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Dr. Louisa Roberts' research explores the direction in which our cultural beliefs and world views are moving -- especially on a global scale. She is currently completing a 3-article project on change over time in worldwide religiosity. This project examines international survey data to understand whether (as secularization theorists have proposed) modernization is indeed making people less religious. Louisa has also begun a new project on trends toward increased heterodoxy within today's transnational cultural and institutional environment. She wrote her dissertation, and has previously published, on the partial globalization of the acceptance of homosexuality. In other prior research, Louisa examined moral dimensions of the legal response to the Rwandan genocide. She also co-authored a book with Cambridge University Press on the historic use and evolution of left-wing anti-Semitic rhetoric in West European politics.
Global Sociology, Sociology of Religion, Statistical Research Methods, Medical Sociology, Courtship and Marriage, Introduction to Sociology
Understanding and explaining trends in worldwide religiosity, Globalization of culture and ideas
- Ph D, Sociology, Ohio State University, 2017
- MA, Social Sciences, University of Chicago, 2008
- BA, History and Biology, Wesleyan University, 2002
- Certificate of Completion, Human Research Course (Group 2 Social Behavioral Research Investigators and Key Personnel , 1 - Basic Course), Collaborative Institute Training Initiative (CITI)
- Certificate of Completion, Course on Online Teaching and Learning, USD Center for Teaching and Learning
- Travel Grant, College of Arts & Sciences, University of South Dakota, (2022 - 2022)
- Open Textbook Fellowship, Center for Teaching and Learning, University of South Dakota, (2022 - 2022)
- Understanding Change in Worldwide Religiosity using Cohort Analysis, Global Religion Research Initiative, University of Notre Dame, (2020 - 2021)
- Travel Grant, Global Religion Research Initiative, University of Notre Dame, (2020 - 2020)
- Mobile Computing Initiative Grant, Center for Teaching and Learning, University of South Dakota, (2020 - 2020)
- Changing Levels of Religiosity, Worldwide, Global Religion Research Initiative, University of Notre Dame, (2019 - 2019)
- Travel Grant, University of Notre Dame's Center for the Study of Religion and Society, (2019 - 2019)
- Course Design Fellowship, Center for Teaching and Learning, University of South Dakota, (2018 - 2018)
Citations listed below are presented in a standardized, modified format for display purposes only. They do not necessarily reflect the preferred style and conventions of the faculty member or discipline.
- Roberts, Louisa. "Do the Three Modern Social Conditions—High Existential Security, Education, and Urbanicity—Really Make People Less Religious? A Worldwide Analysis, 1989–2020" (forthcoming).
- Roberts, Louisa. "How Exceptional is the West? An Investigation of Worldwide Trends in Societal-Average Levels of Religiosity, 1981-2020". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2023.
- Roberts, Louisa, Nyseth Brehm, Hollie, Uggen, Christopher, and Nikuze, Donatien. "We Came to Realize We Are Judges: The Moral Careers of Elected Lay Jurists in Rwanda's Gacaca Courts", 443-463. Vol. 14, Iss. 3 International Journal of Transitional Justice, 2020.
- Roberts, Louisa. "Attitudes toward Gay and Lesbian People Have Grown More Accepting around the World. Why? And What Obstacles Remain?". Vol. Special Feature The Society Pages, 2019.
- Roberts, Louisa. "Changing Worldwide Attitudes toward Homosexuality: The Influence of Global and Region-Specific Cultures, 1981–2012", 114-131. Vol. 80 Social Science Research, 2019.
- Roberts, Louisa. "Studying the Globalization of Morality", 5-6. Vol. 9 Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity Forum: The Newsletter of the AMSS Section of the American Sociological Association, 2018.
