Penny Edgell is professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota (PhD, University of Chicago, 1995). A cultural sociologist, her research has focused on contemporary American religion, appearing in Congregations in Conflict (Cambridge University Press, 1999) and Religion and Family in a Changing Society (Princeton University Press, 2005), as well as American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Problems, Social Currents, the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and the Annual Review of Sociology. She has served as the chairperson of the Religion Section of the American Sociological Association and is currently the Associate Dean for Social Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota.