Professional Bio

Elise Wolff is a doctoral candidate in sociology interested in culture, theory, religion, movements, and organizations. Her previous work focused on the history of intellectual disability advocacy in the United States and won the department’s Huber-Form Thesis Award. She also has received a Harshbarger Paper Prize from Penn State’s Religious Studies Initiative for her work with Professor Gary Adler and colleagues on their project on religion-state relations at the local level. Her current research uses historical materials to investigate the invention and development of the interdisciplinary academic field of peace and conflict studies, including its ties to the historic peace churches (Religious Society of Friends, Church of the Brethren, Mennonites) and Catholic peace tradition.