Wendy Cadge
Associate Professor of Sociology
email: wcadge@brandeis.edu
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Focus of Research Sociology of Religion, Culture, Health and Medicine, Immigration, Gender, Sexuality, Organizations, Research Methods. Education Ph.D., Department of Sociology, Princeton University, 2002 M.A., Department of Sociology, Princeton University, 2000 B.A., Religion, Sociology and Anth. , Swarthmore College, 1997 |
Wendy Cadge teaches and writes about religion, medicine, immigration and sexuality in the contemporary United States. Her first book, Heartwood: The First Generation of Theravada Buddhism in America (University of Chicago Press, 2005), examines how immigrant Buddhists from Thailand and mostly white convert Buddhists in the United States understand and practice Buddhism. She is currently writing her second book Paging God: Religion in the Halls of Medicine about the formal and informal presence of religion and spirituality in hospitals. The book draws from historical and policy documents as well as more than a hundred interviews she conducted with hospital chaplains, nurses, and physicians in large academic medical centers. This book complements articles Cadge has published about the prayers people write in hospital prayer books, medical studies of intercessory prayer, hospital chaplains, and how pediatric physicians respond to religion/spirituality in their work. She has also published articles about same-sex marriage, conflicts over homosexuality in mainline Protestant churches, religion and the nonprofit sector, religion and immigration, immigrants' religious organizations, immigrants in small cities, and other issues. A recent copy of her CV is here.
Recent News
Wendy Cadge writes a regular column for Religion Dispatches.
"Different health care reform: doctors trained to deal with patients about faith" Christian Science Monitor, January 5, 2010
"What doctors say about prayer requests" Chicago Tribune, December 22, 2009
"When asked to pray, what do doctors say?" LA Times Blog, December 16, 2009
"Zen and the Art of Hospital Care" New York Times, December 12, 2009
"Spirituality: Rx when medicine fails" Washington Post Blog, December 7, 2009
"Medicine and Spirituality" Boston Globe, November 30, 2009
"Why Do Pediatricians (Not) Ask About Religion?" Science and Religion, November 13, 2009
"Homosexuality in the Lutheran Church : Brotherly Love" The Economist, October 15, 2009
"Where medical, spiritual worlds meet at life's end" Baltimore Sun, Op-Ed, October 4, 2009
"Study process aided ELCA breakthrough" Christian Century, September 22, 2009
"Science, religion debated as evangelical takes top NIH post" USA Today, September 11, 2009
"Protestant churches shift slowly toward gay equality" Boston Globe, Op-Ed September 1, 2009
"Hospitals expanding duties of chaplains" Boston Globe, August 31, 2009
"Lutheran Group Eases Limits on Gay Clergy" New York Times, August 21, 2009
"Paging God: Religion in the Halls of Medicine" Harvard University Gazette, May 6, 2009
"What do prayer books written in hospital chapels reveal about us?" Boston Globe, January 26, 2009.
"What We Pray" Baltimore Sun, Op-Ed December 14, 2008
"If You Post It, They Will Pray" New York Times, November 28, 2008
"The Blame Game" Immanent Frame, November 14, 2008
"Docs not always comfortable with spiritual issues" Nashua Telegraph, July 6, 2008
"Hospital Chaplaincy Services Assessed by Brandeis" Medical News Today, June 19, 2008
"A Dose of God May Help Medicine" Science Daily, November 15, 2008
"God in the ICU: Health-care workers are all about science. Or are they?" Brandeis University Magazine, Summer 2007
"Scholar Pursues Heart of Religious Beliefs Across Cultural Institutions" Bowdoin College, January 20, 2006
Recent Publications
Book
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Heartwood: The First Generation of Theravada Buddhism in America. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press (2005). |
Selected Articles
Forthcoming. "Prayers in the Clinic: How Do Pediatricians and Pediatric Oncologists Respond?" with Elaine Howard Ecklund. Southern Medical Journal
Forthcoming as a Research Letter, "Physicians' Experiences with and Satisfaction with Chaplains: Results from a National Study" with George Fitchett, Farr Curlin, and Kenneth Rasinski. Archives of Internal Medicine
Forthcoming. "Teaching Graduate and Undergraduate Research Methods: A Multi-Pronged Departmental Initiative" with Sara Shostak, Jennifer Girouard, and David Cunningham. Teaching Sociology.
