Elaine Howard Ecklund

Ecklund received a B.S. in human development and an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Cornell University. Her research focuses on institutional change in the areas of religion, immigration, science, medicine, and gender. She has authored research articles and books with Oxford University Press,[2] a book with New York University Press, and a book with Brazos Press. In 2021, her book, co-authored with David R. Johnson, entitled Varieties of Atheism in Science, was published by Oxford University Press.

In 2006, Ecklund published Korean American Evangelicals: New Models for Civic Life, an examination of the civic narratives, practices, and identities of second-generation Korean American evangelicals.[3] The book looks at how Korean Americans use religion to negotiate civic responsibility and create racial and ethnic identity. The work compares the views and activities of second-generation Korean Americans in two different congregational settings: one ethnically Korean and the other multi-ethnic. It includes more than 100 in-depth interviews with Korean American members of these two congregations as well as seven other churches around the country. It also draws extensively on the secondary literature on immigrant religion, American civic life, and Korean American religion. The book was reviewed in several academic journals.[4]

Ecklund's completed research projects include the Religion among Academic Scientists (RAAS) study; the Religion, Immigration, Civic Engagement (RICE) study; the Perceptions of Women in Academic Science (PWAS) study; the Religious Understandings of Science (RUS) study; the Ethics among Scientists in International Context (EASIC) study; the Religion among Scientists in International Context (RASIC) study; the Religion, Inequality, and Science Education (RISE) study; and research on religion and medicine.

Ecklund's research project, Religion among Scientists in an International Context (RASIC), is the largest cross-national study of religion and spirituality among scientists. The project was funded by a multimillion-dollar grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation. The study began with a survey of biologists and physicists at different points in their careers at top universities and research institutes in France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States—national contexts that have very different approaches to the relationship between religious and state institutions, different levels of religiosity, and different commitments to scientific infrastructure—and was followed by qualitative interviews. The study surveyed 22,525 scientists, and 9,422 scientists responded to the survey; the study included qualitative interviews with 609 of these scientists. In 2016 Ecklund, along with co-authors, published "Religion among Scientists in International Context: A New Study of Scientists in Eight Regions" in the journal Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World.

Funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, the Ethics among Scientists in International Context (EASIC) study explored how scientists understand ethical issues in relation to science, with particular attention to the ways scientists' perspectives on religion may or may not influence their ethical perspectives. With this objective in mind, a team of researchers conducted interviews with 211 physicists across China, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These interviews aimed to gain insights into how physicists navigate ethical concerns related to research integrity and the impact of industry funding.

In 2010, Ecklund published the book Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think. For this book, Ecklund conducted surveys of approximately 1,700 scientists and interviewed 275. Ecklund sampled natural and social scientists from 21 “elite” universities, omitting many universities in the South and Midwest regions of the U.S., where religion plays an important part in everyday life and politics.[5]

In Science vs. Religion, Ecklund writes, “Much of what we believe about the faith lives of elite scientists is wrong. The 'insurmountable hostility' between science and religion is a caricature - a thought-cliché, perhaps useful as a satire on groupthink, but hardly representative of reality."[6]

She also reveals her finding that at least 50% of scientists consider themselves to have religious traditions. Some of Ecklund's other findings about scientists' self-reported spiritual and religious belief include the following:

• 34% were atheists (12% of whom also called themselves spiritual), 30% were agnostic, 27% had some belief in God (9% had doubts but affirmed their belief, 5% had occasional belief, 8% believed in a higher power that is not a personal God), and 9% of scientists said they had no doubt of God's existence. While more atheistic than the rest of the U.S. population, the research demonstrates that about a third (36%) of these scientists maintain some belief in God, a smaller proportion than the approximately 90% in the general American population.
• Most scientists who expressed some belief in God considered themselves to be “religious liberals.”
• Some self-identified atheist scientists still considered themselves to be "spiritual.”
• Religious scientists reported that their religious beliefs affected the way they think about the moral implications of their work.[6]

Ecklund theorizes that scientists who believe in God may live "closeted lives" to avoid discrimination. Others are what she calls "spiritual entrepreneurs,” seeking creative ways to work with the tensions between science and faith outside the constraints of traditional religion. Ecklund reveals how scientists—believers and skeptics alike—struggle to engage the religious students in their classrooms. She argues that many are searching for "boundary pioneers" to cross the picket lines separating science and religion and overcome the "conflict thesis.”

Ecklund has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed social scientific, medical, and other journals.[7] With an interest in translating academic research to a broader public, she has written blogs and essays for The Scientist, The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Social Science Research Council, Science and Religion Today, The Washington Post, USA Today, the Huffington Post and the Houston Chronicle.

Ecklund founded and served as the director of the Religion and Public Life Program (RPLP) at Rice University from 2010 to 2022.[9] The RPLP was launched in 2010 as part of the Social Sciences Research Institute at Rice University.[10]

Ecklund's work has been covered in The Economist,[11] Time,[12] BBC,[13] the Huffington Post,[14][15][16]Yahoo! News,[17] Scientific American,[18] USA Today, Inside Higher Ed,[19][20] The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nature, Discover,[21] The Washington Times,[22] Institute of Physics, Science & Theology News, Newsweek,[23] The Washington Post,[24] CNN, MSNBC, Chicago Public Radio, Houston Public Radio, Xinhua News,[25] and other outlets.

• Ecklund, Elaine Howard, and David R. Johnson (2021). Varieties of Atheism in Science. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780197539163.
• Ecklund, Elaine Howard (2020). Why Science and Faith Need Each Other: Eight Shared Values That Move Us beyond Fear. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press. ISBN 9781587434365.
• Ecklund, Elaine Howard, David R. Johnson, Brandon Vaidyanathan, Kirstin R. W. Matthews, Steven W. Lewis, Robert A. Thomson, Jr., and Di Di (2019). Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190926755.
• Ecklund, Elaine Howard, and Christopher P. Scheitle (2017). Religion vs. Science: What Religious People Really Think. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190650629.
• Ecklund, Elaine Howard, and Anne E. Lincoln (2016). Failing Families, Failing Science: Work-Family Conflict in Academic Science. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 9781479843138.
• Ecklund, Elaine Howard (2010). Science vs Religion: What Scientists Really Think. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-539298-2.
• Ecklund, Elaine Howard (2006). Korean American Evangelicals: New Models for Civic Life. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-530549-4.

• Relationship between religion and science

• Official website
• Ecklund's faculty listing, Rice University Department of Sociology
• Ecklund's faculty affiliate listing, Rice University Department of Religion
• Ecklund's profile at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
• Religion and Public Life Program website