Ruth Braunstein is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. A cultural sociologist interested in the role of religion and morality in American political life, Ruth’s award-winning research has been published in the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Cultural Sociology, Contexts, the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Political Power and Social Theory, Sociology of Religion, Theory and Society, and Qualitative Sociology, among other outlets. She is the author of Prophets and Patriots: Faith in Democracy Across the Political Divide (University of California Press 2017), and co-editor of Religion and Progressive Activism: New Stories About Faith and Politics (NYU Press 2017). Her current research project, “The Moral Meanings of Taxpaying,” explores how taxpaying and tax resisting are linked to contested understandings of political community, good citizenship and morality in the United States. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology from New York University, an M.A. in sociology from New York University, and a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, where she studied international culture and politics.
