CURRICULUM VITAE, RONALD LAWSON

Current Location: Loma Linda, CA 92350
E-mail: SondleyWriter@gmail.com

Born: January 6, 1940; Sydney, Australia.

EDUCATION

Primary: Home schooled, Queensland, Australia
High School: Toowoomba Grammar School. Graduated: 1958

Tertiary Education

Degree and Major	Date	Institution
B.A. (Honours) History	1963	University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Ph.D. (History; Sociology)	1970	University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Post-Doctoral Visiting Scholar	1971-3	Columbia University, New York, NY

ACADEMIC CAREER

RESEARCH POSTS

1971-73	Research Associate	Bureau of Applied Social Research, Columbia University
1973-77	Senior Research Associate	Center for Policy Research, New York, NY
	Senior Investigator and Project Director	Tenant Movement Study, funded by NIMH

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

1971-72	Adjunct Assistant Professor	Sociology Dept, Hunter College, CUNY
1972-3	Visiting Assistant Professor	Sociology Dept, Hunter College
1973-77	Assistant Professor	Sociology Dept, Hunter College
1977-83	Associate Professor	Urban Studies Dept, Queens College, CUNY (Tenured 1983)
1977-78	Visiting Associate Professor (part-time)	Sociology Dept, Columbia University
1984-2009	Professor	Urban Studies Department, Queens College, CUNY
2009-	Emeritus Professor	Urban Studies Department, Queens College, CUNY

Faculty, Urban Studies Dept., Queens College, CUNY; Dec. 2005

PUBLICATIONS

Journal Articles and Chapters in Anthologies

Adventism and Church-Sect Theory

From Sect Towards Denomination: Tracing the Trajectory of Seventh-day Adventism in the USA over Time.

Seventh-day Adventists in Conflict: A Nineteenth Century Religious Movement Meets the Twentieth Century (with Maren Lockwood Carden). Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Detroit, September 1983.

Sectarian Groups and Social Issues; Broadening Church-Sect Theory. Meeting of the Religious Research Association, Columbus, October 2001. (A session where five discussants focused on this single paper.)

The Secular Transition: The Worldwide Growth of Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Seventh-day Adventists. (Co-authored with Ryan T. Cragun.), Sociology of Religion, 71:3, 2010: 349-373.

Adventism and Politics

Seventh-day Adventism. In Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion, Second Edition. 2007, Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Books.

Adventism and Schizmatic Groups

Seventh-day Adventist Responses to Branch Davidian Notoriety: Patterns of Diversity within a Sect Reducing Tension with Society. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 34:3, September 1995, 323-341.

Apocalypticism

The Persistence of Urgent Apocalypticism Within a Denominationalizing Sect: The Apocalyptic Fringe Groups of Seventh-day Adventism. Pp 207-228 in Thomas Robbins and Susan J. Palmer (eds), Millennium, Messiahs and Mayhem. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Encyclopedia of Millennialism: Apocalypticism in Seventh-day Adventism.

A Watershed for Seventh-day Adventism.

Church and State

Sect-State Relations: Accounting for the Differing Trajectories of Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Sociology of Religion, 56:4, December 1995: 351-377.

Doctrinal Issues

The Evolution and Current Issues of Seventh-day Adventists. Web-sites, December 2017.

Ethnic Diversity

From American Church to Immigrant Church: The Changing Face of Seventh-day Adventism in Metropolitan New York. Sociology of Religion, 1998, 59:4, 329-351.

Fundamentalism versus Doctrinal Liberalism

Seventh-day Adventists. In Brenda E. Brasher (ed), Encyclopedia of Fundamentalism. 2001, New York: Routledge.

Seventh-Day Adventist Pluralism: Celebration and Challenge at The General Conference Session in 2000.

Globalization

The Secular Transition: The Worldwide Growth of Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Seventh-day Adventists. (Co-authored with Ryan T. Cragun.), Sociology of Religion, 71:3, 2010: 349-373.

Comparing the Geographic Distributions and Growth of Mormons, Adventists and Witnesses. (Co-authored with Ryan T. Cragun.) Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2012, 51(2) 220-240.

