HOUSTON – (Sept. 29, 2023) – Elaine Howard Ecklund, the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences and director of Rice University’s Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance, has been elected president of the Religious Research Association (RRA) for 2023-24.
“The RRA’s vision is my vision, and I am humbled to lead this organization,” Ecklund said. “One of my professional goals is to make sure research on religion is translated to religious leaders and members of the broader public in ways they can use.”
The RRA aims to expand understanding of how religion affects people and society through social science and other scholarly methods. The association fosters professional development and cooperation of scholars from a variety of disciplines while also promoting research. The interfaith and international association includes college, university and seminary faculty; religious leaders; organizational consultants; laypersons; and other professionals interested in the intersection of religion and society.
“As president, Ecklund is pioneering the communication of applied research on religion to religious communities for increased knowledge, collaborations and mutual understanding,” said Gina Zurlo, co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity and executive officer at RRA. “By spearheading the RRA’s Religious Leader Track at our annual meeting in October in Salt Lake City, she is ensuring that academics and practitioners alike can glean from relevant, sound scholarship on changes impacting religious communities in the U.S.”
“Dr. Ecklund is the ideal leader, public scholar and researcher to lead the Religious Research Association as president at this moment,” said Andrew Whitehead, associate professor of sociology at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis and board of director-at-large at RRA. “Her groundbreaking work serves to increase understanding of religion as it shapes and is shaped by people and the broader culture. Ecklund’s efforts to translate her research to practitioners and other interested groups is a model for us all. She is also a leader in the professionalization and development of the next generation of religion researchers. These are all core commitments of the RRA, and I am excited to see where and how Dr. Ecklund leads us into the future.”
Formally organized as the Religious Research Fellowship in 1951, the RRA was originally under the Institute of Social and Religious Research in association with the Federal Council of Churches with informal collaboration extending back to the 1920s. Learn more here.