Curriculum Vitae

Elizabeth A. Williamson

Department of Social Sciences and Society of Fellows, University of Chicago 5845 S Ellis Ave., Rm. 404 Gates-Blake Chicago, IL 60637 Phone: (773) 702-3319 Fax: (773) 834-0493 Email: williamsone at uchicago dot edu Webpage: http://home.uchicago.edu/~williamsone/Home_page.html

EMPLOYMENT

2012-present Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences Division Harper-Schmidt Fellow, Society of Fellows University of Chicago

EDUCATION

2012 Ph.D., Sociology Rutgers University Dissertation title: Fostering Flexibility: Emotions, Power, and Framing Processes in a Socio-Religious Movement. Committee: Benjamin Zablocki (Chair), Karen Cerulo, John Levi Martin, Ann Mische.

2003 M.A., Sociology University of Virginia Thesis title: Direct Selling Organization Change: A Boolean Analysis of Ideology and Other Factors, Chair: Steve Nock.

2000 A.B., Sociology B.S., Psychology University of Georgia Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa

PUBLICATIONS

Articles and Book Chapters Elizabeth Williamson. 2011. “The Magic of Multiple Emotions: The Relationship Between Emotional Intensity Shifts and Recruiting/Training Event Reattendance.” Sociological Forum 26, vol. 1: 45-70. This paper received an Honorable Mention for the Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section Graduate Student Paper Award in 2011.

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W. Bradford Wilcox and Elizabeth Williamson. 2006. "The Cultural Contradictions of Mainline Family Ideology and Practice." Pp. 37-55 in American Religions and the Family: How Faith Traditions Cope with Modernization and Democracy. Edited by Don S. Browning and David A. Clairmont (New York: Columbia University Press).

Book Reviews Elizabeth Williamson. 2013. “The American Soul Rush: Esalen and the Rise of Spiritual Privilege by Marion Goldman.” American Journal of Sociology Vol. 118, No. 6: 1723-1725.

Other publications 2012 Posted in the “Daily Disruption” section of the Mobilizing Ideas blog.

2005-2007 Co-author with various members of the Contexts Student Board of “Discoveries: New and Noteworthy Research.” Contexts, Vol. 6, No. 4: 5–9; Vol. 6, No. 2: 6– 10; Vol. 6, No. 1: 8–11; Vol. 5, No. 4: 8–12; Vol. 5, No. 3: 4–9; Vol. 5, No. 2: 5– 10; Vol. 4, No. 4: 8–14; and Vol. 4, No. 3: 8–14.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Sociology of Emotions, Collective Behavior and Social Movements, Sociology of Religion, Sociology of the Body and Embodiment, Research Methods, Social Psychology, Theory, Sociology of Organizations, Gender Stratification, and Sociology of Culture.

BOOK MANUSCRIPT IN PROGRESS

The Reclaiming movement combines feminist, Earth-based, NeoPagan religion with progressive social activism and is known for running week-long “Intensive” retreat events (also known as Witchcamps) in secluded, usually rural, campground settings. These research sites enable me to study emotion dynamics in situ, refine my own theories about particular emotions and emotion patterns, and test hypotheses about how factors such as combinations of emotions, unexpected bodily sensations and holistic shifts in cognitions, emotions, and sensations within and outside of the emotionally intense group rituals affect commitment outcomes. I was fortunate enough to be allowed full access to both the Intensives themselves as well as meetings held by the event organizers of the Mid-Atlantic community. This level of trust takes years to build, and has enabled me to study my own reactions to rituals, take “advanced” roles at camp, and be immersed in an environment where both leaders and average campers openly reflect about their own emotions as well as what did and did not work within the event. Reclaiming is a rare case of a new religious movement that attempts to foster religious and activist commitments while giving them each equal emphasis and recruiting people into “magical activism.” The Intensives focus around emotionally provocative myths, which help socialize participants into thinking, emoting, and perceiving the world in flexible, paradoxical ways. Reclaiming has created what I refer to as an emotion counterculture, which makes space for ecstatic positive emotions as well as deep Jungian-style work with negative emotions and one’s “shadow” self. Both the emotion counterculture as a whole and some specific technologies for