Comparing Mormons, Adventists, and Witnesses in Mexico, 2000-2010: Contrasting their Outreach Strategies, Growth, Who they Attracted and Retained, and the Reliability of their Official Data. Published on the Spectrum magazine website, November 2013.

Growth

Comparing the Geographic Distributions and Growth of Mormons, Adventists and Witnesses. (Co-authored with Ryan T. Cragun.) Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2012, 51(2) 220-240.

Mormons, Adventists, and Jehovah’s Witnesses: Three ‘American Originals’ and How They’ve Grown.

Immigrants

From American Church to Immigrant Church: The Changing Face of Seventh-day Adventism in Metropolitan New York. Sociology of Religion, 1998, 59:4, 329-351.

Internal Political Fallout from the Emergence of an Immigrant Majority: The Impact of the Transformation of Seventh-day Adventism in Metropolitan New York. Review of Religious Research, 41:1, Fall 1999, 21-47.

When Immigrants Take Over: The Impact of Immigrant Growth on American Seventh-day Adventism’s Trajectory from Sect to Denomination. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 38:1, March 1999, 83-102.

Internal Conflict

The Evolution and Current Issues of Seventh-day Adventists. Web-sites, December 2017.

Military Service

Onward Christian Soldiers?: Seventh-day Adventists and the Issue of Military Service. Review of Religious Research, 37:3, March 1996: 97-122.

Public Relations

Seventh-day Adventist Responses to Branch Davidian Notoriety: Patterns of Diversity within a Sect Reducing Tension with Society. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 34:3, September 1995, 323-341.

Sect-State Relations

Sect-State Relations: Accounting for the Differing Trajectories of Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Sociology of Religion, 56:4, December 1995: 351-377.

The Evolution and Current Issues of Seventh-day Adventists. Web-sites, December 2017.

Onward Christian Soldiers?: Seventh-day Adventists and the Issue of Military Service. Review of Religious Research, 37:3, March 1996: 97-122.

Church and State at Home and Abroad: The Evolution of Seventh-day Adventist Relations with Governments. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 70(2) Summer 1996, 279-311.

Social Issues

Abortion Pro-What? Seventh-day Adventists and the Abortion Issue. Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Raleigh, N.C., October 1993. HIV-AIDS IS THIS OUR CONCERN? HIV/AIDS and International Seventh-day Adventism. A paper read at the meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, Pittsburgh, August 1992. Homosexuality The Caring, Welcoming Church? The Seventh-day Adventist Church and its Homosexual Members. In David Ferguson, Fritz Guy, and David Larson, editors: Christianity and Homosexuality: Some Seventh-day Adventist Perspectives. 2008, Roseville, California: Adventist Forum. The Troubled Career of an Ex-Gay Healer: Colin Cook, Seventh-day Adventists, and the Religious Right. Meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, August 1998. Polygamy Church-sponsored Injustice: The Seventh-day Adventist Church and Polygamous Converts. Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Albuquerque, N.M., November 1994. Women At the Eye of the Storm: the Continuing Conflict Concerning the Ordination of Women within the International Seventh-day Adventist Church. Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Montreal, November 1998. Why No to Women but Yes to Killing?. Spectrum, 24:4, March 1995: 43-57.

Social Structure

Ghettoization and the Erosion of a Distinct Way of Life: The Seventh-day Adventist Experience (with Maren Lockwood Carden). Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Knoxville, November 1983.

Trajectory

The Future of Seventh-day Adventism. Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Chicago, October 1984.

Sect-State Relations: Accounting for the Differing Trajectories of Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Sociology of Religion, 56:4, December 1995: 351-377.

As Yet Unshared On The Blog Site

“Adventists, War, and Oppressive Governments: Patterns and relationships from before World War I to the present.” Forthcoming, in  Rolf J. Pöhler, ed., The Impact of World War I on Seventh-day Adventism: Prophetic Disconfirmation and Conscientious Cooperation, Adventistica – Studies in Adventist History and Theology – New Series, vol. 2 (Friedensau, Germany: Theologische Hochschule Friedensau, 2018)

”The Evolution and Current Issues of Seventh-day Adventists.” Web-sites, December 2017.

