Braunstein, Ruth. 2024. "Toward a Cultural Sociology of Taxation." Socio-Economic Review, 22(2): 931–952. 

​Braunstein, Ruth, 2022. "A Theory of Political Backlash: Assessing the Religious Right’s Effects on the Religious Field." Sociology of Religion. 83(3): 293–323.​

Winner of the Distinguished Article Award from the American Sociological Association Section on the Sociology of Religion

Winner of the Distinguished Article Award Honorable Mention from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion

Related writing: "The backlash against rightwing evangelicals is reshaping American politics and faith," by Ruth Braunstein, The Guardian

Press coverage: 

"Ahead of the Trend: Scholar: America is still reacting to the religious right, in more ways than one," by Jack Jenkins, RNS

"Opinion: This religious season reminds us of faith’s liberating promise," by E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post.

Listen to a podcast about this research at Sociology of Religion Podcasts.​

Braunstein, Ruth, Andrew Whitehead, and Ryan Burge. 2021. “Religion, Politics, and Public Funding for Abortion.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 61(1): 230-41.

Perry, Samuel L., Ruth Braunstein, Philip S. Gorski, Joshua B. Grubbs. 2021. “Historical Fundamentalism? Christian Nationalism and Ignorance about Religion in American Political History.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 61(1): 21-40.

Press coverage: "Ignorance about religion in American political history linked to support for Christian nationalism," by Eric W. Dolan, PsyPost.

Braunstein, Ruth. 2021. “The ‘Right’ History: Religion, Race, and Nostalgic Stories of Christian America.” Religions 12(2): 95.

Press coverage: "The MAGA Formula Is Getting Darker and Darker," by Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times.

Listen to a podcast about this research at Straight White American Jesus ("The Nostalgic Myths that Drive MAGA Nation with Dr. Ruth Braunstein") 

Baker, Joseph O., Gerardo Martí, Ruth Braunstein, Andrew L Whitehead, Grace Yukich. 2020. “Editor’s Note: Religion in the Age of Social Distancing: How COVID-19 Presents New Directions for Research.” Sociology of Religion 81(4): 357–370. 

Braunstein, Ruth, Todd Fuist, and Rhys Williams. 2019. Religion and progressive politics in the United States. Sociology Compass13(2): e12656.  

Braunstein, Ruth. 2018. Boundary-work and the demarcation of civil from uncivil protest in the United States: control, legitimacy, and political inequality. Theory and Society 47(5): 603-633.

Braunstein, Ruth. 2018. A (more) perfect union? Religion, politics, and competing stories of America. Sociology of Religion 79(2): 172–195.

Braunstein, Ruth. 2017. Muslims as outsiders, enemies and others: The 2016 presidential campaign and the politics of religious exclusion. American Journal of Cultural Sociology 5(3): 355-372.

Braunstein, Ruth and Malaena Taylor. 2017. Is the Tea Party a “religious” movement? Religiosity in the Tea Party versus the Religious Right. Sociology of Religion 78(1): 33-59. 

Braunstein, Ruth. 2015. The Tea Party goes to Washington: Mass demonstrations as performative and interactional processes.” Qualitative Sociology 38(4): 353-374. (Lead article).

Yukich, Grace and Ruth Braunstein. 2014. Encounters at the religious edge: Variation in religious expression across interfaith advocacy and social movement spaces. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 53(4): 791-807.

Braunstein, Ruth, Brad R. Fulton, and Richard L. Wood. 2014. The role of bridging cultural practices in racially and socioeconomically diverse civic organizations. American Sociological Review 79(4): 705-25. 

Winner of the Clifford Geertz Best Article Award from the American Sociological Association Section on the Sociology of Culture 

Winner of the Dennis Gouran Research Award from the Group Communication Division of the National Communication Association

Reviewed by The Society Pages and Work in Progress (blog of the American Sociological Association's Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section)

Read about this research at UConn Today, New York Magazine's Science of Us, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, the Deseret News, Business Standard, the Kansas City Star, Psych Central News, Religion News Service, and Yahoo!News India. 

Listen to a podcast about this research. (Also available at the SAGE Sociology iTunes channel)

Braunstein, Ruth. 2012. Storytelling in liberal religious advocacy. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 51(1):110-127.

Winner of Graduate Student Paper Award Honorable Mention from the American Sociological Association Section on the Sociology of Religion

Braunstein, Ruth. 2011. Who are ‘We the People’? Contexts, Spring 2011.

Manza, Jeff and Ruth Braunstein. 2008. Beyond the ballot box: Social groups and voting in democratic elections. Harvard International Review, 30(1): 40-43.