- Roberts, Louisa, and Brustein, William I.. The Socialism of Fools? Leftist Origins on Modern Anti-Semitism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
- Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award, Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity Section of the American Sociological Association, 2017
- Graduate Student Paper Award, Human Rights Section of the American Sociological Association, 2016
- Outstanding Doctoral Student Award, Department of Sociology, Ohio State University, 2012
- Roberts, Louisa, Is the West Exceptional in Its Experience of Generation-on-Generation Religious Decline? A Worldwide, Longitudinal Analysis of Generational Patterns in Religiosity, 1981-2020. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, Montreal, Canada. (August 10, 2024)
- Roberts, Louisa, Is the West Exceptional in Experiencing Religious Decline? Worldwide Trends and Generational Patterns in Religiosity, 1981-2020. Presented at the Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association, Los Angeles. (August 06, 2022)
- Roberts, Louisa, Do Modern Conditions Cause Secularization? An Analysis of Trends in and Influences on Worldwide Religiosity, 1981-2014. Presented at the Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association, Online Presentation. (August 10, 2021)
- Roberts, Louisa, Do Modern Social Conditions Really Make People Less Religious? An Analysis of Worldwide Data, 1981-2014. Presented at the Global Religion Research Initiative Web Forum (May 2021)
- Roberts, Louisa, Is Religious Decline Confined to the West? An Analysis of Worldwide Change in Average Levels of Religiosity and Variation across Generations, 1981-2020. Presented at the Global Religion Research Initiative Web Forum (May 2021)
- Roberts, Louisa, Is Religious Decline Confined to the West? An Analysis of Worldwide Change in Average Levels of Religiosity and Variation across Generations, 1981-2020. Presented at the Second Annual Social Science Interdisciplinary Consortium (SSIC) Conference, Vermillion, SD. (April 2021)
- Roberts, Louisa, Do Modern Social Conditions Really Make People Less Religious? An Analysis of Worldwide Data, 1981-2014. Presented at the First Annual Social Science Interdisciplinary Consortium (SSIC) Conference, online (due to covid). (December 2020)
- Roberts, Louisa, Do Modern Social Conditions Cause Secularization? An Analysis of Trends in and Influences on Worldwide Religiosity, 1981-2014. Presented at the Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association (Cancelled Due to Covid-19) (August 11, 2020)
- Roberts, Louisa, Do Modern Social Conditions Reduce Religiosity, and Do They Do So Universally? An Examination of Trends in and Influences on Worldwide Religiosity, 1981-2014. Presented at the Research and Analysis in the Study of Religion (RASR) Workshop, Online Presentation. (March 2020)
- Roberts, Louisa, Is Cultural Globalization Shaping the Ideological Structure of Worldwide Attitudes? The Influence of Individualism as an Organizing Principle, 1994 to 2012. Presented at the Future of World Society Theory Mini-Conference, New York, NY. (August 09, 2019)
- Roberts, Louisa, Explaining Changing Levels of Religiosity, Worldwide: What Role for Wealth and Cultural Globalization?. Presented at the Younger Scholars in the Sociology of Religion Conference, South Bend, Indiana. (April 26, 2019)
- Roberts, Louisa, Global Policy Diffusion via Domestic Public Opinion? The Case of Same-Sex Unions and Anti-Discrimination Policy. Presented at the American Sociological Association (ASA) Annual Meeting Pre-Conference: The Sociology of International Organizations, Philadelphia, PA. (August 10, 2018)
- Roberts, Louisa, Changing Global Attitudes toward Homosexuality: The Influence of Global and Region-Specific Cultures, 1981-2012. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Seattle. (August 2016)
- Roberts, Louisa, and Brustein, William I., Left-Wing Anti-Semitism and the Psychology of the Conspiracy Theory: Britain 1884-1902. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Seattle. (August 2016)
- Roberts, Louisa, Changing Global Attitudes toward Homosexuality. Presented at the Future of World Society Theory Mini-Conference, Seattle. (August 2016)
- Roberts, Louisa, and Brustein, William I., Left-Wing Anti-Semitism and the Psychology of the Conspiracy Theory: Britain 1884-1902. Presented at the 23rd International Conference of Europeanists, Philadephia. (April 2016)
- Roberts, Louisa, and Brustein, William I., The Socialism of Fools? Leftist Origins of Modern Anti-Semitism. Presented at the Public Presentation at Barnes & Noble, Columbus, OH. (September 2015)
- Roberts, Louisa, Local Society as Global Cultural Conduit? The Global Diffusion of Gay-Rights Policies. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago. (August 2015)
- Swindle, Jeffrey, Roberts, Louisa, Hauschildt, Katrina, and Brown, Taylor, The Effect of the Global Campaign against Intimate Partner Violence on Individuals’ Attitudes. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago. (August 2015)
- Roberts, Louisa, The Socialism of Fools? Leftist Origins of Modern Anti-Semitism. Presented at the Revisiting Remaking Modernity Miniconference, Chicago. (August 2015)
- Roberts, Louisa, The Socialism of Fools? Leftist Origins of Modern Anti-Semitism. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco. (August 2014)
- Roberts, Louisa, At the Margins of the World Polity: Disconnect between Globalized Laws and Local Values. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York, NY. (August 2013)
- Roberts, Louisa, At the Margins of the World Polity. Presented at the Developmental Idealism Research Workshop, Ann Arbor, MI. (December 2012)
- Brustein, William I., and Roberts, Louisa, Leftist Anti-Semitism and the Influence of Nationalistic Thought in France, Germany, and Britain from the French Revolution to World War II. Presented at the Conference on Changing Patterns of Nationalism, Ethnocentrism, and Immigrant Accommodation in the 21st Century, Miami, FL. (March 2012)
- Roberts, Louisa, Normative Disconnect in the World Polity? Investigating the Disconnect between Globalized Laws and Local Values. Presented at the Political Economy Working Group, Columbus, OH. (February 2012)
- Roberts, Louisa, Moral Dissonance in the World Polity: The Disconnect between What People around the World Believe and the Laws by which They Are Governed. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Las Vegas. (August 2011)
- Brustein, William I., and Roberts, Louisa, The Socialism of Fools? Leftist Origins of Modern Anti-Semitism. Presented at the Resurgent Antisemitism, Global Perspectives: An International Scholars Conference, Bloomington, IN. (April 2011)
- Roberts, Louisa, The Impact of Secularization on Electoral Support for Britain’s Conservative Party. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Atlanta. (August 2010)
- Roberts, Louisa, The Decline of Support for Britain’s Conservative Party between 1964 and 2005: Was Decreasing Religiosity a Contributing Factor?. Presented at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society and the North Central Sociological Association, Chicago. (March 2010)
