Dr. McRoberts has scholarly interests in the sociology of religion, urban sociology, urban poverty, race, and collective action. He published Streets of Glory: Church and Community in a Black Urban Neighborhood in 2004. The book explains the high concentration, wide variety, and ambiguous social impact of religious activity in the neighborhood. It won the 2005 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. He is conducting a study of black religious responses to, and influences on, social welfare policy since the New Deal, culminating with George W. Bush's Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives. He is also initiating an ethnographic project on cultures of death and dying among black congregations in low-income urban contexts. More about Dr. McRoberts...