do groups respond to accusations of scandal? Because scandals pose significant risks of moral stigma and loss of status to those associated with them, sociologists have analyzed how actors within ...

NEW ARTICLE/OPEN ACCESS
Proud to share my PhD advisee, @akotanko.bsky.social's, recent publication in Qualitative Soc. Adam and I worked on this one together, which was a great collaborative experience, but he is very much the lead author.

The first of many to come from the future Dr. Kotanko!

Co-signed. I'm currently serving on the SSSR Committee leading this search, so if you have any questions or want additional info about the position, please drop me a line.

"MAGA plays to a social desert" Plus, the new faces of survivalism and some political ephemera from my vaults.

Good insights from @ruthbraunstein.bsky.social here.

What are many MAGA believers getting from the movement?

"...[A] feeling of belonging, purpose, pride. In a community where those goods are in scant supply, even cheap versions of them are likely viewed as better than nothing."

Purdue refuses to distribute The Exponent after 50 years of doing so Purdue University told The Purdue Exponent last Friday they will no longer assist in the distribution of newspapers. Purdue has aided in the circulation of The Exponent for the past 50 years.

Purdue University has decided to suppress its own student newspaper under the cover of "institutional neutrality". Great look here, Big Boiler.

Sage Sociology Welcome to the official free Podcast from Sage for Sociology. Sage is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets wi...

NERDY PODCAST ALERT
@drmann.bsky.social and I explain what we mean when we say right-wing news is a quasi-religious phenomenon. In short: massive #s of Americans turn to the RW news system to express moral solidarity, make meaning, and cultivate and share sacred beliefs.
sagesociology.libsyn.com

The solution to the Democrats messaging problem isn’t to replicate the rw media ecosystem, but to recognize what makes it powerful, including the participatory storytelling and sense of agency it provides to its audiences, and to adapt those dynamics in ways that align w/ Dem/progressive values.

Ha, yes! Back in the 90s, my friend Mark got sent home from 10th grade for repeatedly wearing a Butthole Surfers tee.

Anyway, sign me up for the FOTM Fan Club.

Good point and all, @profsamperry.bsky.social. But "Faces of the Masturbator" is a 🔥 band name.

To the windows
To the walls
Woke pope smoke fills the halls
Make all these wingnuts bawl

Lifetime Achievement Award for Contributions to the Sociology of Religion Lifetime Achievement Award for Contributions to the Sociology of Religion This is an award that is to recognize a career or a long period of contribution – it is designed to consider an awardee’s corp...

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
I'm currently serving on the Lifetime Achievement Award Committee for the Association for the Sociology of Religion. If you know of anyone deserving of this honor, please consider submitting a nomination for them. The deadline is coming up on May 15. Details here:

Same, girl. Same.

Check out Purdue Today's story featuring Assistant Prof. David Peterson and his latest project, The Unbuilt Bench. Dive into his innovative work and vision for the future of design. Read more here:
www.cla.purdue.edu/news/college...