Research

Peer-Reviewed & Under Revision*

*All authored and published work up to this point are solo- or first-author.

Tien, Grace. [Blinded Title for Peer Review]

(R&R, Strategic Management Journal)

ASA Award for Best Student Paper in Economic Sociology and Entrepreneurship

This study draws on ethnographic fieldwork and 100 interviews with founders and investors to highlight the role of narratives around startup culture and founder charisma on investor outcomes in an autocratic context.

Tien, Grace. [Blinded Title for Peer Review]

(R&R, Socio-Economic Review)

This paper draws on 100 interviews and years long ethnography to examine how regulatory uncertainty in an autocracy shapes entrepreneurs’ decision-making processes.

Tien, Grace. 2023. The Protestants’ Dilemma: When Cultural Mismatches Shape Deliberate Action.

(Published, Sociology of Religion)

How does culture motivate action when there is a cultural mismatch? This article examines how a cultural mismatch—defined here as a conflict between actors’ beliefs and values and their contextual norms and practices—catalyzes actors to strategically and deliberately shape future lines of action. This article takes a case study of Protestant professionals and workers in China who experience a cultural mismatch and respond in a number of a ways. Some respond in irrational ways (against their material interests), while others respond in strategic or creative ways to resolve their conflict. Drawing on years of participant observation and 63 interviews, this study builds on accounts of culture in action to argue that in the case of a cultural mismatch, when actors’ moral values and beliefs are in conflict with their environmental context, such situations can shape culture in action in not only unconscious, automatic ways or as post-hoc justifications, but can also deliberately shape future lines of irrational, strategic, and creative action.

Tien, Grace, and Wendy Cadge. 2022. From “Civilian to Clergy Officer”: Hiring and Training Chaplains for Federal Government Positions

(Published, Sociology of Religion)

This article asks how people hired into federal chaplaincy positions are trained on the job. Unlike those hired into professional positions based on education, knowledge and skills to date, chaplains are hired into federal positions–by design–without some of the skills required for the job. We identify a process of organizational professionalization and the strategies employers use, inculcation and embodiment, to help chaplains integrate their existing religious identity with their new professional chaplain identity. Drawing on a combination of interviews and archival data, we examine the process of hiring and training for federal chaplains as a case study of religious professionals working in secular and pluralistic organizational contexts. This article contributes to and bridges work between scholars of religion and scholars of work and organizations who have been interested in processes of hiring and training but do not often consider the role of religion in relation to such processes.

Tien, Grace, and Wendy Cadge. 2024. How Does the State Perpetuate Stratification by Religion? A Case Study of State-Appointed Chaplaincy Endorsing Agencies

(Published, Labor Studies Journal)

How does the state perpetuate stratification by religion? The labor stratification literature suggests that employers often perpetuate gendered, racial, and socioeconomic inequality in hiring, but in this case study of state-appointed endorsing agencies, findings suggest that the federal government—a primary chaplain employer—perpetuates stratification by religion. Given the institutional separation of church and state, the state technically does not interfere with the free practice of religion or in constructing religion, but because federal sectors like the military, VA, and federal prisons require chaplains, the state appoints and recognizes specific groups—endorsing agencies—to vet and evaluate the preparation of chaplains to serve in these federal roles. Endorsing agencies thus act as state-appointed gatekeepers in a system set up by the state that has no clear change mechanism for expanding the number and type of religious endorsing agencies. Drawing on qualitative data from endorsing agencies and complementary archival material, we argue that the state plays a role in setting up a system that both shapes and perpetuates stratification by religion. We conclude by discussing the implications for scholarship on religion, inequality, and labor stratification.

Papers Under Review

Tien, Grace. [Blinded Title]

This paper theorizes foreignness and ethnoracial legitimation, drawing on interviews and two ethnographic studies of transnational entrepreneurs.

• Invited to Present at Columbia/UPenn Migration and Organizations Conference 2025

Tien, Grace, and Lily Zhang. [Blinded Title]

Despite how siloed the field of sociology is, there has been more work on race and/or gender across sociological subfields over the last twenty years. However, many subfields continue to sideline discourse around class, particularly the intersection of race and class. This paper suggests a revised racial capitalism framework for sociology to mitigate this gap.

• Presented at ASA “Future Directions for Economic Sociology” 2023

Papers in Drafting Stage and Invited Presentations

Tien, Grace. Entrepreneurship and Disinvested Urban Communities

• Invited to present at EGOS 2025

Tien, Grace. Surrogate Kinship Ties and the Unhoused

• Invited to present at AOM 2025, MIT Equitable Opportunity Conference 2025

Monograph

Tien, Grace, and María E. Funes. Religion & Racial Capitalism

(Edited book manuscript, Forthcoming, Palgrave MacMillan)

Much of the discourse around diversity, equity, and inclusion have encountered two blind spots. First, discourse in the academy and beyond have prioritized the intersectionality of race and gender but neglected the intersectionality of race and class. Secondly, the resurgence (and now backlash) to diversity, equity, and inclusion have largely benefited cultural and economic elites on the political left and left behind the working class. This book suggests that the framework of racial capitalism can help bring attention to these gaps, in part due to renewed scholarly interest in racial capitalism across academic disciplines.

 This edited volume is largely motivated by the above gaps in academic and mainstream discourse and makes two primary contributions: first, we examine the unique intersection of religion and racial capitalism, and second, we analyze case studies of religion and racial capitalism in country contexts outside of the U.S., drawing on case studies from North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Scholars, particularly historians, have mostly examined racial capitalism in the U.S. context. Studies in this edited volume highlight how the challenges and manifestations of racial capitalism, or the complex, intertwined relationship between racial and economic inequality, are not particular to America and the West. Part I of the book investigates the past, or “origin stories,” of religion and racial capitalism. Part II, the present, underscores contemporary empirical studies of religion and racial capitalism, like how religious institutions have reinforced, justified, or even promoted racial and economic injustices. Lastly, Part III, future, presents ways forward, or potential interventions in response to religion and racial capitalism.

Book Chapters & Reviews

Tien, Grace. 2022. Review of Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley by Carolyn Chen. Princeton University Press. Review of Religious Research.

Tien, Grace. 2020.“Reinterpreting Weber’s Protestant Ethic in China.” In Z. Xie (Ed), Protestantism and Modernity. Hong Kong: Logos & Pneuma Press.

Link to CV