“To Hymn or not to Hymn: A Global Church Wrestles with Worship Music.” Spectrum, 2014, 42:4, 62-69.

“Adventists, Military Service, and War.” pp 49-76 in Barry W. Bussey (ed.), Should I Fight?: Essays on Conscientious Objection and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 2011.  Belleville, Ontario, Canada: Guardian Books.

“The Constitution and Same-sex Relationships: Adventists and the Proposed ‘Marriage Amendment’.” Adventist Today, 12:2, March-April 2004, 14-17

“Tensions, Religious Freedom, and the Courts: The Seventh-day Adventist Experience.”  pp 73-92 in Paula D. Nesbitt (ed.), Religion and Social Policy for the 21st Century.  Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 2001.

“The Changing Face of Seventh-day Adventism in Metropolitan New York.” pp177-195 in Tony Carnes and Anna Karpathakis (eds), New York Glory: Religions in the City. New York: New York University Press, 2001.

“Seventh-day Adventists.” In Richard A. Landes (ed), Encyclopedia of Millennialism and Millennial Movements, pp 380-386.  New York:Routledge, 2000.

“When Immigrants Take Over: The Changing Face of Seventh-day Adventism in Metropolitan New York.” Spectrum, 28:2, Spring 2000, 44-53.

“Broadening the Boundaries of Church-Sect Theory: Insights from the Evolution of the Non-schismatic Mission Churches of Seventh-day Adventism.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1998, 37:4, December: 652-672.

“Seventh-day Adventism.” 1998, Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion.  Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Books.

“Owners of Last Resort: the Track Records of New York City’s Early Low Income Housing Co-operatives, Created between 1967 and 1975.” Review of Radical Political Economics, Fall 1998, 30:4, 1-39.

“Seventh-day Adventists and the U.S. Courts: Road Signs Along the Route of a Denominationalizing Sect.”  Journal of Church and State, 1998, 40:3 (Summer), 553-588.

“Adventists and America’s Courts.” Spectrum, 1998, 26:5 (July), 13-39.

“Mission Churches and Church-Sect Theory: Seventh-day Adventists in Africa.” Pp 119-128 in Madeleine Couseneau (ed.), Religion in a Changing World. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998.

“World Adventism is becoming Worldly: Adventists are conforming to their own societies while becoming increasingly different from one another.” Spectrum, 25(4), June 1996, 42-55.

“Geopolitics within Seventh-day Adventism.” Christian Century, December 19, 1990, 1197-1203.

“The Rent Strike in New York City, 1904-1980: The Evolution of a Social Movement Strategy.” Journal of Urban History, 10:3 (May 1984), 235-258.

“Origins and Evolution of a Social Movement Strategy: The Rent Strike in New York City, 1904-1980.” Urban Affairs Quarterly, March 1983, 371-395. [Reprinted in Russell L. Curtis, Jr., and Benigno E. Aguirre (eds), Collective Behavior and Social Movements, Allyn and Bacon, 1993, pp 391-400.]

“A Decentralized but Moving Pyramid: The Evolution and Consequences of the Structure of the Tenant Movement.” In Jo Freeman (editor), Social Movements of the Sixties and Seventies. Longmans, 1983, 119-133.

“Rent Control and Abandonment: A Second Look at the Evidence” (with David Bartelt). Journal of Urban Affairs, Fall 1982, 49-64. [Reprinted in Rachel G. Bratt, Chester Hartman and Ann Meyerson, Critical Perspectives on Housing, Temple University Press, 1986.]

“Report of the American Sociological Association’s Task Group on Homosexuality” (with John Gagnon, Joan Huber, Suzanne Keller, Patricia Miller,  and William Simon). The American Sociologist, August 1982, 164-180.

“Sex Roles and Social Movements: A Case Study of the Tenant Movement in New York City” (with Stephen Barton). Signs: A Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Winter 1980, 230-247. [Reprinted in Guida West and Rhoda Lois Blumberg (eds), Women and Social Protest, Oxford University Press, 1990, 41-56]

“Towards Demythologizing the ‘Australian Legend’: Turner’s Frontier Thesis and the Australian Experience.” Journal of Social History, June 1980, 577-587.

