Three faculty researchers from the Little Rock Congregations Study (LRCS) have published a new peer-reviewed article. The article, “Faith and race: how African American pastors navigate dialectical tensions in collaboration” was published in the Journal of Applied Communication Research on August 15, 2022. Academic journal content is usually available only to paid subscribers, but there are fifty free eprints of the article available at this link.
The article is authored by three faculty researchers from the LRCS: Kirk Leach, an assistant professor in the School of Public Affairs; Gerald Driskill, professor in the department of Applied Communication, and Rebecca Glazier, a professor in the School of Public Affairs and the project director. The data used in the article comes from clergy interviews conducted with African American pastors in Little Rock in 2018.
LRCS Researchers and members of the Clergy Advisory Board, who helped set the research focus on faith-based racial justice.
The interview questions included a number of questions about collaboration across congregations and with nonprofits. The researchers’ analyses of the interviews revealed a number of tensions when it comes to collaboration. For instance, African American pastors are often interested in collaboration but don’t always feel included in collaborative networks in the city.
What does this research mean for conversations about race and faith in Little Rock? The LRCS research team prepared the following infographic, summarizing some of our findings on race and faith so far. It includes illustrative quotes from these clergy interviews, which inform our understanding of the racial climate in our city. They show that clergy are concerned about racial divisions, see some significant challenges with the collaborative climate, and both recognize the importance of Little Rock’s troubled racial history and are looking to the future.
In the fall of 2022, LRCS researchers are planning to share more results, listen to clergy leaders, and facilitate further conversation and progress in this area through a Religious Leaders Summit on Race and Faith. Details forthcoming.