2 running ritual and provoking intense emotions can be exported into other allied movements as well as mainstream Western culture. Reclaiming in the twenty-first century is a resource-rich movement that is part of a web-like network of progressive groups and the movement survives in spite of using a less demanding “and-logic” which lets participants identify as “Reclaiming and” other groups rather than only “Reclaiming or” another religious or activist organization. I argue that Reclaiming has a strong potential to influence both dominant American culture and groups such as Occupy in the decades to come because Reclaiming has crafted a sustainable emotion counterculture that does not place a heavy emphasis on either happiness or a hope-despair cycle. This is a resource which should not be underestimated as scholars continue to bring emotions and culture back into sociological studies of social and religious movements. The book Witches for a Week: Crafting an Emotion Counterculture uses data from an American variant of feminist Witchcraft, which emerged out of British Traditional Witchcraft starting in the 1960s; the magical socialization processes I focus on in the book have a great degree of overlap with those of other occultists and magicians as well as Druids, Heathens, Asatruar, and Neo-Pagans generally. Reclaiming specifically, and groups with magical worldviews generally, are sociologically rich cases of innovation at the margins of mainstream society that are critical for advancing our theorizing about sustainable lifestyles, emotion cultures, and self-transformations that operate on varied timelines: days, weeks, years, and decades. “Magical activism” is tough sell both because the religious beliefs are esoteric and stigmatized and because of the arguably high potential for cognitive, emotional, and somatic burnout from dividing one’s attention between religion and activism. Reclaiming has sustained itself for several decades and expanded throughout North America into Europe and Australia in spite of these challenges and the movement’s less demanding “and-logic”, which should interest anyone concerned with studying social and religious movements and (formal) organizations. Fully internalizing a mature form of the movement’s perspective often involves becoming more cognitively, emotionally, and perceptually flexible as a person makes repeated revisions to one’s own self and notions of what constitutes “magic” and “activism.” This persuasive process may not be pretty- Reclaiming Intensives encourage shadow work that stirs up an array of negative emotions- but I think there are valuable lessons to be learned about conceptualizing emotions and emotional fluctuations over time from precisely this kind of case. The Reclaiming Intensives are crucibles for cognitive, emotional, and somatic-sensory work done outside of everyday life during retreats like pilgrimages. Both leaders and average campers at the Intensives openly reflect about their successes and failures at creating rituals, and this reflexivity among the participants themselves provided an additional layer of information about the Intensives. The research design had four components: 1) a three year longitudinal study (2004-2006) of two annual Intensive events held in different locations in the Eastern United States, 2) a cross- sectional comparison of data gathered during 2007 at four recruiting and training events in different regions of the United States and Canada, 3) supplementary data collected at quarterly organizer meetings of one group as well as observations from the Inter-Reclaiming gatherings and business meetings held in 2008 and 2010, and 4) a follow-up study conducted in 2014 at the original field site: Mid-Atlantic “Spiralheart” Intensive studied between 2004-6. The longitudinal part of the design incorporates data from field observations and in-depth interviews on emotion dynamics and organizational context as well as representative survey data from approximately two hundred participants at the two events in the longitudinal part of the study. The cross- sectional and 2014 data were collected using participant observation and in-depth interviews.

3 My book project draws on concepts and theories from several different sociological subfields to make strategic sense of the work Reclaiming tries to accomplish during the “Intensive” recruiting and training events. This work can be broadly construed as mixing 1) re-enchantment of everyday life; 2) healing the trauma from both modern life and one’s religious and activist efforts; and 3) resocialization into forms of thinking feeling and sensing compatible with the movement’s core values and likely to enhance a sustainable lifestyle. The Intensives make the participants perceive that magic is happening by provoking intense positive and intense negative emotions as well as combinations of emotions using a variety of ritual technologies. I bring together work on frames and framing processes, recruitment or conversion and commitment to movements, emotions, empowerment, and structural arrangements within small groups, and persuasive processes involving cognitions, emotions, and the body in order to examine the extent to which the Intensives are successful at getting people recruited and committed to Reclaiming specifically or magic and activism generally. The analysis is process-oriented. I argue that we need to develop a multifaceted analysis focused on power structures and empowering self- transformations, the interplay of movement-specific and general framing processes, and the interaction between emotional, somatic, and cognitive states. This in turn will provide substantive insight into the question of who gets involved with the Intensives and whether this involvement is sustained over time.

ARTICLES IN PROGRESS

Elizabeth Williamson. “Understanding Persuasive Processes: A Discussion of Glamour and Charisma as Concepts.” Under Review.

Elizabeth Williamson. “Turns Rather Than Pivots: Recycling as an Alternative Metaphor for Self-transformation Processes Involving Flexibility.” In preparation.

Elizabeth Williamson. “An Analysis of Emotion Chains Perceived by Individuals and Groups at Reclaiming Intensive Recruiting and Training Events.” In preparation.

Elizabeth Williamson. “Reaping What They Sowed? Residency in Strict Communes, Anomalous Experiences, and Meditation Practices: A Longitudinal Analysis.” In preparation.

