Fame. Money. Power.
These self-serving desires lead to inequality, injustice, and oppression.
Compassion. Gratitude. Awe.
These self-transcendent emotions lead to community, friendship, and romance—when we actively engage life in cooperation with others.
To understand the things that unite us with people and with nature, and also the things that divide us over and against each other, I study social character, sociocultural history, and religion.
My current project is a book under contract with Lexington.
Title: American White Supremacy and the Battles Against It
Blurb: Examines the sociohistorical record to establish a political-cultural history of white supremacist backlash against progressive social change. Although each historical moment featured outlandish claims of conspiratorial racial replacement through pedophilia, rape, and cannibalism, I use recent empirical research to argue that present-day claims have moved from the margins to the mainstream due to a shift from old-fashioned authoritarianism to loose affiliations of Dark Triad subcultures.
