Browsing by Author "Di, Di"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Construction and Tensions Resolution: A Comparative Study of Religious Conversion to Protestantism among Chinese and Indian Immigrants in the United States
    (2014-08-29) Di, Di; Ecklund, Elaine Howard; Chávez, Sergio; Emerson, Michael; Lewis, Steven
    Despite the recent scholarly focus on immigration and religion, little is known about the shift of immigrants’ religious beliefs. Among the small set of studies that analyze immigrants’ religious conversion experience, most adopt a functional approach to understand the religious conversion process of Chinese immigrants. However, few scholars have analyzed the religious conversion process of Indian immigrants in the United States, let alone compared it with that of Chinese immigrants. Focusing on Chinese and Indian immigrants, this study adopts a comparative perspective to understand the relative influence from immigrants’ countries of origin and their immigrant status on the religious conversion process. Relying on twenty-nine semi-structured interviews, descriptively, this project examines Chinese and Indian immigrants’ interpretations of their religious conversion experience as well as their strategies for constructing identities. Using a cultural approach, sociologically, this paper analyzes how Chinese and Indian immigrant religious converts form new cultural norms during the conversion process. The findings reveal that Chinese and Indian immigrants have different approaches to interpret religious conversion process and construct religious identities. However, they utilize similar strategies to negotiate between their religious and ethnic identities. Drawing on these results, this article includes another ethnic group into the scholarly discussion to provide a more robust theory regarding immigrants’ religious conversion. This paper also has implications for the meaning of being an immigrant Christian in the United States.
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    Cross-National Variations in Scientific Ethics: Exploring Ethical Perspectives Among Scientists in China, the US, and the UK
    (Springer Nature, 2024) Di, Di; Ecklund, Elaine Howard
    This research explores the perspectives of academic physicists from three national contexts concerning their roles and responsibilities within the realm of science. Using a dataset comprised of 211 interviews with scientists working in China, the United States, and the United Kingdom, the study seeks to explain whether and in what manner physicists conceptualize scientific ethics within a global or national framework. The empirical findings bring to light disparities across nations in the physicists’ perceptions of what constitutes responsible mentorship and engagement in public service. These cross-national variations underscore the moral agency of physicists as they navigate the ethical standards embraced by the global scientific community vis-à-vis those that are specific to their respective national contexts. The study’s empirical insights may carry significant implications for both policymakers and ethicists, underscoring the imperative of soliciting and acknowledging the perspectives of academic scientists working and living in disparate national contexts when formulating comprehensive science ethics frameworks. Such inclusive and context-aware approaches to shaping ethics in science can contribute to the cultivation of a more robust and universally relevant ethical foundation for the scientific community.
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    Getting Enlightened: A Comparative Study of Buddhist Temples in Mainland China and the US
    (2019-05-23) Di, Di; Ecklund, Elaine Howard
    This dissertation examines the intersection of religion, ethnicity, and gender in two Chinese Mahayana Buddhist temples that are affiliated with the same international Buddhist headquarters, but situated in two distinctive national contexts: mainland China and the US. In particular, I examine the contextualization of global Buddhism. Three research questions guided this study: (1) What are people’s religious experiences in the two Buddhist temples? (2) In what way are religion, gender, and ethnicity constructed in these two faith communities? (3) In what way, and to what extent, is a globalized religion contextualized? The theoretical framework that guided this study is a discussion of the relation between people’s agency and social institutions, which illustrates the way individuals are constrained and enabled by authoritative discourses, also referred to as institutional norms, in the social institutions in which they are situated. This study relied on a 15-month ethnographic study in two Buddhist temples and 80 in-depth interviews (conducted in both Mandarin and English) with ethnic Chinese Buddhist practitioners within the temples. The findings related to the first research question revealed that, although Buddhists in the two temples practice the same type of Buddhism and follow a similar set of authoritative Buddhist discourses, they construct two different types of religious identities actively according to the founding master’s words. Buddhists in the temple in China construct temple-specific Buddhist identities, while their counterparts in the temple in the US construct individual-centered Buddhist identities. The findings that addressed the second research question illustrated that, while monastic leaders in the temples may express gender and ethnicity in somewhat similar ways, their construction differs in the two temples. Based on the findings related to the first two research questions, to address the third research question, I argue that religious people’s agency is the locus to understand the contextualization of global Buddhism. However, in contrast to previous scholars who have focused predominantly on the dialectical relations between individuals—Buddhist practitioners in one case and the social institution of religion in another case, I argue that, when developing their agency, monastic members and religious practitioners evaluate their positions constantly in the broader national context and navigate the religious norms with the cultural resources that are accessible to the broader and even secular national contexts. This navigation process helps practitioners construct a collective form of agency in the Chinese and an individual form in the US temple. Taken together, this dissertation reveals the localization of a seemingly globalized social institution, proposes a novel and contextualized understanding of people’s agency, and offers implications for the sociology of religion, gender, and ethnicity.
