USC.edu

Jon Miller

Professor Emeritus of Sociology
Email jonmill@usc.edu

Center, Institute & Lab Affiliations

  • USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture,

Biography

Jon Miller, director of research and research professor of sociology, convenes CRCC’s interdisciplinary academic advisory council. As a comparative sociologist interested in organizations and religion, Miller has focused on the history of the international evangelical missionary movement, using that movement as a lens for understanding the global relationships among religion, politics, and economics. Recently, he has been working with an international team of archivists to bring the photographic collections of missions into a searchable electronic database on the Internet that is hosted by USC Libraries’ Digital Archive. Miller’s books include: Pathways in the Workplace: The Effects of Race and Gender on Access to Organizational Resources (1986); The Social Control of Religious Zeal: A Study of Organizational Contradictions (1994); and Missionary Zeal and Institutional Control: Organizational Contradictions in the Basel Mission on the Gold Coast, 1828-1917 (2003).

Education

  • Ph.D. Sociology, Washington State University, 1/1968
  • B.A. Sociology, University of Texas, 1/1964

  • Tenure Track Appointments

    • Professor, University of Southern California, 09/01/1967 –

    Other Employment

    • Director of Research, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, 06/01/2000 –

  • Summary Statement of Research Interests

    As a comparative sociologist interested in organizations and religion, Professor Miller has focused on the history of the international evangelical missionary movement, using that movement as a lens for understanding the global relationships among religion, politics, and economics. Recently, he has begun working with an international team of archivists to create the Internet Mission Photography Archive, which brings the photographic archives of several missions into a searchable electronic database hosted by USC’s Archival Research Center. Miller also collaborates with CRCC’s Donald E. Miller and Grace Dyrness in an ongoing investigation of the importance of religion in the lives of recent immigrants to California.

    Research Keywords

    religion, culture, evangelical missionaries, politics, economics, immigrants

  • Conference Presentations

    • Scholarship and Photography: The Internet Mission Photography Archive , Catholic Library AssociationTalk/Oral Presentation, Catholic Archivists Roundtable, Invited, Anaheim, California, 2008-2009

  • Journal Article

    • Miller, J., Stanczak, G. (2009). Redeeming, Ruling, and Reaping: British Missionary Societies, the East India Company, and the India-China Opium Trade. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Vol. 48 (2)
    • Miller, J. (2008). Material Traces of Religious Change in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Material Religion. Vol. 4 (3)

    Monograph

    • Miller, J. (2006). Pathways in the Workplace: The Effects of Race and Gender on Access to Organizational Resources. (Paperback Edition). Arnold and Caroline Rose Monograph Series of the American Sociological Association, Cambridge University Press.
    • Miller, J. (2003). Missionary Zeal and Institutional Control: Organizational Contradictions in the Basel Mission on the Gold Coast, 1828-1917. London: Routeledge/Curzon Press and Philadelphia: Eerdmans Publishers, (forthcoming). London: Routledge/Curzon Press and Philadelphia: Eerdmans Publishers. 2003..
    • Miller, J. (1994). The Social Control of Religious Zeal: A study of Organizastional Contradictions. Arnolld and Caroline Rose Monograph Series of the American Sociological Association. Rutgers University Press, 1994. Arnold and Caroline Rose Monograph Series of the American Sociological Association. Rutgers University Press.
    • Miller, J. (1986). Pathways in the Workplace: The Effects of Race and Gender on Access to Organizational Resources. Arnold and Caroline Rose Monograph Series of the American Sociological Association. Cambridge University Press, 1986..
    • Searchable scholarly database, INTERNET MISSION PHOTOGRAPHY ARCHIVE: Capturing the Visual Traces of the Missionary Movement [www.usc.edu/impa], 2005-2006
    • USC Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award, Scholarly Achievement, 1996
    • USC Associates Award For Excellence In Teaching, University-wide Teaching Award, 1995
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