Department of Sociology and Criminology

Dane's research explores the intersection of mobilization, international conflict, and social inequalities. He applies organizational and community theories to address topics as wide ranging as the spread of governmental policies that regulate religious organizations, the mobilization of religious members by American churches, and the spread of religious bias and advocacy.

The first focuses on international religious inequalities, demonstrating the spread and presence of religious regulation. This topic broadly covers the implications of both state and societal regulations of religious minority groups. Dane has demonstrated that the regulation of religious groups emerges through the diffusion of policies, where national governments mimic their neighbors’ policies and practices. From this, he also found that the ability of a state to maintain promises of religious freedoms is tied to the social forces or the ability of an independent judiciary to monitor state’s actions. Dane is working with colleagues on a separate component of international religious inequalities by exploring the occurrence of social discrimination of religious minority groups using the Religion and State Project.

A second project, currently in data collection phase, is focused on the spread and escalation of anti-Muslim events throughout the United States in recent decades. Dane and his colleagues seek to rectify the limitations of previous research, such as limited data, a focus on few communities, or a disregard for the connection between organizations, communities and events. This database will also be combined with information on over 300 Muslim advocacy and opposition organizations, as well as community characteristics throughout the United States. Overall, the goal of this project is to not only explain the presence of hate and bias within communities, but to show the presence of community advocacy for equal rights and treatment.