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My research explores how different systems, institutions, and organizations trying to reduce inequality might actually perpetuate it. In particular, I focus on the cultural processes that create, legitimate, and reproduce disparities in access to both material and symbolic resources. I have documented these processes in a variety of different contexts in my research, including disability assistance programs, social service organizations, scientific workplaces, and religious congregations. My research has been covered by The New York Times, The Associated Press, National Public Radio, BET, Religion News Service, and KMGH-TV Denver.

Research and Teaching Interests

• Social Inequality
• Urban Sociology
• Race and Racism
• Sociology of Religion
• Qualitative Research Methods
• Poverty

Selected Publications

Bolger, Daniel. 2024. “Getting Out and Giving Back: Repertoires of Destigmatization in the Private Social Safety Net.” Social Forces. Online First: .

Bolger, Daniel, and Esther Chan. 2024. “Unequal Returns? Exploring Racial Differences in the Mental Health Benefits of Religious Service Attendance.” Race and Social Problems. Online First: .

Jang-Trettien, Christine, and Daniel Bolger. 2024. “Racialized Administrative Burden in Disability Assistance Programs in Two Rural Counties.” Social Service Review 98(3): 446-481.

Bolger, Daniel, Andrea Henderson, Bianca Mabute-Louie, and Elaine Howard Ecklund. 2024. “The Intersections Among Race, Religion, and Science in Explaining Mental Health Conditions.” Socius. Available online: .

Bolger, Daniel, and Elaine Howard Ecklund. 2022. “Seeing is Achieving: Religion, Embodiment, and Explanations of Racial Inequality in STEM.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 45(1): 3-21.

Bolger, Daniel, and Pamela J. Prickett. 2021. “Where Would You Go? Race, Religion, and the Limits of Pastor Mental Health Care in Black and Latino Congregations.” Religions 12: 1062. Available online: .

Bolger, Daniel. 2021. “The Racial Politics of Place in Faith-Based Social Service Provision.” Social Problems 68(3): 535–551.

Bolger, Daniel. 2021. “The Collective Construction of Need: Group Styles of Determining Deservingness in Christian Social Service Agencies.” The Sociological Quarterly 63(1): 74-93.

Bolger, Daniel, and Elaine Howard Ecklund. 2018. “Whose Authority? Perceptions of Science Education in Black and Latino Churches.” Review of Religious Research 60(1): 49-70.

Bolger, Daniel, Cleve Tinsley IV, and Elaine Howard Ecklund. 2018. “Heaven and Health: Pastoral Perspectives on Faith and Medicine.” Review of Religious Research 60(3): 389–402.