ABOUT
Research Interests
My research interests fall into three strands.
First, the changing nature and function of religion in late modernity—especially as it relates to the West—and why a cultural sociological approach offers the best way to study it. This strand includes my book, The Spiritual Turn (published with Oxford University Press), as well as journal articles in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Studies in Religion, The Sociological Review, Religion, American Journal of Cultural Sociology, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, and Zygon.
Second, culture, inequality, and solidarity. I am interested in the role culture plays in both dividing and binding people. As cultural sociologists have long demonstrated, shared meaning systems, repertoires of evaluation, and collective rituals can serve to exclude, stigmatize, and stratify. However, they can also function to unite people, and inspire them to act for the common good. In my work, I try to shed light on both of these functions. Moreover, I am particularly interested in the role national cultures play in fuelling as well as mitigating economic and social inequalities. This strand includes my current research project on the changing meanings of “work,” “home,” and “success” in Canada, as well as a co-written book project (with Dick Houtman) titled Understanding Cultural Sociology (under contract with Edward Elgar Publishing).
Third, critical social theory and the varieties of normative inquiry. Like Marx, I believe a key role of theory is to change the world. But I also believe that both social life and social theory are fundamentally hermeneutic in nature--thus one can never escape the need for interpretation. For this reason, I am interested in interrogating the presuppositions--normative and theoretical--that shape contemporary critical social theory in order to improve the state of the art. Furthermore, I am interested in reviving an older model of critical social theory, which the late Robert Bellah referred to as “social science as public philosophy.” This strand includes articles published in Civic Sociology, European Journal of Social Theory, Cultural Sociology, as well as an article for American Journal of Cultural Sociology which draws from hermeneutic philosophy to advance what I call a “post-Bourdieusian” cultural theory.
My research interests fall into three strands.
First, the changing nature and function of religion in late modernity—especially as it relates to the West—and why a cultural sociological approach offers the best way to study it. This strand includes my book, The Spiritual Turn (published with Oxford University Press), as well as journal articles in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Studies in Religion, The Sociological Review, Religion, American Journal of Cultural Sociology, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, and Zygon.
Second, culture, inequality, and solidarity. I am interested in the role culture plays in both dividing and binding people. As cultural sociologists have long demonstrated, shared meaning systems, repertoires of evaluation, and collective rituals can serve to exclude, stigmatize, and stratify. However, they can also function to unite people, and inspire them to act for the common good. In my work, I try to shed light on both of these functions. Moreover, I am particularly interested in the role national cultures play in fuelling as well as mitigating economic and social inequalities. This strand includes my current research project on the changing meanings of “work,” “home,” and “success” in Canada, as well as a co-written book project (with Dick Houtman) titled Understanding Cultural Sociology (under contract with Edward Elgar Publishing).
Third, critical social theory and the varieties of normative inquiry. Like Marx, I believe a key role of theory is to change the world. But I also believe that both social life and social theory are fundamentally hermeneutic in nature--thus one can never escape the need for interpretation. For this reason, I am interested in interrogating the presuppositions--normative and theoretical--that shape contemporary critical social theory in order to improve the state of the art. Furthermore, I am interested in reviving an older model of critical social theory, which the late Robert Bellah referred to as “social science as public philosophy.” This strand includes articles published in Civic Sociology, European Journal of Social Theory, Cultural Sociology, as well as an article for American Journal of Cultural Sociology which draws from hermeneutic philosophy to advance what I call a “post-Bourdieusian” cultural theory.
Academic Bio
During my BA (Honours) in Philosophy and Drama at Queen's University I won the Pall Ardal Prize in Moral Philosophy. During my MA in Cultural Studies I won the Alfred Bader Graduate Fellowship in the Humanities as well as a SSHRC–CGS scholarship. And during my PhD I won a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier (CGS) Doctoral Scholarship (2017-2020), the Henry Mandelbaum Doctoral Graduate Fellowship (2018), and placed in the Top 5 of the SSHRC Storytellers competition (2018).
During 2017/2018 I was a visiting graduate student in the Department for the Study of Religion and the Sociology Department at the University of Toronto, and during the 2019 Lent term I was a visiting graduate student in the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University, and a visiting scholar at the Woolf Institute. In June 2020, under the supervision of Will Kymlicka, I was awarded my PhD in Cultural Studies at Queen's University.
Between 2020-2022 I was a Banting Fellow based at the Centre for Sociological Research at Katholieke Universities (KU) Leuven, as well as a Visiting Scholar in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. I am currently an FWO Fellow working with Professor Dick Houtman at KU Leuven. And as of August 1, 2023, I will be an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo.
During my BA (Honours) in Philosophy and Drama at Queen's University I won the Pall Ardal Prize in Moral Philosophy. During my MA in Cultural Studies I won the Alfred Bader Graduate Fellowship in the Humanities as well as a SSHRC–CGS scholarship. And during my PhD I won a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier (CGS) Doctoral Scholarship (2017-2020), the Henry Mandelbaum Doctoral Graduate Fellowship (2018), and placed in the Top 5 of the SSHRC Storytellers competition (2018).
During 2017/2018 I was a visiting graduate student in the Department for the Study of Religion and the Sociology Department at the University of Toronto, and during the 2019 Lent term I was a visiting graduate student in the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University, and a visiting scholar at the Woolf Institute. In June 2020, under the supervision of Will Kymlicka, I was awarded my PhD in Cultural Studies at Queen's University.
Between 2020-2022 I was a Banting Fellow based at the Centre for Sociological Research at Katholieke Universities (KU) Leuven, as well as a Visiting Scholar in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. I am currently an FWO Fellow working with Professor Dick Houtman at KU Leuven. And as of August 1, 2023, I will be an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo.
Other Facts About Me
I was born in Toronto to a Chinese-Canadian mother and Anglo-Saxon-Canadian father.
I love to run, play badminton, go on canoe trips, listen to music, sing, and dance.
I live with my partner, Chantel, and our children, Audrey and Emerson, in Leuven, Belgium. Our dogs, Mick and Lily, currently reside with my in-laws in Corbetton, and we miss them very much.