My research interests include religion and secularity, the self and identity, social deviance, and qualitative methods. Most of my work to date has focused on the social psychological study of religious exiting and secular worldviews. I have published original research articles, book chapters, book reviews, and other papers in journals including the Sociology of Religion, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Sociological Quarterly, Qualitative Sociology, and Journal of Religion and Health. I am past Editor (2018-2022) of the journal, Secularism and Nonreligion. I’ve published two books. One is a co-edited volume called Secularity and Nonreligion in North America, published with Bloomsbury Press (2024). The other is a book, co-authored with Ryan T. Cragun, about religious exiting called Goodbye Religion: The Causes and Consequences of Secularization, published with NYU Press (2024). Below are a few more details about my research.
Sociology is widely recognized as one of the broadest social sciences, covering a wide range of substantive topics and questions. I have put my sociological training to use on specific questions and settings that I find interesting while demonstrating how apparently narrow topics can provide insights on broader social forces and processes. Deviance, the self, identity, religion, secularity and social movements are examples of the areas I have so far explored and integrated into my research. I enjoy challenging myself on theoretical, empirical, and methodological questions in my work. This is why I have found it important to constantly read and stay abreast of developments in my substantive areas of interest, as well as collaborate with scholars from different disciplines and methodological orientations. This collaboration has connected me with an international network of scholars and resulted is several publications.
Most of my work has centered on qualitative research using in-depth interviews, participant observation, and content/textual analysis of nonreligious groups in the United States and Europe. “Nonreligion” is a rapidly growing area of sociological research, and I was able to become involved in this developing field early on. One interesting study of mine was on the Sunday Assembly, an international network of secular congregations that began in London in 2013. It led to two book chapters, editorials, and two articles, one in Qualitative Sociology (2017) titled, “Can the Secular be the Object of Belief and Belonging? The Sunday Assembly,” and one in Sociology of Religion (2021) titled, “Making Meaning without a Maker: Secular Consciousness through Narrative and Cultural Practice.”
More recently, my book with co-author Ryan T. Cragun, Goodbye Religion: The Causes and Consequences of Secularization (2024) was published with New York University Press. This book brings together decades of research in a mixed-methods study to examine the question why so many Americans are leaving religion behind. I also co-edited a book called Secularity and Nonreligion in North America (Bloomsbury Press) which offers a comparative analysis of various types of nonreligious individuals and organizations across Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
I have been active at professional academic conferences as a faculty in the sociology department. I have presented original research at many regional, national, and international professional conferences including the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, the Association for the Sociology of Religion, the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, The American Academy of Religion, and the Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network.
Jesse M. Smith, PhD 