Ruth Braunstein is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. Her research explores the diverse ways in which ordinary citizens across the political spectrum participate in American public life, and the complex roles of religion and culture in these efforts. Her research has been published in the American Sociological Review, Contexts, the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion and Qualitative Sociology, among other outlets. She is currently completing a book based on a comparative ethnographic study of progressive faith-based community organizing and Tea Party activism, entitled Prophets and Patriots: Faith in Democracy Across the Political Divide; and an edited volume exploring the role of religion in progressive politics, entitled Religion and Progressive Activism: Understanding Faith and Politics in America.