Research: Highlights of Published and Ongoing Work

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

Intersections of Economy & Culture

“Culture” and “Charisma” in Startups: Founders’ Story Construction and Audience Resonance

(R&R) 2020 American Sociological Association Award for Best Student Paper in Economic Sociology and Entrepreneurship

Cultural entrepreneurship shows us that storytelling is an important part of shaping organizational identity and resource acquisition, but who constructs stories? And how does story construction impact investor (audience) resonance? This study builds on existing scholarship and suggests that different types of founders, like “charismatic” founders, together with their teams, construct stories in such a way that attract and resonate with certain types of audiences. Drawing on years of participant observation and one-hundred interviews with entrepreneurs and investors, this study develops a model for story construction, the roles founders and teams play in this process, and how this resonates with and attract different kinds of investors. In the conclusion, this article discusses implications for research on culture, organizations, and social movements.

The Protestants’ Dilemma: When Cultural Mismatches Shape Deliberate Action

(Published) Presented at 2019 American Sociological Association, Culture Session

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.

From “Civilian to Clergy Officer”: Hiring and Training Chaplains for Federal Government Positions

(Published), with Wendy Cadge. Presented at 2022 American Sociological Association, Work & Occupations Session

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.

How Does the State Perpetuate Stratification by Religion? A Case Study of State-Appointed Chaplaincy Endorsing Agencies

(Forthcoming: Accepted for Publication), with Wendy Cadge

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.

Race, Class, Culture, and the Economy

Strangers at Home and Abroad: Understanding Foreignness and How Self-Employed Immigrants Manage Foreignness

(Under Review), presented at the 2024 Ethnography Atelier Conference in Helsinki

How do we understand foreignness? And how do highly skilled immigrants manage or mitigate the perception of foreignness? Public discourse and past scholarship on assimilation have shaped the perception that highly skilled immigrants, given significant gains in economic mobility and high intermarriage rates with natives, experience less challenges with assimilation and discrimination. However, another stream of scholarship has suggested that stereotypes like the “perpetual foreigner” continue to hinder assimilation, mobility, and a sense of belonging among many immigrants, regardless of skills, income, and intermarriage rates. While foreignness has been cited by scholars over the decades, up to this point there has not been a systemic account to make sense of foreignness in an integrated way. Drawing on interviews and participant observation of self-employed first- and second-generation immigrants who founded technology startups in a transnational context, I show how dynamics of foreignness shape immigrant responses to managing or mitigating foreignness in their host country and country of origin. This article contributes to debates on assimilation by developing a framework on the intrinsic and extrinsic dynamics of foreignness and cultural legitimation: practices centered on leveraging and downplaying foreignness. This study also extends our knowledge of highly skilled immigrant self-employment and self-employment in transnational contexts.

Re-centering Race and Class: Advancing Scholarship on Inequality Through the Framework of Racial Capitalism

(Under Review), presented at 2023 American Sociological Association in Economic Sociology

Scholarship on the intersections or role of race and/or gender have proliferated in the last twenty years. However, mainstream discourse and scholarly attention to class, and particularly, race and class, have often been sidelined or siloed in the U.S. In this article, I argue that this lack of attention to race and class can be mitigated through the lens of racial capitalism, a theoretical framework that has garnered renewed scholarly interest, in part a response to conversations around racial and economic inequality. I suggest that an evolved framework of racial capitalism—one that centers the relationship between race and class/socioeconomic status (SES)—can be a bridge to address contemporary problems in sociology and social life, such as “predatory inclusion,” and “capitalist humanitarianism,” neoliberalism’s vision for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Religion & Racial Capitalism

(Edited book manuscript, Under Contract) with María E. Funes

For this particular book, we focus our attention at the intersection of religion and racial capitalism for a number of reasons. The intersection of religion and political economy is not new for one, and how religion and religious institutions reinforce and have been used to justify racially discriminatory economic behavior (i.e., slavery in America) is well documented by scholars (Robinson 2000; Tran 2022). Religion and religious institutions have a complex relationship with the racially and economically marginalized of society. On one hand, the ethos and beliefs of various faith groups and religions advocate for equity and equality, and yet on the other, religion—or its institutions—has often been weaponized or even been a perpetrator of continued inequality. Drawing from historical comparative as well as empirical case studies from different parts of the world, we examine the intersection of religion, race, and SES through the theoretical framework of racial capitalism.

Works in Progress

“Radical Entrepreneurship and Autocracy: Opposite or Apposite?” with Klaus Weber and Ed Zajac

“Elite Activism and Movement Backlash” with Brayden King

Book Chapters & Reviews

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

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