Katie Gaddini

Dr. Katie Gaddini serves as Associate Professor in Sociology at University College London's Social Research Institute, where she leads research within the Thomas Coram Research Unit (TCRU). She maintains dual affiliations as Affiliate Researcher with UCL's Sarah Parker Remond Centre and Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg's Department of Sociology. Currently (2022-2026), she holds a prestigious UK Research and Innovation fellowship hosted jointly by UCL and Stanford University, investigating Christian women's engagement with conservative politics in the United States.

Her academic foundation includes master's degrees from Boston College and the London School of Economics, culminating in a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge. Her ethnographic expertise spans five years of immersive fieldwork with single evangelical women, documented in her critically acclaimed book The Struggle to Stay: Why Single Evangelical Women are Leaving the Church (2022).

Gaddini's research program centers on the sociology of religion through four interconnected lenses: (1) Lived religion approaches to evangelical Christianity; (2) Intersectional analysis of race, class, and gender within religious belonging; (3) Comparative studies of Christianity and politics across the Americas; and (4) Identity theory examining the co-constitution of racial-religious-national identities. Her methodological preference for ethnography extends to previous work on gendered violence in Mumbai and Johannesburg.

Her scholarly output reveals consistent thematic evolution toward analyzing Christian nationalism's digital transformation, gendered religious experiences during political upheavals (Brexit/Trump), and the crisis of evangelical identity in contemporary Western societies. The publications demonstrate methodological rigor in ethnographic data collection coupled with sophisticated theoretical engagement across sociology, gender studies, and political science.

• Awards:
• Betty Scharf Award for Research on Gender & Religion (London School of Economics)
• British Higher Education Academy Fellowship

Gaddini's current UKRI-funded fellowship represents significant grant acquisition, focusing on longitudinal analysis of American Christian women's political engagement. While her mentorship activities aren't explicitly detailed, her position at TCRU suggests involvement in guiding doctoral candidates within UCL's graduate programs. Her research infrastructure includes collaborations through the Politics of Religion study (2020-2022), producing influential infographics and digital resources that bridge academic research and public discourse.

She operates within UCL's Social Research Institute ecosystem, particularly through the Thomas Coram Research Unit's interdisciplinary framework and the Sarah Parker Remond Centre's focus on race and equality. Her Johannesburg affiliation indicates ongoing transnational research partnerships, while her active Twitter presence (@katiegaddini) demonstrates commitment to public scholarship and academic communication.