AWARDS AND HONORS National

2012 SAGE Teaching Innovations & Professional Development Award, American Sociological Association (ASA) Section on Teaching and Learning.

2011 American Sociological Association, Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section, Honorable Mention for Graduate Student Paper Award. Paper: "The Magic of Multiple Emotions: The Relationship Between Emotional Intensity Shifts and Recruiting/Training Event Reattendance."

4 2007-8 National Science Foundation, Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant. Funded travel and research expenses to four different sites for cross-sectional segment of dissertation fieldwork.

Rutgers University

2011-2012 University & Louis Bevier Dissertation Fellow. The University & Louis Bevier Dissertation Fellowship carries a stipend of $19,000 for the academic year. This is a highly competitive writing year fellowship awarded to a small group of Rutgers graduate students who are judged to have the most promising dissertation projects as well as excellent research agendas. 2010 Rutgers University, Dissertation Teaching Fellowship. Funded development of an upper-level undergraduate class (during Summer 2010) based on the instructor’s dissertation. The title for the course is “Emotions and Emotion Dynamics Within and Beyond the Self.” The class was taught in Spring 2011.

2009-2010 Rutgers University, Faculty Resource Development Grant. Funded development of a sociology course for hybrid delivery during Summer Session in 2010. 2009 Harry C. Bredemeier Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Sociology Department, Rutgers University. The award recognizes excellence in undergraduate classroom instruction over the student’s entire Rutgers career. 2006 Qualifying paper: "Mobilizing Emotions at a Social Movement Recruiting and Training Event." Rated Exceptional by Benjamin Zablocki and Ann Mische, Rutgers University. Qualifying papers are used instead of comprehensive exams in the Rutgers Sociology department.

2005 Rutgers University, Graduate School Special Opportunities Award. Funded dissertation travel during the summer and survey expenses in the fall.

2005 Qualifying paper: "Clarifying Gender Stratification Theory: The Importance of Religion and Ideology.” Rated Exceptional and High Pass, by Benjamin Zablocki and Sarah Rosenfield, Rutgers University. Qualifying papers are used instead of comprehensive exams in the Rutgers Sociology department. 2000-2003 University of Virginia, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Fellowship.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

2004-2012 Research Assistant, Rutgers University, Department of Sociology, Benjamin Zablocki. Assisted with data cleaning and analysis for the Urban Communes Project data set. Funded as a GA from 2006-2007 by a grant from the Templeton Foundation for research related to spiritual capital.

5 2003-2004 Research Assistant, Rutgers University, Department of Sociology, Allan Horwitz. Assisted with data collection and fact-checking for the book, The Loss of Sadness (Oxford University Press 2007).

2002-2003 Research Assistant, University of Virginia, Department of Sociology, W. Bradford Wilcox. Assisted with statistics, tables, and fact-checking for the book Soft Patriarchs and New Men: How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands (University of Chicago Press 2004).

2001 Research assistant, University of Virginia, Curry School of Education, Fredrick Hess. Assisted with tables and data collection for the book, Common Sense School Reform (Palgrave MacMillan 2004).

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Positions Held 2012-present Collegiate Assistant Professor, University of Chicago, Social Sciences Division.

2004-2012 Instructor, Rutgers University, Department of Sociology.

2008-2010 Instructor, Rutgers University, Department of English.

2000-2003 Teaching Assistant, University of Virginia, Department of Sociology.

Courses Taught Introduction to Sociology (lecture course for 80-110 students; independently designed and taught) (2 courses, Rutgers University Department of Sociology).

Introduction to Sociology (6 week summer session format; independently designed and taught) (2 courses, Rutgers University Department of Sociology).

Introduction to Sociology hybrid (1/2 in class, 1/2 online using Ecollege course management system; independently designed and taught) (3 courses, Rutgers University Department of Sociology).

Expository Writing (writing intensive freshman course for 22 students; independently designed and taught) (4 courses, Rutgers University Department of English).

Criminology (TA) (3 sections, University of Virginia Department of Sociology).

Social Science Inquiry*, Fall Quarter (ethnography final project; independently designed and taught) (6 courses, University of Chicago Social Sciences Division).

6 Social Science Inquiry*, Winter Quarter (basic statistics and 80-minute lab course; independently designed and taught) (6 courses, University of Chicago Social Sciences Division).

Social Science Inquiry*, Spring Quarter (research methods with large-N survey data analysis capstone paper project; independently designed and taught) (6 courses, University of Chicago Social Sciences Division).

