WACO, Texas (November 11th, 2019) – After nearly two decades at the University of North Texas, George Yancey, Ph.D., has joined the Baylor University faculty this semester.
Yancey will have a joint appointment between the Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) at Baylor, and also will be a full professor in Baylor’s Department of Sociology. Yancey’s current research is focused on issues of Christianophobia and anti-Christian bias in academia. According to Yancey, “Outside of academia I faced more problems as a black. But inside academia I face more problems as a Christian, and it is not even close.”
Yancey is also establishing the Program on Christianity and Community Studies at ISR. It will be the first program at ISR to focus on conducting critical, but non-hostile, research that helps Christians to better serve their communities and the larger society.
Yancey is author of a number of important books including Compromising Scholarship: Religious and Political Bias in American Higher Education (2017), Hostile Environment: Understanding and Responding to Anti-Christian Bias (2015), So Many Christians, So Few Lions: Is There Christianaphobia in the United States? (2014), and Dehumanizing Christians: Cultural Competition in a Multicultural World (2013). Professor Yancey completed his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Texas, Austin.
“George Yancey is a nationally recognized scholar and his research is widely read by scholars and students alike interested in race, reconciliation, and the role of religion in civil society,” said Byron R. Johnson, Ph.D., ISR director and Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor.
“We are excited about Professor Yancey joining the Sociology faculty,” said Carson Mencken, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Sociology Department. “He provides a distinctively Christian perspective to his research in a way that engages and critiques secular assumptions about religion and society.”
ABOUT THE BAYLOR INSTITUTE FOR STUDIES OF RELIGION
Launched in August 2004, the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) initiates, supports and conducts research on religion, involving scholars and projects spanning the intellectual spectrum: history, psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology, political science, epidemiology, theology and religious studies. The institute’s mandate extends to all religions, everywhere, and throughout history, and embraces the study of religious effects on prosocial behavior, family life, population health, economic development and social conflict. For more information, visit www.baylorisr.org.
ABOUT THE SOCIOLOGY DEPARTMENT
The Department of Sociology is located within the College of Arts and Sciences at Baylor University. The department is the home of the Baylor Religion Survey, an ongoing national study of religious beliefs and behaviors. The department has three areas of research specialization: religion, health, and community. There are 14 full-time and affiliated faculty, 20 Ph.D. students and over 100 undergraduate students working on current social issues regarding race and religion, health across the life course, community health, family well-being, to name a few. Faculty research projects have been sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Prosper Waco, and The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. The faculty have a broad range of expertise and their publications have recently appeared in the top journals in the field, including the American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Social Forces, and Social Problems. For more information please visit www.baylor.edu/sociology.