Forthcoming. "Religion, Spirituality, Health and Medicine: Sociological Intersections" with Brian Fair. Handbook of Medical Sociology. Chloe Byrd, Allan Fremont, Stefan Timmermans, and Peter Conrad, Eds. Vanderbilt University Press.
2009. "Religion and Spirituality: A Barrier and a Bridge in the Everyday Professional Work of Pediatric Physicians" with Elaine Howard Ecklund and Nicholas Short. Social Problems 56(4): 702-721.
2009. "Saying Your Prayers, Constructing Your Religions: Medical Studies of Intercessory Prayer." Journal of Religion 89: 299-327
2009. "Constructing American Muslim Identity: Tales of Two Clinics in Southern California" with Lance Laird. Muslim World 99: 270-293.
2009. Ciudad como Contexto" with Peggy Levitt, B. Nadya Jaworsky and Sara Curran. Número Monográfico: Religion y Migración; copublicación Les Cahiers Alhim y la Revista Migraciones, Universidad Paris 8-Universidad Pontificia Comillas.
2009. "Religion, Spirituality, and Health: An Institutional Approach." Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion. Peter Clarke Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 836-856.
2008. "Lost in Translation? Sociological Observations and Reflections on the Practice of Hospital Chaplaincy" with Raymond De Vries and Nancy Berlinger. The Hastings Center Report. 38(6):9-13.
2008. "Blessings, Strength, and Guidance: Prayer Frames in a Hospital Prayer Book" with M. Daglian. Poetics 36: 358-373.
2008. "The Spiritual and Religious Identities, Beliefs, and Practices of Academic Pediatricians in the United States" with Elizabeth Catlin, Elaine Howard Ecklund, Elizabeth A. Gage, and Angelika Annette Zolfrank. Academic Medicine. 83(12):1146-1152.
Comment: Curlin, F. 2008. "Commentary: A Case for Studying the Relationship Between Religion and the Practice of Medicine." Academic Medicine 83(12):1118-20.
2008. "De Facto Congregationalism and the Religious Organizations of Post-1965 Immigrants to the United States: A Revised Approach."Journal of the American Academy of Religion.76(2):344-374.
2008. “Hospital Chaplaincy in the United States: A National Overview“ with Jeremy Freese and Nicholas Christakis. Southern Medical Journal.101(6):626-630
2008. Facilitators and Advocates: How Mainline Protestant Clergy Respond to Homosexuality" with Christopher Wildeman. Sociological Perspectives. 51(3):587-603.
2008. "How Denominational Resources Influence Debates about Homosexuality in Mainline Protestant Congregations" with Laura Olson and Christopher Wildeman. Sociology of Religion. 69(2):187-207.
2007. "Immigration and Religion" with Elaine Howard Ecklund. Annual Review of Sociology. 33: 17.1-17.21
2007. "The Religious and Spiritual Beliefs and Practices of Academic Pediatric Oncologists in the United States" with Elaine Howard Ecklund, Elizabeth A. Gage, and Elizabeth A. Catlin. Journal of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology. 29(11):736-742.
2007. "Muslim Community-Based Health Organizations" with Lance Laird. Report to the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding and the Association of Muslim Health Professionals.
2007. "Reflections on Habits of the Heart, Buddhism in America, and Religious Individualism" Sociology of Religion. 68(2): 201-205.
2007. "Bridging the Denomination-Congregation Divide: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Congregations Respond to Homosexuality" with Heather Day and Christopher Wildemen. Review of Religious Research. 48(3): 245-259.
2007. "Early Factors Leading to College Graduation for Asians and Non-Asians in the United States" with Thomas Vartanian, Page Buck, and David Karen. Sociological Quarterly. 48:165-197.
2006. "Constructing Buddhism(s): Interreligious Dialogue and Religious Hybridity" with Courtney Bender. Sociology of Religion. 67(3):229-247.
