Often research on science and engineering (STEM) career trajectories and training experiences foc... more Often research on science and engineering (STEM) career trajectories and training experiences focuses on undergraduate STEM majors and, more recently, graduate students in STEM. For the most part, research on postdoctoral appointees is a new area, with the vast majority of research on them being published since 2000 when the National Academies of Science released its report, "Enhancing the Postdoctoral Experience for Scientists and Engineers". That report was a response to the explosion of postdoctoral traineeships at the end of the 20th century, particularly during the 1990s. As more attention was paid to the postdoc population, it has become clear how important it was to understand their experiences, experience which, like those of graduate students, are often critical to the decision to pursue academic careers.
"Beyond The PhD" draws on a mixed-methods approach to analyze the characteristics, experiences, and motivations of this substantial, but poorly understood, group of STEM trainees.
One of the unique aspects of the religious profession is the high percentage of those who claim t... more One of the unique aspects of the religious profession is the high percentage of those who claim to be “called by God” to do their work. This call is particularly important within African American Christian traditions. Divine Callings offers a rare sociological examination of this markedly understudied phenomenon within black ministry.
Richard N. Pitt draws on over 100 in-depth interviews with Black Pentecostal ministers in the Church of God in Christ--both those ordained and licensed and those aspiring--to examine how these men and women experience and pursue “the call.” Viewing divine calling as a social process as much as it is spiritual one, Pitt delves into the personal stories of these individuals to explore their work as active agents in the process of fulfilling their calling.
In some cases, those called cannot find pastoral work due to gender discrimination, lack of clergy positions, and educational deficiencies. Pitt looks specifically at how those who have not obtained clergy positions understand their call, exploring the influences of psychological experience, the congregational acceptance of their call, and their response to the training process. He emphasizes how those called reconceptualize clericalism in terms of who can be called, how that call has to be certified, and what those called are meant to do, offering insight into how social actors adjust to structural constraints.
Racial diversity is understood to play an important role for all students on the college campus. ... more Racial diversity is understood to play an important role for all students on the college campus. In recent years, much effort has gone into documenting the positive effects of this diversity. However, few studies have focused on how diversity impacts student interactions in the classroom, and even fewer studies attempt to quantify contributions from students of different races. Using Web blog discussions about race and religion, the authors uncover the differences in contributions black and white students make to those discussions.
Do community colleges really cool out students' aspirations, causing them to lower their sights t... more Do community colleges really cool out students' aspirations, causing them to lower their sights to something less than that “golden ticket” of the bachelor's degree? Should community colleges make some effort at teaching cultural capital? Who is the real customer when it comes to the product community colleges and their private counterparts generate?
This article looks at homosexual Black men who are heavily involved in fundamentalist African-Ame... more This article looks at homosexual Black men who are heavily involved in fundamentalist African-American churches. These men describe themselves as "out as same-sex loving individuals" even though the messages preached by their church leaders and the doctrines of their churches are, at the very least, heterosexist, but more likely to be stridently anti-homosexuality. Not only do these men attend the churches they are parts of, but they are viewed as leaders in these churches in positions ranging from associate pastor to director of facilities management. The study uses structured interviews to understand how these men manage the conflict between a committed gay identity and a strong religious identity that says the two cannot coexist.
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Jan 1, 2010
I use cognitive dissonance theory as a framework to examine coping strategies used by men endeavo... more I use cognitive dissonance theory as a framework to examine coping strategies used by men endeavoring to maintain a coherent sense of themselves as gay Christians. Using interviews with black gay Christian men, I uncover a strategy used to maintain that identity in the face of stigmatizing religious rhetoric. While these men have managed to reconcile their religious and sexual identities, sermons delivered by church leaders disrupt that reconciliation, causing them to have to neutralize these anxiety-inducing attitudes. This study shows that they focus accusations of illegitimacy on the speaker rather than the doctrine by denigrating the speakers' knowledge, morality, focus, and motivations. In this way, they neutralize the sting of churches' negative messages by neutralizing the moral authority of the churches' messengers. These findings offer new insight into how parishioners persist in religious communities in which their sexual behaviors or identities are condemned.
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Jan 1, 2010
The growing literature on multiracial churches tends to take the position that religious values c... more The growing literature on multiracial churches tends to take the position that religious values can be influential in promoting racially inclusive religious communities. Marti offers further evidence for this argument: cosmetic changes predominately white churches make to their worship, music, and leadership in order to attract/retain "race-conscious" black congregants. In this response, I argue that these churches do not cause blacks to transcend their race consciousness. They merely offer havens for those blacks who have already transcended their race enough to pursue membership in these religious communities. I conclude with a challenge to scholars in this line of research to add evidence of religion's ability to promote racial transcendence for "race-conscious" white congregants.
