Overview

Joseph O. Baker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at East Tennessee State University, and the editor of Sociology of Religion.

His primary areas of research are religion, deviance, and American politics. Much of his work uses quantitative analysis, but he has also extensively used qualitative methods including ethnography, interviews, and content analysis for research. 

He has published research on a wide range of topics, including but not limited to intensive religious experiences, different types of secularity (e.g., atheism), religious group dynamics, paranormal subcultures, public views of science and religion, beliefs about supernatural evil, Christian nationalism, xenophobia, and penal populism. 

He is the author of four books: American Secularism (NYU Press, 2015), Paranormal America (NYU Press, second edition 2017), Deviance Management: Insiders, Outsiders, Hiders, and Drifters (University of California Press, 2019), and Fear Itself: The Causes and Consequences of Fear in America (NYU Press, 2020).