2006. “Religion and the NonProfit Sector“ with Robert Wuthnow. Handbook of NonProfits. Edited by Walter Powell and Richard Steinberg. New Haven: Yale University Press. 485-505.
2006. "Presidential Address: On Being a Community of Scholars - Practicing the Study of Religion" with Nancy Ammerman, Omar McRoberts, Robert Woodberry, Milagros Pena. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 45(2): 137-148.
2006. "Religious Service Attendance Among Immigrants: Evidence from the New Immigrant Survey Pilot“ with Elaine Howard Ecklund." American Behavioral Scientist. 49(11): 1574-1595.
2006. "Religion and Public Opinion about Same-Sex Marriage" with Laura Olson and James Harrison. Social Science Quarterly. 87(2):340-360. (One of ten most downloaded articles from the SSQ webpage in 2006. Reprinted in Dulio, David, Erin O'Brien, and John S. Klemanski Eds. 2008. American Political Diversity. Longman Pub)
2006. "Ascription, Choice, and the Construction of Religious Identities in the Contemporary United States." With Lynn Davidman. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 45(1): 23-38.
2006. "Making Sense of Suffering and Death: How Health Care Providers’ Construct Meanings in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit." With Elizabeth A. Catlin. Journal of Religion and Health. 45:2.
2006. "Dialogue Across Differences: Mainline Protestant Congregations Talking about Homosexuality." Congregations. Alban Institute. Summer: 18-21.
2005. “Religions of Immigrants in the Mid-Atlantic States.” Religion in the Middle Atlantic States: Fount of Diversity. Edited by Randall Balmer and Mark Silk. AltaMira Press.
2005. "Thai Buddhism in America: A Historical and Contemporary Overview." With Sidhorn Sangdhanoo Contemporary Buddhism. 6(1).
2005. "Reconciling Congregations Bridging Gay and Straight Communities." Gay Religion. Edward R. Gray and Scott Thumma, Eds. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press. 31-46.
2005. "Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Buddhist Practitioners." Gay Religion. Edward R. Gray and Scott Thumma. Eds. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press. 139-152.
2004. "Buddhists and Buddhism in the United States: The Scope of Influence." With Robert Wuthnow. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 43(3): 361-378.
2004. "Gendered Religious Organizations: The Case of Theravada Buddhism in America." Gender and Society. 18(6), December 777-793.
2004. “Yoga and Rebirth in America: Asian Religions are Here to Stay.” With Courtney Bender. Contexts: Understanding People in Their Social Worlds. 3(1): 45-51.
2004. "Educational Opportunities for 'Boys and Girls' in Thailand." With Sara Curran, Chang Chung, and Anchalee Varangrat. Research in Sociology of Education 14: 59-102.
2003. "Arranged and Love Marriage in Kandy, Sri Lanka: Evidence from 1978 and 1998." with Kamala Liyanage and Nina Paynter. Pakistan Journal of Women's Studies: Alam-e-Niswan. 10(2): 229-240.
2003. "Homosexuality and the Natural, Social, and Behavioral Sciences." Background Paper for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's National Sexuality Study. (Reprinted as Homosexuality and the Social Sciences in Encyclopedia of Religion and Homosexuality. Jeffrey Siker Ed. 2006. Greenwood Press).
2002. "Talking about Homosexuality: The Views of Mainline Protestant Clergy." With Laura R. Olson. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 41(1): 153-167.
2002. "Conceptualizing Your Community-Based Learning Project: Decision Points for the Initial Stages of Project Design." With Marion Carter, Estella Rivero, and Sara Curran. Teaching Sociology. 30 (April): 158-173.
2002. "Vital Conflicts: The Mainline Protestant Denominations Debate Homosexuality." The Hand of God: Faith-Based Activism and the Public Role of Mainline Protestantism. Robert Wuthnow and John Evans, Eds. Berkeley: University of California Press. 265-286.
2001. “The Role of Religion in Public Conflicts Over the Arts in the Philadelphia Area, 1965-1997.” With Paul DiMaggio, Lynn Robinson, and Brian Steensland. Crossroads: Art and Religion in American Life. Edited by Alberta Arthurs & Glenn Wallach. New York: The New Press.