November 17, 2022 | 7:30 p.m. | Notre Dame Chapel, SJ1 Classrooms and Library Building
About the Lecture
Co-authors of the book None of the Above: Nonreligious Identity in the US and Canada, Dr. Thiessen and Dr. Wilkins-Laflamme will examine how nearly one-third of American and Canadian adults say they have no religion. They will explore questions of who these individuals are; why and where this population has grown; how religious “nones” in the United States and Canada compare; the dynamics of being a religious none in contemporary America and Canada, and how this willful distance from organized religion impacts other aspects of daily and social life. To answer these questions, our lecturers will highlight aspects of their study which turns to high-quality survey and interview data positioned against the backdrop of three theoretical frameworks in the field of sociology of religion: stages of decline, individualization and spiritualization, as well as polarization.
About the Speakers
Dr. Joel Thiessen
Joel Thiessen is Professor of Sociology, Director of the Flourishing Congregations Institute, and Chair of the Social Sciences Department at Ambrose University in Calgary, Alberta. He has published several books, including Signs of Life: Catholic, Mainline, and Conservative Protestant Congregations in Canada (2021, with Bill McAlpine, Keith Walker, and Arch Chee Keen Wong), None of the Above: Nonreligious Identity in the US and Canada (2020, with Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme), and The Millennial Mosaic: How Pluralism and Choice are Shaping Canadian Youth and the Future of Canada (2019, with Reginald Bibby and Monetta Bailey). His current research centers on Catholic and Protestant congregations in Canada. He regularly speaks with denominational and church leaders across North America. For more information, visit www.joelthiessen.ca.
Dr. Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme
Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo. She completed her DPhil (PhD equivalent) in sociology at the University of Oxford in 2015. Her research interests include quantitative methods, sociology of religion, immigration and ethnicity, and political sociology. Her books include 1) None of the Above: Nonreligious Identity in the US and Canada, co-authored with Joel Thiessen and published in 2020 with New York University Press; 2) Religion at the Edge: Nature, Spirituality, and Secularity in the Pacific Northwest, co-edited with Paul Bramadat and Patricia Killen and published in 2022 with British Columbia University Press; and 3) Religion, Spirituality and Secularity among Millennials: The Generation Shaping American and Canadian Trends, published in 2022 with Routledge.
Admission is free, but please REGISTER as seating is limited. Tickets are not required at the door.