Dr. Jason E. Shelton is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for African American Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington. His research interests concern the sociology of religion, as well as the intersections of race, class, and attitudes about various political and social issues in contemporary America. Dr. Shelton’s articles have appeared in Social Science Quarterly, Du Bois Review, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Sociological Perspectives, Journal of African American Studies, American Behavioral Scientist, and other respected publications. New York University Press published his first book, Blacks and Whites in Christian America: How Racial Discrimination Shapes Religious Convictions, which won a major award sponsored by the Southern Conference on African American Studies and an “honorable mention” from the American Sociological Association’s Section on the Sociology of Religion. NYU Press recently published his second book, The Contemporary Black Church: The New Dynamics of African American Religion.
For five years, Dr. Shelton served as Chair of the Arlington Unity Council, a major initiative sponsored by the Office of the Mayor that aimed to “study equity strategies that the City could implement to promote and encourage greater equality, and report to the City Council on its findings and recommendations.” He has been interviewed by major media outlets for news stories relevant to his research such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, National Public Radio (NPR), the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), Christianity Today, Houston Chronicle, and network television affiliates in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He earned his PhD and MA degrees in Sociology at the University of Miami (FL), and BA in Sociology at Kent State University. From 2006-2008, Dr. Shelton served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Sociology at Rice University, where he worked on the first wave of the Portraits of American Life Study (PALS).
Sponsor: Eunice Curry
Classification: University Professor
