Gastón Espinosa, Ph.D.

Professor Gastón Espinosa is the Arthur V. Stoughton Professor of Religious Studies at Claremont McKenna College and was the 2016-2017 William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and Public Life in the Department of Politics at Princeton University.  He served two-terms as President of La Comunidad of Hispanic Scholars of Religion at the American Academy of Religion, two-terms on the American Academy of Religion Committee on Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Professions (CREM), and was named an National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the NHC Institute for Advanced Studies in Raleigh-Durham.  He served as project manager and director of research of $1.3 million The Pew Charitable Trusts Hispanic Churches in American Public Life study.  Since 1998, he has directed 7 social science research surveys:  Latino Pentecostal and Methodist Women in Ministry Survey (1998, n = 200), Hispanic Churches in American Public Life National Survey (2000, n = 2,310), Latino Religious Leaders Survey (2001, n = ), Latino Civic Leaders Survey (2001, n = ), Latino Religions and Politics National Survey (2008, n = 1,102), Latino Religions and Politics National Survey 2012 (n = 1,000), and the Latino Muslims in American Public Life Survey (2014, n = 560).  Dr. Espinosa served as Chair of the Department of Religious Studies, Chair of the 5 Claremont Colleges Religious Studies Program, and Chair of the 7 Claremont Colleges Committee on Religious Affairs (CORA).  His work has appeared in many publications including, The Annals of American Political and Social Sciences, Social Compass: International Review of the Sociology of Religion, The Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Religion, and The Journal of the American Academy of Religion.  He is the author/editor of eight books, including Latino Pentecostals in America: Faith and Politics in Action (Harvard University Press), William J. Seymour and the Origins of Global Pentecostalism: A Biography and Documentary History (Duke University Press), Religion, Race, and Barack Obama's New Democratic Pluralism (Routledge Publishers), Religion, Race, and the American Presidency (Rowman & Littlefield), Religion and the American Presidency: George Washington to George W. Bush (Columbia University Press), Mexican American Religions: Spirituality, Activism and Culture (Duke University Press), Rethinking Latino/a Religions and Identity (Pilgrim Press), and U.S. Latino Religions and Civic Activism in the United States (Oxford University Press).  He is currently finishing Latino Religions and Politics in American Public Life and serves as co-editor of The Columbia University Press Series in Religion and Politics.  He loves teaching and current courses include: Religion, Race, and the Civil Rights Movement, Mystics, Prophets and Social Change, U.S. Latino Religions and Politics, Religion, Politics, and Global Violence, Religion and American Film, Visionaries, Prophets and Transformational Leadership, American Religious History, and Religion in Contemporary America.