James V. Spickard, Ph. D.

Jim Spickard recently retired after 31 years of teaching at the University of Redlands. Most of his courses were in sociology and anthropology, particularly social theory, the sociology of religion, social inequality, the American class system, international development, and social science research design. He also taught in the programs of religious studies, environmental studies, and visual/media studies.

He is the author of over 75 journal articles and book chapters on such topics as non-Western social theory, the sociology of religious experience, human rights, homelessness, globalization, and religious social activism. He has written or edited six books, most significantly Alternative Sociologies of Religion: Through Non-Western Eyes (NYU, 2017) and Personal Knowledge and Beyond (NYU, 2002). He is currently co-editing a book on efforts to increase intellectual and social diversity in university education. He is writing another on six sociological stories about religion’s fate in the contemporary world.

Jim has held office in several national and international scholarly organizations, most significantly as President of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on the Sociology of Religion (2014-2018) and as current President-Elect of the Association for the Sociology of Religion.

He earned his PhD in the Religion and Society Program at the Graduate Theological Union. He holds a Masters in Sociology from the New School for Social Research and has two undergraduate degrees: a BA in Intellectual History (Stanford) and a ‘degree’ for “willfully and maliciously blocking a public street or sidewalk” in a late-1960s anti-war demonstration.

He values a sense of humor.