“The Political Face of the Real Estate Industry in New York City.” New York Affairs, VI/2, 1980, 88-109.

“Tenants and Politics: Tenant Mobilization in New York.” Social Policy, March/April 1980, 30-40.

“From Kitchen to Storefront: Women in the Tenant Movement” (with Stephen Barton and Jenna Weissman Joselit). In Gerda Wekerle, Rebecca Peterson, and David Morley (editors), New Space for Women, Westview Press, 1980, 255-271.

“Brisbane in the 1890s.” In J. W. McCarty and C. B. Schedvin (editors), Australian Capital Cities: Historical Essays, Sydney University Press, 1978, 102-111.

“Community Leaders and Urban Housing Problems: Leadership Roles, Organizational Goals, and Effectiveness in Seven New York City Community Planning Districts.” Journal of Voluntary Action Research, January/April,  1975, 75-84.

“Adult Education for the Masses: Brisbane in the 1890s.” Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, December 1972, 1-7.

“The Political Influence of the Churches in Brisbane in the 1890s.” Journal of Religious History, December 1972, 144-162.

“Class or Status? – The Social Structure of Brisbane in the 1890s.” Australian Journal of Politics and History, December 1972, 344-359.

“The ‘Bush Ethos’ and Brisbane in the 1890s.” Historical Studies, April 1972, 276-283.

“Brisbane’s Population in the 1890s: An Ecological Study.” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, February 1972, 32-45.

“Brisbane Sport in the 1890s: A New Prominence.” University of Newcastle Historical Journal, February 1972, 21-25.

“Brisbane in the 1890s: The Economic Shape of the Decade.” Economic Record, December 1971, 568-578.

Book Reviews

Jon L. Dybdahl (ed.): Adventist Mission in the 21st Century.  In Review of Religious Research, 41:3, March 2000, 421-424.

Nehemiah M. Nyaundi: Religion and Social Change: A Sociological Study of Seventh-day Adventism in Kenya.  In Sociology of Religion, 55:4, Winter 1994, 496-498.

Papers and Addresses Presented

“Adventists, War, and Oppressive Governments: Patterns and relationships from before World War I to the present.”  Paper presented at a conference on The Impact of World War I on Seventh-day Adventism to mark the centennial of the outbreak of the war,  at Friedensau University, Germany, 2014.

“Comparing Mormons, Adventists, and Witnesses in Mexico, 2000-2010: Contrasting their Outreach Strategies, Growth, Who they Attracted and Retained, and the Reliability of their Official Data.” Meeting of the SSSR, 2013.

“Tensions Concerning Worship Music within Seventh-day Adventism: A Global Church Wrestles with both Inter-generational and Inter-cultural Issues.” Presented at the meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, New York, 2013.

“Reassessing the Size of Mormons, Adventists and Witnesses: Testing the Reliability of their Membership Data and predicting the Trajectories of their Future Global Growth.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Milwaukee, October 2011. Co author: G. Kenneth Xydias.

“Seventh-day Adventists and the Campaigns for and against Proposition 8 in California, 2008.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Baltimore, October 2010.

“Testing Warner’s ‘New Paradigm’ against Mormon, Adventist, and Witness Data in America: Rehabilitating Secularization Theory.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Baltimore, October 2010.  Co-author: Ryan T. Cragun, University of Tampa.

Discussant, Session on Mormonism and Proposition 8: Varied Approaches.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Baltimore, October 2010.

“’Supply vs. Demand’ or Sociology? Why Context Matters.”  Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Denver, October 2009. Co-authors: Rick Phillips, UNF, and Ryan T. Cragun, University of Tampa. 

“A Review of the Essay ‘Ellen White and Society,’ by Douglas Morgan.”  Presented to the meeting of the “Ellen Harmon White: American Prophet” Project, Portland, Maine, October 2009.

“Adventists, Military Service, and War.” “Shall We Fight?” Conference, Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada, Oshawa, November 2008.

“Adventists and AIDS.” Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Louisville, Kentucky, October 2008.

“Seventh-day Adventists and Other Churches: Changes Over Time.” Meeting of the Religious Research Association, Louisville, Kentucky, October 2008.