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    Producing Sacredness and Defending Secularity: Faith in the Workplace of Taiwanese Scientists
    (Sage, 2017) Di, Di; Ecklund, Elaine Howard
    Although a recent body of scholarship focuses on how business professionals infuse spiritual practices in their workplaces, comparatively little attention has been paid to faith in the scientific workplace, especially in an Eastern, non-Christian context. Between 2014 and 2015, we conducted a survey of 892 scientists in Taiwan and completed interviews with 52 of our survey respondents. In this paper, we examine how scientists navigate religion in the scientific workplace. Survey results demonstrate that while scientists perceive religion and scientific research as generally separate in the abstract, in practice, they regard the boundary between religion and their workplace as somewhat permeable. Interviews further show how different groups of Taiwanese scientists create sacredness and defend secularity in scientific work. Results have implications for future research on how scientists (and potentially those in other types of professions) in non-Western and non-Christian countries navigate faith at work.
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    Responding to Richard: Celebrity and (mis)representation of science
    (Sage, 2018) Johnson, David R.; Ecklund, Elaine Howard; Di, Di; Matthews, Kirstin R.W.
    Drawing on 48 in-depth interviews conducted with biologists and physicists at universities in the United Kingdom, this study examines scientists’ perceptions of the role celebrity scientists play in socially contentious public debates. We examine Richard Dawkins’ involvement in public debates related to the relationship between science and religion as a case to analyze scientists’ perceptions of the role celebrity scientists play in the public sphere and the implications of celebrity science for the practice of science communication. Findings show that Dawkins’ proponents view the celebrity scientist as a provocateur who asserts the cultural authority of science in the public sphere. Critics, who include both religious and nonreligious scientists, argue that Dawkins misrepresents science and scientists and reject his approach to public engagement. Scientists emphasize promotion of science over the scientist, diplomacy over derision, and dialogue over ideological extremism.
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    Women’s Underrepresentation in Academic Physics in the People’s Republic of China
    (Begell House, 2016) Di, Di; Ecklund, Elaine Howard; Lewis, Steven W.
    Despite recent scholarly focus on women's underrepresentation in the sciences, little is known about gender disparity in science outside the US and Europe. Since much growth in global science is occurring outside these geographic areas, especially in East Asia, this omission represents a significant gap in the literature. Here we rely on 40 in-depth interviews with both male and female physicists−a discipline of science where there is extensive gender segregation−conducted among physicists in Chinese universities. We ask how Chinese physicists explain why there are few women in physics. Analysis reveals that Chinese social and cultural contexts are reflected in physicists' interpretations of gender segregation. Specifically, the cultural and economic transition in China provides physicists with two competing national gender narratives: gender equality and women's subordination. Both national gender narratives exert influence on Chinese physicists' explanations for gender disparity in physics. Findings further indicate that male and female physicists in China share similar gender beliefs, and their beliefs further translate to discriminatory behaviors towards female physicists throughout their career trajectory. This study asserts a new scholarly discussion about women's underrepresentation in science within China and has implications for gender segregation in elite occupations more broadly. Findings also provide implications for public policies to reduce gender stratification in Chinese science.