Elaine Howard Ecklund is the Herbert S. Autrey Chair Professor of Sociology and Director of The Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University, where she is also a Rice Scholar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy. An expert on institutional change, Ecklund is a sociologist who examines how individuals bring changes to religious, scientific and medical institutions.
Ecklund is the author of three books, many research articles, and numerous op-eds. She has received 5 million dollars in grants and awards from organizations including the National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, and Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Her latest book, Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think, was chosen by Times Higher Education as an international book of the week and named a book of the year on religion by the Huffington Post. Her research has been covered in national and international news media, including USA Today, Nature, the Wall Street Journal and Xinhua News.
She received a Ph.D. in 2004 from Cornell University, where she was the recipient of the Class of 2004 Graduate Student Baccalaureate Award for Academic Excellence and Community Service. Ecklund teaches classes at the graduate and undergraduate levels on research methods, immigration, sociology of science, classical sociological theory, and sociology of religion, In 2011 she was named among the top five percent of junior faculty teachers at Rice University and in 2013 received the Charles Duncan Award for most Outstanding Academic Achievement.
Over the next several years Ecklund's research will explore how scientists in several national and regional contexts understand religion, ethics, and gender. In addition, through a cooperative project with the American Association for the Advancement of Science Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion program , she is examining how four different U.S. religious groups understand science. Her forthcoming book is titled, Beyond the Ideal Scientist and examines how women and men at elite research universities negotiate careers as academic scientists alongside family life.
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Ecklund is the author of three books, many research articles, and numerous op-eds. She has received 5 million dollars in grants and awards from organizations including the National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, and Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Her latest book, Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think, was chosen by Times Higher Education as an international book of the week and named a book of the year on religion by the Huffington Post. Her research has been covered in national and international news media, including USA Today, Nature, the Wall Street Journal and Xinhua News.
She received a Ph.D. in 2004 from Cornell University, where she was the recipient of the Class of 2004 Graduate Student Baccalaureate Award for Academic Excellence and Community Service. Ecklund teaches classes at the graduate and undergraduate levels on research methods, immigration, sociology of science, classical sociological theory, and sociology of religion, In 2011 she was named among the top five percent of junior faculty teachers at Rice University and in 2013 received the Charles Duncan Award for most Outstanding Academic Achievement.
Over the next several years Ecklund's research will explore how scientists in several national and regional contexts understand religion, ethics, and gender. In addition, through a cooperative project with the American Association for the Advancement of Science Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion program , she is examining how four different U.S. religious groups understand science. Her forthcoming book is titled, Beyond the Ideal Scientist and examines how women and men at elite research universities negotiate careers as academic scientists alongside family life.
Featured Speakers