Dr Rebecca Catto
Assistant Professor, Sociology
Kent State University
Kent, Ohio, United States
Biography
I am an Assistant Professor in the Sociology department at Kent State University, Ohio, USA. Directly before this I was a research fellow in Newman University’s Centre for Science, Knowledge and Belief in Society. Until the end of 2015 I was a Research Fellow at Coventry University’s Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, which I joined March 2013. Between 2009 and 2013, I was Research Associate on the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme based at Lancaster University. Prior to this I worked as an Assistant Research Officer at the LSE-based charity Inform, which provides data on new religious movements, and Visiting Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Westminster. I completed my PhD in Sociology at the University of Exeter in 2008, which was the first empirical academic study of the phenomenon of 'reverse mission', having studied for an MA in the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion at King's College London and BA in Theology at Oxford University.
Biography
Grounded in qualitative sociology of religion, my research is driven by a desire to understand religious-secular interactions and the power dynamics pertaining, both in a particular context and comparatively (whilst recognizing that that the religious and the secular do not constitute a strict binary). This approach is set against a backdrop of Western structural, intellectual, and social dominance, which simultaneously ebbs and endures, aiming to expose what pre-existing lenses do not always enable us to see. My background fuels my ongoing commitment to interdisciplinarity, international research, and public sociology.
This interest and commitment manifest in my lines of research:
1. science and religion, examining the relationship across contexts and disciplines
2. nonreligious identities and secular hegemonies, investigating their content and meaning
4. the cultural authority of science.
Honoraria Titles
Major Prizes
Religion, Philosophy & History Interests
History of Science
Science & Technology Interests
Evolution
Website
https://www.kent.edu/sociology/rebecca-catto
Publications
Science, religion, and nonreligion: engaging subdisciplines to move further beyond mythbusting
2022
Co-authors: James Riley, Fern Elsdon-Baker, Stephen Jones, and Carola Leicht
Volume:online first
https://doi-org.proxy.library.kent.edu/10.1177/00016993221116248
The Cultural Meanings of Science: Understanding Science Identification Using the Sociology of (Non)religion
2020
Co-authors: Jones, Stephen, Fern Elsdon-Baker, and Tom Kaden
Volume:29(6)
Pages:579-596
https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy.library.kent.edu/doi/10.1177/0963662520923110
Diversification and internationalization in the sociological study of science and religion
2019
Co-authors: Stephen Jones, Tom Kaden, and Fern Elsdon-Baker
Volume:13(8)
https://compass-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.proxy.library.kent.edu/doi/full/10.1111/soc4.12721
That’s how Muslims are required to view the world’: Race, culture and belief in non-Muslims’ descriptions of Islam and science
2019
Co-authors: Jones, Stephen, Tom Kaden, and Fern Elsdon-Baker
Volume:67(1)
Pages:161-177
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038026118778174?journalCode=sora
Science, Belief and Society: International Perspectives on Religion, Non-Religion and the Public Understanding of Science
University of Bristol Press 2019
Editors:Jones, Stephen, Kaden, Tom, and Rebecca Catto
https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/science-belief-and-society
Science as a Secular Workplace: dynamics of reflection, contestation, and acceptance in the life sciences in Canada and the UK
University of Pittsburgh Press 2020
Editors: F. Elsdon-Baker and B. Lightman
Volume:Science and Religion: Exploring the Spectrum
Pages:159-171
