Jelani Ince (he/him/his)

Research Overview:  I am a scholar of race in American life. In all of my research, I aim to understand how we navigate the contested terrain of inclusion— and who is often excluded in service of that project. In my work, I bring attention to the ongoing importance of churches and social movements in the production of racial regimes. I seek to understand how people respond to widespread cultural beliefs about inclusion, diversity, and justice and how they structure their world to reflect a commitment to those ideals. Finally, I am interested in understanding the various answers that unfold in service of answering the question, whose problem is it to be a problem?  

To say the same thing in sociological terms: I use qualitative methods to examine how people in organizations work to accomplish extra-individual goals. I investigate how people interpret their social selves and order their relationships; how they create, maintain, and transform institutions; and how institutions constrain and enable their lives. I am curious about how ethnography can not only give effective, honest accounts of oppression and struggle but also undiscipline our thinking concerning these areas. I use computational methods to examine how racial social movements shape and change public discourse about racial inequality, how social media has changed contemporary mobilization, and how social movement activity influences donations to racial justice organizations. 

Teaching: I teach graduate courses in culture and organizations and qualitative fieldwork, and undergraduate courses in social psychology and the sociology of race and ethnicity. 

A bit about me: I received my B.A. in English and French Studies from Wake Forest University (2014, Distinguished Student Scholar in American Ethnic Studies), and my Ph.D. in Sociology from Indiana University, Bloomington (2021).