Introduction to Social Research (Methods) (independently designed and taught) (2 courses, Rutgers University Department of Sociology).

Introduction to Social Research (Methods) (TA for lab sessions) (6 sections, University of Virginia Department of Sociology).

Sociology Statistics (Basic Statistics) (TA for lab sessions) (4 sections, University of Virginia Department of Sociology).

Contemporary Sociological Theory (independently designed and taught) (2 courses, Rutgers University Department of Sociology).

Sociology of Emotions and Emotion Dynamics (independently designed and taught) (1 course, Rutgers University Department of Sociology).

Sociology of Emotions (independently designed and taught) (1 course, University of Chicago Department of Sociology).

Independent Study in Gender Stratification (independently designed and taught) (1 course, Rutgers University Department of Sociology).

*I have the distinction of being the first and only Harper Fellow to teach in the Social Science Inquiry Core sequence. In addition to supervising three TAs/Interns during Winter 2015 and one TA/Intern in Spring 2015, I have had the unusual responsibility of revising the content of the 3- course sequence to smooth the transitions between each quarter. I also created a full set of online course shells in the Chalk/Blackboard course management system including paper submission links, assignment grading rubrics, lab teaching resources, and quizzes.

TEACHING INTERESTS (in alphabetical order)

Collective Behavior and Social Movements, Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory, Ethnography, Introduction to Sociology, Qualitative Methods, Research Methods, Social Psychology, Sociology of Emotions, Sociology of Religion, Statistics (undergraduate)

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

7 National 2008-present Ad Hoc or Occasional Reviewer for: Mobilization, Qualitative Sociology, Sociological Forum, Sociology of Religion and Symbolic Interaction.

2015 Panel Presider, Social Movements Roundtable, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting.

2009 Panel Presider, Culture Roundtable, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting.

2008 Panel Presider, Student Forum Roundtable, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting.

2007 Panel Presider, Paper session, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Annual Meeting.

2004-2007 Member of Student Board, Contexts magazine. Duties included reviewing articles, and writing and peer-editing 400-word “Discovery” research summaries for the “Discoveries: New and Noteworthy Research” section.

Departmental

University of Chicago Society of Fellows

2015 Organizer, Society of Fellows Academic Job Market Small-Group Session. This event brought in UChicagoGRAD and Chicago Center for Teaching staff for a conversation with Fellows across the Humanities and Social Sciences about preparation for the academic job market.

2015-2016; Co-organizer, Bi-Weekly Junior Fellows Social Night. This event fosters 2013-2014 informal discussions of research and teaching between Junior Fellows from the humanities and social sciences.

Rutgers University

2013 Shared hybrid teaching materials with new instructors (Steve Grimes and Andrew Strofolino) and Sociology 101 E-College management system course shell with the undergraduate director, Paul McLean, for archival purposes.

2010 First-year student co-mentor for Joanne Chen.

2009 Invited speaker, Sociology department Proseminar, on the topic of “Applying for External Funding.” I discussed my experience with applying for the NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant in 2006-7.

8 2009 Co-organizer, Sociology Department Faculty-Student Ethnography Lunches.

2008-2009 Recruitment Committee to Develop Five-year Faculty Hiring Plan, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University.

2007 Presider and discussant, Paper session, Interdisciplinary Graduate Student conference on Constructing Knowledges, Rutgers University.

2006-2007 Organizer, Sociology Department faculty-student reading group, Rutgers University.

2006-2007 Volunteer, Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference on Constructing Knowledges, Rutgers University.

2004-2007 Liaison to Graduate Program Committee for Graduate Union of Sociology Students (GUSS), Rutgers University.

2002-2003 Member of Sociology Graduate Student Association (SGSA) professional development program committee, University of Virginia.

2000-2001 Co-representative for the Sociology Department, College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Student Council, University of Virginia.

COMPETITIVE SYMPOSIA AND MINI-CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION

2012 American Sociological Association pre-conference workshop on “Preparing Future Faculty,” hosted by the Section on Teaching and Learning in Sociology. Two-day mini-conference held in Denver, CO associated with the SAGE Teaching Innovations & Professional Development Award and the ASA Section on Teaching and Learning.

2011 “The Emotions Chains Concept and Work in Progress.” Second Annual Young Scholars in Social Movements Mini-conference, University of Notre Dame. This event included twelve young scholars selected competitively from around the country. Each individual presented work in progress at the event and received comments from senior scholars in the field who served as discussants.

After participating in the conference I was invited to serve as a Contributing Editor (CE) of the new Social Movements blog called Mobilizing Ideas. CEs make regular contributions to the filter blog section, “The Daily Disruption”. This was a one-year commitment.

