My research examines how our identities, experiences, and actions are shaped by the social and cultural contexts in which we find ourselves. Focusing on experiences of profound personal transformation, I seek to understand how individuals, with the help of others, go about discovering who they are and how they want to live — and then actively pursue this goal. I have found religion a particularly rich site for addressing these questions. During my graduate studies, I conducted fieldwork in three different religious communities – a Wiccan coven, an Integral Yoga studio, and a Catholic spiritual center – and have written about the role of narratives, aspirations, embodied practices, and emotion in the process of religious change and spiritual formation. This work has been published in Sociological Forum, Religions, and Qualitative Sociology. I am currently working on a book manuscript examining the intersections between apprenticeship (learning to practice) and becoming (spiritual formation) at a Catholic prayer house and an Integral Yoga studio.

My second major research project shifts the empirical focus from religious to secular sites for self-exploration and personal discovery using the case of American gap year programs. As gap years – a year “off” between high school and college to travel and/or work – increase in popularity among college-bound young adults, a field of organizational providers has also emerged, each offering structured programs for participants that include some combination of international travel, homestays with local families, language classes, and internship or volunteer opportunities. These programs are marketed by organizations and described by participants as transformative experiences: students are fundamentally changed by their time abroad. My research examines how the process of self-discovery unfolds, and seeks to identify the key mechanisms – experiences, relationships, practices, organizational programs – that shape participants’ sense of personal transformation. This project has received funding from The Experience Project. Data collection is ongoing.