“Comparing the Global Growth Rates and Distributions of Adventists, Mormons, and Witnesses.” Sydney Adventist Forum, September 2008. 

“Adventists and Homosexuality.” Colloquium, Avondale College, Cooranbong, Australia, September 2008.

“The Adventist Church and Other Churches.” Colloquium, Avondale College, Cooranbong, Australia, September 2008.

“Adventists and AIDS.” Colloquium, Avondale College, Cooranbong, Australia, September 2008.

“Apocalypse Postponed: The evolution of Adventism through sociological eyes with, perhaps, a peak into the future.” Reunion of the Queensland University Seventh-Day Adventist Society, Yandina, August 2008. 

“Comparing Further the Global Growth Rates and Distributions of Adventists, Mormons, and Witnesses.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Tampa, Florida, October 2007.

“The Caring, Welcoming Church? The Seventh-day Adventist Church and its Homosexual Members.”  Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, New York, August 2007.

“The Caring, Welcoming Church? The Seventh-day Adventist Church and its Homosexual Members.”  Conference sponsored by the Association of Adventist Forums, Ontario California, January 2006.

“Comparing the Global Growth Rates and Distributions of Adventists, Mormons, and Witnesses.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Rochester NY, November 2006.

“The ‘Southerning’ of Seventh-day Adventism.”  Conference of the Association of Adventist Forums, Dayton, October 2004.

“The Internal Policy Implications of the ‘Southerning’ of Seventh-day Adventism.” Meeting of the Religious Research Association, Norfolk, October 2003.

Author-Meets-Critics Session: A Critique of Robert E. Beckley and Jerome R. Koch, The Continuing Challenge of AIDS: Clergy Responses to Patients, Families and Friends. Meeting of the Religious Research Association, Norfolk, October 2003.

“From Political Subservience to Political Power and Influence: Seventh-day Adventists in Papua-New Guinea.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Houston, October 2000.

“Dilemmas in Religious Research: When a Stigmatized Researcher Researches a Conservative Church.” Plenary Session on Gender, Sexualities and Religious Research, Meeting of the Religious Research Association, Houston, October 2000.

“In the Wake of the State: Seventh-day Adventism and Apartheid in South Africa.” Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Washington, D.C., August 2000.

“When Immigrants Take Over: The Changing Face of Seventh-day Adventism in England, France, and Canada.” Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, Washington, D.C., August 2000.

“In the Wake of the State: Seventh-day Adventism and Apartheid in South Africa.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Boston, November 1999.

“When Immigrants Take Over: The Changing Face of Adventism in Metropolitan New York.” Interdisziplinare Fachtagung uber Religiose und Ethnische Identitat, Friedensau University, Germany, June 1999.

“Addressing the Sin of Racism: Race Relations within the American Adventist Church.” Interdisziplinare Fachtagung uber Religiose und Ethnische Identitat, Friedensau University, Germany, June 1999.

“The Patterns, Sources, and Implications of Rapid Church Growth within International Seventh-day Adventism.” Interdisziplinare Fachtagung uber Religiose und Ethnische Identitat, Friedensau University, Germany, June 1999.

“When Immigrants Take Over: The Changing Face of Seventh-day Adventism in England, France, and Canada.”  Interdisziplinare Fachtagung uber Religiose und Ethnische Identitat, Friedensau University, Germany, June 1999.

“When Immigrants Take Over: The Changing Face of Seventh-day Adventism in England, France, and Canada.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Montreal, November 1998.

“From Separation to Integration: The Odyssey of the Seventh-day Adventist Hospital System.” Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, San Francisco, August 1998.

“When Immigrants Take Over: The Impact of Immigrant Growth on the Trajectory from Sect to Denomination in American Seventh-day Adventism.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, San Diego, November 1997.

“Internal Political Fallout from the Emergence of an Immigrant Majority: The Impact of the Transformation of the Face of Seventh-day Adventism in Metropolitan New York.” Meeting of the Religious Research Association, San Diego, November 1997.

“Seventh-day Adventism and the American Courts: A Review of Major Cases, Changing Issues, and Outcomes.” Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, Toronto, August 1997.

“From American Church to Immigrant Church: The Transformation of the Face of Seventh-day Adventism in New York.” Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, Toronto, August 1997.