A traditional debate format, in which a small group of students is given the task of presenting a... more A traditional debate format, in which a small group of students is given the task of presenting arguments for or against a particular issue, can promote pro and con dualism that is both incomplete and counter to developing a sociological imagination. In this article, the authors describe their efforts to avoid this kind of dualism through the development and implementation of a set of stakeholder meetings. They first examine the rationale for developing this method and then describe a particular classroom application of this type of debate. Next, the authors describe their assessment of the exercise both independent of and relative to traditional debates. They conclude by identifying some potential difficulties and make suggestions about the transferability to other academic settings.
Often research on science and engineering (STEM) career trajectories and training experiences foc... more Often research on science and engineering (STEM) career trajectories and training experiences focuses on undergraduate STEM majors and, more recently, graduate students in STEM. For the most part, research on postdoctoral appointees is a new area, with the vast majority of research on them being published since 2000 when the National Academies of Science released its report, "Enhancing the Postdoctoral Experience for Scientists and Engineers". That report was a response to the explosion of postdoctoral traineeships at the end of the 20th century, particularly during the 1990s. As more attention was paid to the postdoc population, it has become clear how important it was to understand their experiences, experience which, like those of graduate students, are often critical to the decision to pursue academic careers.
"Beyond The PhD" draws on a mixed-methods approach to analyze the characteristics, experiences, and motivations of this substantial, but poorly understood, group of STEM trainees.
One of the unique aspects of the religious profession is the high percentage of those who claim t... more One of the unique aspects of the religious profession is the high percentage of those who claim to be “called by God” to do their work. This call is particularly important within African American Christian traditions. Divine Callings offers a rare sociological examination of this markedly understudied phenomenon within black ministry.
Richard N. Pitt draws on over 100 in-depth interviews with Black Pentecostal ministers in the Church of God in Christ--both those ordained and licensed and those aspiring--to examine how these men and women experience and pursue “the call.” Viewing divine calling as a social process as much as it is spiritual one, Pitt delves into the personal stories of these individuals to explore their work as active agents in the process of fulfilling their calling.
In some cases, those called cannot find pastoral work due to gender discrimination, lack of clergy positions, and educational deficiencies. Pitt looks specifically at how those who have not obtained clergy positions understand their call, exploring the influences of psychological experience, the congregational acceptance of their call, and their response to the training process. He emphasizes how those called reconceptualize clericalism in terms of who can be called, how that call has to be certified, and what those called are meant to do, offering insight into how social actors adjust to structural constraints.
Racial diversity is understood to play an important role for all students on the college campus. ... more Racial diversity is understood to play an important role for all students on the college campus. In recent years, much effort has gone into documenting the positive effects of this diversity. However, few studies have focused on how diversity impacts student interactions in the classroom, and even fewer studies attempt to quantify contributions from students of different races. Using Web blog discussions about race and religion, the authors uncover the differences in contributions black and white students make to those discussions.
Do community colleges really cool out students' aspirations, causing them to lower their sights t... more Do community colleges really cool out students' aspirations, causing them to lower their sights to something less than that “golden ticket” of the bachelor's degree? Should community colleges make some effort at teaching cultural capital? Who is the real customer when it comes to the product community colleges and their private counterparts generate?
This article looks at homosexual Black men who are heavily involved in fundamentalist African-Ame... more This article looks at homosexual Black men who are heavily involved in fundamentalist African-American churches. These men describe themselves as "out as same-sex loving individuals" even though the messages preached by their church leaders and the doctrines of their churches are, at the very least, heterosexist, but more likely to be stridently anti-homosexuality. Not only do these men attend the churches they are parts of, but they are viewed as leaders in these churches in positions ranging from associate pastor to director of facilities management. The study uses structured interviews to understand how these men manage the conflict between a committed gay identity and a strong religious identity that says the two cannot coexist.
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Jan 1, 2010
I use cognitive dissonance theory as a framework to examine coping strategies used by men endeavo... more I use cognitive dissonance theory as a framework to examine coping strategies used by men endeavoring to maintain a coherent sense of themselves as gay Christians. Using interviews with black gay Christian men, I uncover a strategy used to maintain that identity in the face of stigmatizing religious rhetoric. While these men have managed to reconcile their religious and sexual identities, sermons delivered by church leaders disrupt that reconciliation, causing them to have to neutralize these anxiety-inducing attitudes. This study shows that they focus accusations of illegitimacy on the speaker rather than the doctrine by denigrating the speakers' knowledge, morality, focus, and motivations. In this way, they neutralize the sting of churches' negative messages by neutralizing the moral authority of the churches' messengers. These findings offer new insight into how parishioners persist in religious communities in which their sexual behaviors or identities are condemned.
