sociology and anthropology

Lester M. Jones Professor of Sociology
331 Asbury Hall
Phone: (765) 658-4518
E-mail: ndavis@depauw.edu  
Vita

Nancy J. Davis, Lester Martin Jones Professor of Sociology, completed her Ph.D. in Sociology, with a minor in Economics, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1978. She first joined the faculty at Indiana University-Bloomington and subsequently came to DePauw in 1982.  She teaches courses in social movements; sexuality, culture, and power; social theory; human rights; and cultural conflict. She has taken student groups abroad to study, most recently in 2008 to Ghana, and organized undergraduate research conferences for sociology students. Nancy has been involved in Women’s Studies, Conflict Studies, and Honor Scholar programs at DePauw. She has mentored prospective faculty members and done workshops for the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program, served on the editorial board of Teaching Sociology, and published several articles on teaching, including on teaching about inequality, designing a capstone course in sociology, the challenges of teaching about sexuality, and using a research article to foster global awareness in courses on religion and politics.

Nancy’s research has included comparative work on perceptions of gender inequality in Austria, Germany, Great Britain, and the US; women in the class structure; cultural conflict between orthodox religionists and modernists in the US and Western Europe, and most recently, attitudes toward economic justice among the religiously orthodox in the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Her work has been published in journals such as the American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and Sociology of Religion, as well as in edited books. Her most recent work with Robert V. Robinson, “The Egalitarian Face of Islamic Orthodoxy: Support for Islamic Law and Economic Justice in Seven Muslim-Majority Nations” (American Sociological Review) won the 2007 Distinguished Article Award from the American Sociological Association Section on Religion and the 2007 Distinguished Research Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Research. Currently, she is on sabbatical in Buenos Aires working on a book manuscript on religiously orthodox movements that should have failed, according to most social movement theory and research, because of their extraordinarily broad agendas, morally absolutist ideology, and strong opposition to compromise, yet are flourishing in the countries in which they exist.  The book project with Robert Robinson will explore the organizational and ideological strategies of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Sephardi Torah Guardians (or Shas)in Israel,Comunione e Liberazionein Italy, and the Salvation Army in the United States as they attempt to re-sacralize public space.

Fall 2009

• Soc 225 Sexuality, Culture & Power
• Soc 303 Social Theory
  
  

Fall 2008-Spring 2009 On Leave

Spring 2008

• Soc 100B Contemporary Society
• Soc 320 Protest, Activism and Change

Fall 2007

• Soc 225 Sexuality, Culture, and Power
• Soc 303 Social Theory