“The Patterns, Sources, and Implications of Rapid Church Growth within International Seventh-day Adventism: Applying and testing Stark’s Revised General Model.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Nashville, November 1996.

“The Fragmenting of Apocalypticism within a Denominationalizing Sect: The Case of Seventh-day Adventism.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Nashville, November 1996.

“Broadening the Boundaries of Church-Sect Theory: Insights from the Evolution of the Mission Churches and International Structure of Seventh-day Adventism.” Meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York City, August 1996.

“The Patterns, Sources, and Implications of Rapid Church Growth within International Seventh-day Adventism: Applying and testing Stark’s Revised General Model.” National Conference of the Association of Adventist Forums, San Diego, March 1996.

“Women and Ordination within International Seventh-day Adventism.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, St Louis, October 1995.

“Ethical Dilemmas in Religious Research: When a Stigmatized Researcher Researches a Conservative Church.” Meeting of the Society or the Scientific Study of Religion, St Louis, October 1995.

Discussant at a session on “Gays, Lesbians and the Church: Faith and Justice.”  Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, St Louis, October 1995.

“Church-Sect Theory and a Global Church: Insights from the Evolution of the Mission Churches and International Structure of Seventh-day Adventism.” Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, Washington, D.C., August 1995.

“Seventh-day Adventist Responses to Branch Davidson Notoriety: Patterns of Diversity within a Sect Reducing Tension with Society.” Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, Los Angeles, August 1994.

“Sect-state Relations: Accounting for the Differing Trajectories of Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, Miami, August 1993.

“‘The Caring Church?’: The Seventh-day Adventist Church and its Homosexual Members.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Washington, D.C., November 1992.

“Assessing the Impact of a Movement: The Low-income Housing Co-operative Movement in New York City.” Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Pittsburgh, August 1992.

“Onward Christian Soldiers?: Seventh-day Adventists and the Issue of Military Service.” Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, Pittsburgh, August 1992.

“Surely It’s Not Our Issue!: The Debate over AIDS within International Seventh-day Adventism.” Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, Pittsburgh, August 1992.

“Church and State at Home and Abroad: the Governmental Relations of International Seventh-day Adventism.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Pittsburgh, November 1991.

“The Seventh-day Adventist Church as a Global Organization.” Meeting of the Religious Research Association, Pittsburgh, November 1991.

“Resource Mobilization Theory and Religious Movements.” Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Cincinatti, August 1991.

“Religious Movements and Social Movement Theory.” Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, Cincinatti, August 1991.

“The Quest Learning Center/Homosexuals Anonymous: Trouble in an ‘Ex-gay Ministry.'” Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, August 1987.

“Gay and Lesbian Activists in the Churches.” (Organizer of session.) Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Chicago, October 1984.

“Seventh-day Adventist Kinship: Gay and Lesbian Activism within the Seventh-day Adventist Church.” Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Chicago, October 1984.

“Religion and Politics in Latin America.” (Organizer of session.) Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Chicago, October 1984.

“Owners of Last Resort: the Track Records of New York City’s Early Low Income Housing Co-operatives, Converted 1962-1976.” Meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Antonio, August 1984.

“The Future of Adventism.” Conference of the Association of Adventist Forums, Colton, CA, March 1984

“Labor Unions and Tenant Organizations: A Comparison of Resource Mobilization, Strategic Leverage, and Impact.” Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Detroit, September 1983.

“The Relevance of Structure in Social Movements.” Meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, September 1982.

Organizer of a session of Refereed Roundtable Discussions, Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements. Meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, September 1982.

“Rent Control and Abandonment” (with David Bartelt). Meeting of the Urban Affairs Association, Philadelphia, March 1982.

“The Origins, Evolution and Transformation of a Social Movement Strategy: The Rent Strike in New York, 1904-1980.”  Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Toronto, August 1981.

“Triage and Abandonment: A Preliminary Analysis of the Impact of Housing Policies in Six New York City Neighborhoods.” Meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, Toronto, August 1981.

“The Evolving Rent Strike and Housing Policy in New York: An Interaction.” Housing Seminar, School of Architecture, Columbia University, March 1981.

