Meet the Author with David Speed and Penny Edgell

Dr. David Speed is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John. He teaches introduction to psychology, conducting research, graduate statistics, and program evaluation. His primary interests are using large datasets to explore secular and nonreligious groups. When David isn’t teaching, researching, or avoiding administrative work, he enjoys spending time with his wife and three children.

Penny Edgell (Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1995) is a cultural sociologist whose research focuses on religion, nonreligion, and symbolic boundaries in the United States, examining religious and nonreligious effects on social and political attitudes, civic engagement, well-being, and social inclusion/exclusion.  She is the author of Religion and Family in a Changing Society and Congregations in Conflict and her work has appeared in the American Sociological Review, Sociology of Religion, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Poetics, Social Forces and other journals. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, working on a book about changes in American religion since 1990.