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PARTICIPATION IN SCHOLARLY SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS

2014-present Social Theory and Evidence Workshop, University of Chicago.

2012-present Meetings of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts; Professionalization Series, University of Chicago.

2011-2012 Culture Workshop, Rutgers University.

2010-2011 Projectivity Working Group, Rutgers University.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

American Sociological Association Annual Meetings 2015 “Witches, Healers, Identity Blenders: Understanding the Movement Cross- Affiliations of Reclaiming Socio-Religious Movement Participants.”

2014 “Understanding Emotion, Embodiment, and Persuasive Processes: An Argument for Charisma and Sociological Glamour as Concepts.”

2010 “Turns Rather Than Pivots: Recycling as an Alternative Metaphor for Self- transformation Processes Involving Flexibility.”

2009 “Self Recycling as an Alternative Metaphor for Understanding a Hybrid Social and Religious Movement’s Self Transformation Processes.”

2008 “The Shape of Emotional Recruiting by a Progressive Movement and its Relationship to the Self: Arcs and Inclines Over the Course of a Week.”

2007 “Understanding Appeal: A Preliminary Discussion of Charisma and Glamour.”

2005 “Magic Happens: Emotion and Religion at a Social Movement Recruiting and Training Event.”

Association for the Sociology of Religion Annual Meeting 2009 “The Cowardly Lion Was onto Something: The Role of Courage in Recruitment to Reclaiming Tradition Witchcraft and Activism.”

Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting 2010 “Recycling as an Alternative Metaphor for Self Transformation Processes Involving Flexibility.”

2006 “Atheism and Cartoons: An Exploratory Analysis.”

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2005 “Clarifying Gender Stratification Theory: The Importance of Religion and Ideology.”

2004 “An Analysis of Internet Data on Women and Development for Muslim Nations.”

2003 “Gender Stratification Among People In Earth-based Religions: An Application of Blumberg and Eisler’s Theories.”

Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Annual Meeting 2007 “An Assessment of the Relationship Between Spiritual Capital, Anomalous Experiences, and Meditation Practices.”

2007 “Up, Down, and All Around: How Leaders in the Reclaiming Movement Negotiate Attributions of Glamour and Charisma.”

Southern Sociological Society Annual Meeting 2005 Co-authored with Cori Carfagno. “Sheep Go to Heaven: Goats Go to Hell: A Preliminary Analysis of Attitudes Toward Atheists in the U.S. and Canada.”

2002 “Replication, Fraud, and Parapsychology: An Extension of Work by Collins and Pinch.”

2001 “Tupperware Parties: A Suburban Ritual.”

Southeastern Undergraduate Sociology Symposium 2000 “Tupperware: Parties and Postmodernism.”

1999 “Cursillo: Social Movement, Sect, or Religious Movement.”

Weissbourd Conferences and Symposia, Society of Fellows, The University of Chicago

2015 “Healing Harder than Ever: The Emergence of a Formal Healing Ritual at the Spiralheart 2014 Witchcamp.” Weissbourd Fall Fellows Symposium.

2014 “(Dis)obedience, Ritual, and Movement Commitment in the 21st Century.” Conference theme was Paradoxes of Authority/The Authority of Paradox.

2013 “Exploring Emotion Patterns: The Emotion Shape and Emotion Chain Concepts.” Weissbourd Fall Fellows Symposium.

11 MEMBERSHIPS IN PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AND HONOR SOCIETIES

American Association of Public Opinion Researchers American Sociological Association Sections: Collective Behavior and Social Movements, Culture, Emotions, Religion, Social Psychology, Sociology of the Body, Teaching and Learning

Association for the Sociology of Religion Eastern Sociological Society Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Southern Sociological Society Alpha Kappa Delta, National Honor Society for Sociology American Psychological Association (1999-2002) Psi Chi, National Honor Society for Psychology (undergraduate) Phi Sigma Pi, Co-ed National Honor Fraternity (undergraduate)

REFERENCES

Benjamin Zablocki Ann Mische Dept. of Sociology, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies Rutgers University University of Notre Dame 26 Nichol Ave. New Brunswick, NJ 08901 111 Hesburgh Center, Notre Dame, IN 46556 phone: 732-991-0122 phone: 574-631-7760 email: [email protected] email: [email protected]

Karen Cerulo John Levi Martin Dept. of Sociology, Rutgers University Dept. of Sociology, University of Chicago 26 Nichol Ave. New Brunswick, NJ 08901 1126 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 phone: 908-591-4368 phone: 773-702-7098 email: [email protected] email: [email protected]

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