I study internal structural commitments of communities and their members and how these relate to assumed cultural and theological norms that show up in social and ethical action. My research focuses closely on California and its culture, the prison and its governance structures, contemporary religion/theology, and on convergent points where these subjects intersect.

My scholarly work has been published in academic journals like Theology, International Journal of Public Theology, Political Theology, Religions, Ecclesial Practices, Journal of Theological Studies, and in journals of missiology and criminology. Contributions in California religion led to an election as recent President of the largest, most diverse regional body of the American Academy of Religion (Western Region), and my contributions to California studies led to an appointment as Editor of Boom California. My academic writing has been published by presses like Routledge and Bloomsbury, while my popular writing has appeared in the LA Times, SF Chronicle, Zocalo Public Square, Los Angeles Review of Books, HarperCollins, among others.

  • Visiting Fellow, UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

  • Faculty, UCLA Department of Sociology

 
 
Jason S. Sexton