Brodie Quinn

Brodie’s PhD research explores how faith-based groups shape public life in the United States. Centered in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, he examines how religious and political communities form and maintain shared values, and how they respond to broader social changes. By focusing on how beliefs connect with governance, civic engagement, and everyday conversations, his work shows how ideas move from local discussions into wider public forums. Through this research, Brodie aims to demonstrate how ordinary activities and community networks can influence larger social processes, often in surprising ways.

Before joining USC, he completed his MA in his home country of New Zealand. This involved five months of fieldwork in Northern Ireland, where he studied Protestant British groups in the border region. His master’s thesis examined how collective memories, storytelling, and visible public rituals shape the ways people recall the past, interpret the present, and navigate religious and political identities in a deeply polarized environment.

Brodie has also conducted research in Slab City—an off-grid community in Southern California—and in Northern Idaho, studying a migration trend known as the “American Redoubt,” in which people move to the Pacific Northwest to build a specific conservative Christian society.

• BA Univ. of Auckland, 5/2007
• MS Univ. of Auckland