John H. Evans, Associate Professor

Ph.D. - Princeton, 1998

Areas of Specialization: Sociology of Culture, Knowledge, Religion, Medicine, Bioethics, Politics

Email Address: jhevans@ucsd.edu
Phone number: 858-534-4972
Office location: 492 Social Science Building

Office Hours

Curriculum Vitae
Personal Web Page

John H. Evans earned his B.A. from Macalester College and his Ph.D. from Princeton.  He has been a Post-doctoral Fellow with the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy Research Program at Yale, a visiting member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, and has held a visiting professorial fellowship at the University of Edinburgh.  His research focuses on religion, culture, politics and science.   His first book, Playing God? Human Genetic Engineering and the Rationalization of Public Bioethical Debate (2002, University of Chicago Press), won the Distinguished Book Award from the Religion Section of the American Sociological Association.  Playing God?offers an explanation for the emergence of the profession of bioethics in public bioethical debate, and an explanation for why these debates are structured as they are.  His second book, tentatively titled Contested Reproduction: Genetic Technologies, Religion and Public Debate (forthcoming, University of Chicago Press), examines how ordinary religious people in the U.S. talk about reproductive genetic technologies.  It also is a contribution to one of Evans’ other interests – polarization in public debates – in that it examines whether or not people will want to debate this issue in the future, or whether they will consider it to be a hopelessly polarized issue like the abortion debate.  In addition to these books, Evans has written over 35 articles and book chapters on topics in religion, culture, politics and science.  His new book in progress is tentatively titled Solving the Legitimacy Crisis in Public Bioethics: A Sociological View.

Classes to be taught in 2009/10:

Fall 2009

SOCI 108 - Survey Research Design

SOCG 253 - Research Practium II

Winter 2010

SOCI 138 - Genetics and Society

SOCI 154 - Religious Institutions in America

 

Selected Books and Publications:

Books and Edited Volumes

Forthcoming- Contested Reproduction: Genetic Technologies, Religion and Public Debate  Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press

2008    Cultural Sociology and Its Diversity.  Special issue of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.  Volume 619 (September).  (Edited with Amy Binder, Mary Blair-Loy, Kwai Ng, and Michael Schudson)

2002    Playing God? Human Genetic Engineering and the Rationalization of Public Bioethical Debate.  Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

2002    The Quiet Hand of God: Faith-Based Activism and the Public Role of Mainline Protestantism.  Edited Volume (with Robert Wuthnow).  Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Articles

2008    “Religion and Science: Beyond the Epistemological Conflict Narrative.”  (With Michael S. Evans).  Annual Review of Sociology 34: 87-105.

2006    “Between Technocracy and Democratic Legitimation: A Proposed Compromise Position for Common Morality Public Bioethics.”  Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 31 (3): 213-234.

2006    “Cooperative Coalitions on the Religious Right and Left: Considering the Resilience of Sectarianism.”  Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 45 (2): 195-215.

2000    “A Sociological Account of the Growth of Principlism.” The Hastings Center Report 30 (5): 31-38.

1996    “Have Americans’ Social Attitudes Become More Polarized?”  American Journal of Sociology 102 (3): 690-755.  (With Paul DiMaggio and Bethany Bryson)