Baylor Sociology Professor Wins Award from Christian Scholar’s Review

August 2, 2019
George Yancy

Incoming Baylor sociology professor George Yancey, Ph.D., was selected as the winner of the Charles J. Miller Christian Scholar's Award for Volume 47 of the Christian Scholar's Review.

by Brooke Hill, student newswriter, Baylor Media & Public Relations
Media Contact: Terry Goodrich, Baylor University Media and Public Relations, 254-710-3321
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WACO, Texas (Aug. 2, 2019) — Incoming Baylor sociology professor George Yancey, Ph.D., was selected as the winner of the Charles J. Miller Christian Scholar's Award for Volume 47 of the Christian Scholar’s Review (CSR), along with his co-author Michael Emerson, provost of North Park University in Chicago.

This award recognizes the best article of Volume 47 and was determined by a panel of CSR editors. The award was announced in the summer 2019 issue of CSR. The award includes a cash prize of $500.

“The award was an unexpected surprise for me, and I hope it helps popularize the article on religiosity and childbearing,” said Yancey, who also shares a joint appointment in Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion.
The article “Having Kids: Assessing Differences in Fertility Desires between Religious and Nonreligious Individuals” appeared in the Spring 2018, Volume 47 edition of Christian Scholar’s Review.

“We find that religious individuals prioritize their local community more than non-religious individuals,” Yancey said. “Thus, children are valued more by religious individuals than non-religious individuals because of the important role children play in the local community.”

Carson Mencken, Ph.D., chair and professor of sociology at Baylor, said the sociology department is excited that Dr. Yancey will be joining the Baylor family this fall.

“Dr. Yancey is an internationally renowned scholar on issues of religion and culture,” Mencken said. “He provides a distinctively Christian perspective to his research in a way that engages and critiques secular assumptions about religion and society. His award is well-deserved.”

Yancey graduated from West Texas State University with a B.S. in economics before receiving his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin.

He began to study interracial romance before being the co-recipient of a half-million dollar grant to study multiracial churches. He also has studied academic bias and anti-Christian attitudes in the United States and has published 13 books on his findings.

Jerry Park, Ph.D., associate professor in the sociology department at Baylor, said he is delighted for Yancey to join the department.

“Dr. Yancey brings extensive research and teaching in the areas of race and religion, two topics and identities of tremendous importance in our particular social climate today,” Park said. “My hope is that Dr. Yancey’s presence will illuminate the realities of racism and religious bigotry to more students, faculty and administrators, which will further the university’s mission to understand human flourishing.”

Prior to joining the Baylor family this fall, he taught at the University of North Texas and worked to establish the Institute of Christian Studies there. It was the first center that concentrated on conducting critical, but nonhostile, research to help Christians better serve their communities and the larger society.

Christian Scholar’s Review is a medium for communication among Christians who have been called to an academic vocation. Its primary objective is the publication of peer-reviewed scholarship and research, within and across the disciplines, that advances the integration of faith and learning and contributes to a broader and more unified understanding of the nature of creation, culture, and vocation and the responsibilities of those whom God has created.

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