How Americans (Don’t) Talk about Abortion with Tricia C. Bruce
FutureChurch welcomes sociologist, Dr. Tricia C. Bruce, Ph.D., to present on the findings of her qualitative study of American views on abortion. Using data from in-depth interviews with hundreds of everyday Americans, Dr. Bruce underscores the imperative of productive conversations about abortion in a post Roe v. Wade era. Her research exposes the limitations of available labels, assumptions, and boundaries separating Americans’ moral and legal views. Study insights help to forge pathways beyond polarization, making room for greater complexity, ambiguity, understanding, and cross-cutting collaborations. Learn more about and read the study here.
Tricia C. Bruce, Ph.D. (University of California Santa Barbara) is a sociologist of religion with expertise in organizational, attitudinal, and generational change. Her award-winning books and reports include Parish and Place: Making Room for Diversity in the American Catholic Church(Oxford University Press, 2017), Faithful Revolution: How Voice of the Faithful Is Changing the Church (Oxford University Press, 2011/2014), and How Americans Understand Abortion (also forthcoming as a book with the University of California Press). She is also coeditor of Polarization in the US Catholic Church (Liturgical Press, 2016) and American Parishes: Remaking Local Catholicism (Fordham University Press, 2019). Her writing has appeared in Time Magazine, Science Advances, The Wall Street Journal, the LA Times, Religions, Journal for the American Academy of Religion, Review of Religious Research, and more.
She is an affiliate of the University of Notre Dame’s Center for the Study of Religion and Society and Director of Springtide Research Institute. Previous appointments include tenured associate professor of sociology at Maryville College and research assistant professor with Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA). She serves as President-Elect for the Association for the Sociology of Religion and as Past-Chair of the American Sociological Association Religion Section.
