Samuel L. Perry
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology (primary)
Department of Religious Studies (core)
Department of Women & Gender Studies (affiliated)
University of Oklahoma
Samual CV
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Samuel L. Perry is an associate professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma. He is also core faculty in the Religious Studies Department and affiliated faculty in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department. He received his PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago in 2015. He also holds a Masters of Theology degree in New Testament Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary, where he graduated at the top of his class in 2008.
Dr. Perry’s research focuses on the interplay between religion and cultural power in the United States, often within the empirical contexts of race, politics, and sexuality. He is the author of nearly 90 peer-reviewed journal articles to date, including articles in Social Forces, Social Problems, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Social Science Research, and numerous other leading journals in the areas of religion, race, and sexuality. He is also the author of three books: Growing God’s Family: The Global Orphan Care Movement and the Limits of Evangelical Activism (NYU Press, 2017); Addicted to Lust: Pornography in the Lives of Conservative Protestants (Oxford University Press, 2019); and Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States (Oxford University Press, 2020; co-authored with Andrew Whitehead).
Professor Perry is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2020 Vice President for Research and Partnerships Award for Outstanding Research Impact and the 2018 Irene Rothbaum Outstanding Assistant Professor Award, both at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Perry’s work has also been recognized with distinguished article awards from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Association for the Sociology of Religion.