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Jan 1, 2010
The growing literature on multiracial churches tends to take the position that religious values c... more The growing literature on multiracial churches tends to take the position that religious values can be influential in promoting racially inclusive religious communities. Marti offers further evidence for this argument: cosmetic changes predominately white churches make to their worship, music, and leadership in order to attract/retain "race-conscious" black congregants. In this response, I argue that these churches do not cause blacks to transcend their race consciousness. They merely offer havens for those blacks who have already transcended their race enough to pursue membership in these religious communities. I conclude with a challenge to scholars in this line of research to add evidence of religion's ability to promote racial transcendence for "race-conscious" white congregants.
A traditional debate format, in which a small group of students is given the task of presenting a... more A traditional debate format, in which a small group of students is given the task of presenting arguments for or against a particular issue, can promote pro and con dualism that is both incomplete and counter to developing a sociological imagination. In this article, the authors describe their efforts to avoid this kind of dualism through the development and implementation of a set of stakeholder meetings. They first examine the rationale for developing this method and then describe a particular classroom application of this type of debate. Next, the authors describe their assessment of the exercise both independent of and relative to traditional debates. They conclude by identifying some potential difficulties and make suggestions about the transferability to other academic settings.
Office Hrs: 11a -12p TR or by appt Office Hrs: 1p -3p M or by appt "A fully functional multiracia... more Office Hrs: 11a -12p TR or by appt Office Hrs: 1p -3p M or by appt "A fully functional multiracial society can not be achieved without a sense of history and open, honest dialogue" Cornel West "I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one race-the human race-and that we are all members of it." Margaret Atwood
Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the ... more Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion -several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven." (Mark Twain, The Lowest Animal)
This course is designed to introduce students to theory and research in the sociology of educatio... more This course is designed to introduce students to theory and research in the sociology of education regarding the role of education in contemporary societies. The course, which consists of lectures, readings, class discussions, daily writing assignments, and final presentations focuses on the question of how schools are organized and how variation within and between schools affects individuals and society. The five major subtopics that will be covered are theory and philosophy; stratification between and within schools; student culture and behavior; educational transitions; and higher education.
Uploads
Books by Richard Pitt
"Beyond The PhD" draws on a mixed-methods approach to analyze the characteristics, experiences, and motivations of this substantial, but poorly understood, group of STEM trainees.
Richard N. Pitt draws on over 100 in-depth interviews with Black Pentecostal ministers in the Church of God in Christ--both those ordained and licensed and those aspiring--to examine how these men and women experience and pursue “the call.” Viewing divine calling as a social process as much as it is spiritual one, Pitt delves into the personal stories of these individuals to explore their work as active agents in the process of fulfilling their calling.
In some cases, those called cannot find pastoral work due to gender discrimination, lack of clergy positions, and educational deficiencies. Pitt looks specifically at how those who have not obtained clergy positions understand their call, exploring the influences of psychological experience, the congregational acceptance of their call, and their response to the training process. He emphasizes how those called reconceptualize clericalism in terms of who can be called, how that call has to be certified, and what those called are meant to do, offering insight into how social actors adjust to structural constraints.
Papers by Richard Pitt
Talks by Richard Pitt
"Beyond The PhD" draws on a mixed-methods approach to analyze the characteristics, experiences, and motivations of this substantial, but poorly understood, group of STEM trainees.
Richard N. Pitt draws on over 100 in-depth interviews with Black Pentecostal ministers in the Church of God in Christ--both those ordained and licensed and those aspiring--to examine how these men and women experience and pursue “the call.” Viewing divine calling as a social process as much as it is spiritual one, Pitt delves into the personal stories of these individuals to explore their work as active agents in the process of fulfilling their calling.
In some cases, those called cannot find pastoral work due to gender discrimination, lack of clergy positions, and educational deficiencies. Pitt looks specifically at how those who have not obtained clergy positions understand their call, exploring the influences of psychological experience, the congregational acceptance of their call, and their response to the training process. He emphasizes how those called reconceptualize clericalism in terms of who can be called, how that call has to be certified, and what those called are meant to do, offering insight into how social actors adjust to structural constraints.