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SOC HOME
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ResearchMy research focuses on the role of religion in progressive social movements. My book Convictions of the Soul: Religion, Culture, and Agency in the U.S. Central America Solidarity Movement (Oxford University Press, 2004) examines the moral meaning of protest and the ways in which North American clergy used religious rituals, martyr stories, and biblical teachings to establish a link between faith and activism aimed at changing U.S. policy toward Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. It also explores the unique challenges of organizing solidarity movements on the international level.My current project entails a comparative study of the Plowshares movement. This is an anti-war movement initiated by members of the so-called Catholic Left who first gained notoriety during the Vietnam War when they raided Selective Service offices, destroying conscription files by pouring blood and burning draft cards. Starting in 1980, they once again engaged in property destruction to resist the nuclear arms race, using household hammers to damage nuclear weapons, symbolically and literally enacting the prophet Isaiah’s vision of a day when “nations shall beat their swords into plowshares.” In my study, I explore how and why the U.S. Plowshares movement has sustained this form of protest for over 25 years, despite long prison sentences. I compare this to the experiences of Plowshares movements in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Australia. Using a micro-foundational approach, I try to explain why some of these movements have persisted while others faltered after a short time or never progressed beyond a handful of sporadic actions. I elaborate the results of this study in my book manuscript, Prophetic Provocation: War Resistance in the Plowshares Movement. |
OFFICE: 120 Bedford Street Portland (207) 228-8341 (207) 780-5698 (fax) snepstad@usm.maine.edu MAILING: Department of Sociology University of Southern Maine 96 Falmouth Street P.O. Box 9300 Portland ME 04104-9300
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