Email: jdavis@ou.edu
Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Summary:
Joshua Davis’s research examines the interplay of race, nationalism and religion, and more specifically their effects on crime, racism and attitudes towards racism, and authoritarian punitiveness in the United States. He has published works on white Christian nationalism in Social Problems, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, and the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. The goal of this research agenda is to identify facets of American religiosity that are conciliatory or conducive to continued racial inequalities within the US, as well as those which contribute to the problems of mass incarceration and racial bias in policing. Moving forward, Joshua intends to focus on religious influences in criminal offending and recidivism. As with his prior research, he hopes to disentangle seemingly contradictory influences of religious life, and that his research will contribute to a less homogeneous understanding of “religion” within criminology, particularly at the intersection of race, social context, and religious life.
Research Interests: Crime and Delinquency, Punishment, Race and Ethnicity, Religion, Political Sociology
Dissertation Title:
Religion and Crime Reconsidered: The roles of Race and Institutional Withdrawal.(Spring 2022 expected)
Dissertation Committee: Samuel Perry (Chair), Michael Crowson, Trina Hope, and Cyrus Schleifer.