Browsing by Author "Mehta, Sharan Kaur"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Can Religiosity Be Explained by ‘Brain Wiring’? An Analysis of US Adults’ Opinions
    (MDPI, 2019) Mehta, Sharan Kaur; Scheitle, Christopher P.; Ecklund, Elaine Howard
    Studies examining how religion shapes individuals’ attitudes about science have focused heavily on a narrow range of topics, such as evolution. This study expands this literature by looking at how religion influences individuals’ attitudes towards the claim that neuroscience, or “brain wiring,” can explain differences in religiosity. Our analysis of nationally representative survey data shows, perhaps unsurprisingly, that religiosity is negatively associated with thinking that brain wiring can explain religion. Net of religiosity, though, individuals reporting religious experiences are actually more likely to agree that brain wiring can explain religiosity, as are individuals belonging to diverse religious traditions when compared to the unaffiliated. We also find that belief in the general explanatory power of science is a significant predictor of thinking that religiosity can be explained by brain wiring, while women and the more highly educated are less likely to think this is true. Taken together, these findings have implications for our understanding of the relationship between religion and science, and the extent to which neuroscientific explanations of religiosity are embraced by the general US public.
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    From South Asia to the Southern US: Exploring South Asian Identities, Lived Experiences, and Collective Action in Texas
    (2023-04-21) Mehta, Sharan Kaur; Bratter, Jenifer
    The recent rise in bias-motivated violence against Asians in the US has not only captured significant public attention, but also reignited critical questions about who “counts” as Asian and what, in turn, constitutes anti-Asian racism. This dissertation centers South Asians in the US—a demographic classified as Asian within the current racial rubric, but one that has long held an ambiguous status within the Asian category. This ambiguity is far from new but brightened after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, with growing scholarship illuminating the critical role of religion in how South Asian Muslims, Sikhs, and other religious communities are racialized—and the divergent racialization processes within the Asian category. This divergence has further brightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, inspiring questions about the contemporary boundaries within the Asian category and the challenges these boundaries pose on building pan-Asian and interracial solidarities. Drawing on theories of racial formation and intersectionality, I conducted 65 in-depth interviews with South Asian community members and organizers in Texas between 2020 and 2021 to examine how religiously diverse South Asians (with a focus on Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus) across generations understand their racial identities, perceive the lived impacts of racism on their everyday lives, and respond to these challenges civically, politically, and in their local communities through collective action. Findings reveal some of the complexities of negotiating Asian and South Asian identities given the prevalence with which these terms are socially coded as “East Asian” and “Indian,” respectively—situating these racial and panethnic identities as sites of felt exclusion for some and ongoing contestation for others. The immense heterogeneity of lived experiences in the US and globally also renders diverse conditions under which community members embrace or distance themselves from panethnic terms, spaces, and action efforts. Together, findings amplify the need to bridge our sociological understanding of Asian racialization and the racialization of religion, and to think globally about racial schemas, identities, and politics in order to discern how South Asians negotiate their racial place in the US and understand the socio-political issues around which they mobilize.
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    Negotiating Race in a Climate of Islamophobia: How Muslim and Sikh Americans Perceive Discrimination and Construct Racialized Religious Identities
    (2019-04-18) Mehta, Sharan Kaur; Ecklund, Elaine Howard
    Since 9/11, the dramatic rise in hate crimes against Muslim Americans has garnered increasing concerns about the pervasiveness of Islamophobia in the US and inspired growing scholarship on the racialization of Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim, such as Sikhs. However, significant gaps remain in our understanding of Muslim and Sikh experiences, as crime reports fail to capture the scope of hate incidents and discrimination that represent critical ways in which racism and Islamophobia shape the lived experiences of racialized religious minorities. Here, I examine the ways in which Muslim and Sikh Americans perceive experiences of discrimination, the effects of such experiences on their everyday lives, and how perceived discrimination shapes the construction of racialized religious identities. After conducting 30 interviews with community members (14 Muslim and 16 Sikh) and participant observations at a masjid (mosque) and gurdwara (Sikh place of worship) in Houston, Texas, I find that, in addition to perceived experiences of discrimination, the perceived risk of being discriminated against shapes life “choices” and chances. Further, Muslims and Sikhs’ assertion of their religious identities are shaped not only by direct experiences of discrimination, but also an awareness of the broader socio-political climate which situates their collective identities as under threat. This awareness undergirds a complex negotiation between blending in and standing out that embeds religious and racial meaning into visible and invisible religious symbols. Findings contribute insights into the racialization process by pointing to the critical role of religion for members of these minority traditions when negotiating racialized experiences.
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    Polarized Scientists? Exploring Political Differences about Religion and Science among U.S. Biologists and Physicists
    (Wiley, 2021) Mehta, Sharan Kaur; Thomson, Robert A. Jr.; Ecklund, Elaine Howard
    From the Texas textbook debate to the March for Science, visible displays of activism illuminate how deeply politicized the science‐religion interface has become. However, little is known about the extent to which scientists’ attitudes about science and religion are politicized. Using original survey data from 1,989 U.S. academic biologists and physicists, we examine the degree to which political views shape how scientists perceive the relationship between religion and science, religious authority, their personal religious identity, and views on dominant scientific theories. Findings suggest that, indeed, the science‐religion interface holds political meaning for scientists, but in different ways across the political spectrum. Specifically, for politically liberal scientists, atheism and the conflict narrative are particularly politicized belief structures, while politically conservative scientists emphasize religious identity to distinguish themselves from political liberals. Findings point to the critical role of politics in shaping scientists’ attitudes and identities, which may have implications for the scientific enterprise, both at the lab bench and in the political sphere.