On Thursday, March 22, The University of Tampa will host a reading and reception, titled "Madalyn Murray O'Hair Would Not Have Been the Most Hated Person in America … If She Were a Man: Organized Secularism in the US," featuring Ryan Cragun, associate professor of sociology. The program, which is part of the University's UT Writes series, begins at 6 p.m. in the Macdonald-Kelce Library, AV Room 2. It is free and open to the public; refreshments will be served.
Cragun will read from
Organized Secularism in the United States: New Directions in Research, a new collection of essays about the rise and structure of organized secularism in the U.S. that he co-edited.
Cragun specializes in the sociological study of religion, focusing on Mormonism, the nonreligious and secularization. He is also the author of several books, including
What You Don't Know About Religion (but Should) and
How to Defeat Religion in 10 Easy Steps: A Toolkit for Secular Activists.
Cragun has twice received the Excellence in Research and Scholarship Award from the College of Social Sciences, Mathematics and Education at UT. He is a member of the American Sociological Association, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, the Mormon Social Science Association, the Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network and the Center for Atheist Research.
The event is sponsored by The Friends of the Macdonald-Kelce Library. For more information about the event, contact Leslie Vega, reference instruction librarian, at
lvega@ut.edu or (813) 257-3244.