Daniel Winchester
- Associate Professor // Sociology
- Associate Professor // Cornerstone
- Associate Professor // Religious Studies // SIS
Research Focus
Religion
Curriculum vitae
Office and Contact
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Minnesota (2013)
M.A., Sociology, University of Missouri (2006)
Specialization
culture; religion; theory; identity and subjectivity; morality; qualitative methodology
Daniel Winchester joined the Purdue faculty in 2014. Most broadly, his scholarship focuses on answering questions about how culture shapes human subjectivity and action, with particular attention to the sociological study of religion. His research aims to empirically and theoretically account for the social and cognitive processes through which cultural phenomena like rituals, symbols, narratives, bodily practices, and material artifacts come to influence people's experiences of themselves and the world around them.
Among other research projects, Dan has conducted ethnographic studies of religious conversions to Islam and Eastern Orthodox Christianity in the United States and is currently working on a project focusing on contemporary Evangelical missionary culture and identity. His research has appeared in journals such as Social Forces, Theory & Society, Sociological Theory, Sociology of Religion, and Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion and received awards from the Culture and Theory Sections of the American Sociological Association.