Research
My scholarship broadly explores how public trauma challenges and (re)produces social and symbolic boundaries that structure cultural institutions. My current research looks at the social side of the climate crisis where I am investigating how exposure to severe weather shapes public opinion towards climate and environmental initiatives. My previous research has examined effects of COVID-19 on civic and social engagement, as well as how religion and spirituality influence civic and political engagement. I specialize in cultural studies of attitude change, social-psychological theories of risk perception, and frames of motivated reasoning. Additionally, I am a quantitative methodologist with experience producing novel nationally representative surveys with embedded experiments, as well as designing counterfactual frameworks for estimating causal effects. My pedagogy is student-centered meaning that is intended to maximize student potential in the classroom and beyond while also aiming to elevate voices among historically underrepresented students within higher education.
Education
Ph.D. University of Massachusetts, Boston, 2024
M.A. University of Massachusetts, Boston, 2020
B.A. University of North Florida, 2012
Courses Taught
- Introductory Sociology
- Social Statistics
- Social Research Methods
- Social Theory
- Environmental Sociology
- Special Topics: Sociology of Religion
Select Publications
Stewart, Evan, Katsyris Rivera-Kientz, and Timothy Dacey. 2024. “Mapping Racial and Ethnic Variation in Climate Belief Networks.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. doi: 10.1177/23326492241259404.
Stewart, Evan, Timothy Dacey, and Jaime Kucinskas. 2024. “Lagged Identities and the Underestimated Civic Significance of Spirituality” in The Public Significance of the Spiritual Turn, edited by Galen Watts and Dick Houtman. Columbia University Press: New York, NY.
Dacey, Timothy, and Evan Stewart. 2023. “The Green Elephants in the Room: Perceived Environmental Harm and Support for Regulation Among Republicans.” Sociological Inquiry 93(2):250–72. doi: 10.1111/soin.12511.