Lukas Szrot

The relationship between environmental concern and religiosity in the United States is complex and contentious. Analyses of survey research have yielded mixed results. Historical research has indicated that some strands of present-day environmentalism in the U.S. are rooted in specific Protestant attitudes and practices. Conceptual work has suggested that faith-based environmental organizations focus on long-term ethical change, rather than issue-based policy reform. It follows that efforts to model the connection between environmental concern and religiosity should account for change over time, which is the aim of this dissertation research. Using data from the 1973-2014 General Social Survey, measures of stewardship and conservation were regressed on several dimensions of change over time within religious group identities, including cohorts (Chapter 3), upbringing and disaffiliation (Chapter 4), as well as calendar year and age (Chapter 5). Environmental concern in the U.S. increa...

This chapter discusses the central question of whether a discipline and the faculty leaders associated with that discipline can focus on nurturing compassion and working towards social justice—in students and in their institutions—through the designing of a curriculum that puts an intersectional analysis of social inequalities front and center. As four sociology faculty from a midwestern state university, the authors discuss how our personal backgrounds and identities influence their pedagogy and their leadership in the institution. They see these two goals—of cultivating compassion within themselves, among students, and across institutional dialogue—as equally important parts of a fuller conversation on working towards social justice, equity, and inclusion. The goal in this chapter is to present a model for university leadership and educators that can identify the multiple levels of interlocution needed in institutions in order to foster a welcoming and compassionate environment fo...