Fiona Dougherty is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at Western Michigan University. Her research interests are in the sociology of religion, gender, spirituality, and health. Using qualitative methodologies, her research investigates social and cultural 
dynamics that shape emergent spiritual communities and identities insofar as they reject mainstream notions of religiosity and embody alternative spiritual narratives and meaning-making practices. She is currently conducting analysis on research that will serve as her dissertation. Her work has been presented at professional conferences across disciplines and published in the Review of Religious Research. She aims to continue weaving together academic perspectives that explore the causes and conditions of social and cultural change.
In recent decades, surveys have uncovered a growing population of Americans who don’t identify with traditional religious institutions but still maintain a spiritual outlook in some way, shape, or form. They are the self-described ‘Spiritual but not Religious’ or SBNR for short. What does that identity really mean? Who is likely to be SBNR? What … Continue reading The Spaces Between