“A Decentralized but Moving Pyramid: the Evolution and Consequences of the Structure of the Tenant Movement.” Meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York City, August 1980.

“The Political Face of the Real Estate Industry in New York.”  Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, March 1980.

“Sex Roles and Social Movements: A Case Study of the Tenant Movement in New York City” (with Stephen Barton). Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Boston, August 1979.

“He Who Pays the Piper: the Consequences of their Income Sources for Social Movement Organizations.” Meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, September 1978.

“The Current State of Social Movement Theory.” (Organizer and Chair of a panel discussion.)  Meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, San Francisco, September 1978.

“The Tenant Movement in New York City: Process and Impact, 1904-1978.” Seminar Series, Center for the Study of Metropolitan Problems, National Institutes of Mental Health, Rockville, Maryland, February 1978.

“Focal Issues in Social Movement Theory: Recruitment, Strategies and Movement Decline.” (Organizer of session, and participant as panelist.) Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, August 1977.

“Social Effects of the Built Environment.” (panelist)  Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, August 1977.

“User Control in the Built Environment.”  (panelist)  Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, August 1977.

“Continuities and Discontinuities in the Structure of Tenant Activism in New York City, 1943-1977” (with John McLoughlin). Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, August 1977.

“From Kitchen to Storefront: Women in the Tenant Movement” (with Stephen Barton and Jenna Weissman Joselit).  Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, August 1977.

“The State of the Art in Social Movement Theory.” (Organizer and Chair of a panel discussion.) Meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, Chicago, August 1977.

“Tenant Organizing in a Metropolis: Harlem as a Case Study, 1952-1965” (with Joan Dworetzky and John McLoughlin). Meeting of the Association of Voluntary Action Scholars, Boston, October 1976.

“People and their Physical Environment from High Rise to Suburban Housing.” (panelist)  Meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York, September 1976.

“Rent Strikes and Tenant Take-overs in New York City:  Tenant Activism and the Urban Housing Crisis.”  (Organizer and chair of the session, in which six tenant leaders who had been among the key subjects of the Tenant Mobilization Study became the discussants in the session, and so had the opportunity to react to the preliminary findings of the study.) Meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, New York City, August 1976.

“Protest Groups, Publics, and Political Influence: Tenant Organizations and the New York State Emergency Rent Laws of 1920” (with Joseph Spencer). Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, March 1976.

“The Elaboration of the Structure of a Social Movement: the Development of Umbrella Groups within the Tenant Movement in New York City, 1936-1972” (with John McLoughlin). Meeting of the American Studies Association, San Antonio, November 1975.

“The Complex Reality of a Social Movement:  Movement Organizations and the Internal Dynamics of the Tenant Movement in New York City” (with Reuben Johnson). Meeting of the American Studies Association, San Antonio, November 1975.

“Tenant Mobilization without Housing Reform” (with Kathleen Schneider). Meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, August 1975.

“Tenant Mobilization in New York City: Goals, Strategies and Consequences.” Columbia University Seminar on the City, June 1975.

“New York City Tenant Organizations and the Formation of Urban Housing Policy, 1919-1939” (with Joseph Spencer and John McLoughlin). Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Boston, April 1975.

“Towards Demythologizing the ‘Australian Legend’: Turner’s Frontier Thesis and the Australian Experience.”  Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Boston, April 1975.

“Building Strength and Structure in a Moving Pyramid: Tenant Activism as a Social Movement.”  Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, New York City, April 1975.

“The History of Tenant Organizing in New York City in the Twentieth Century” (with John McLoughlin). Meeting of the Missouri Valley Historical Society, Omaha, March 1975.

“At the Eye of the Storm: the Continuing Conflict Concerning the Ordination of Women within the International Seventh-day Adventist Church.” Meeting of the Religious Research Association, Houston, October 2000.

“Tenant Mobilization as a Social Movement: Sociological Perspectives” (with Stephen Barton).  Meeting of the Missouri Valley Historical Society, Omaha, March 1975.

“Tenant Organizations, Voluntarism, and Community Decisions” (with John McLoughlin). Meeting of the Association of Voluntary Action Scholars, Denver, September 1974.

“From Initial Mobilization to Political Effectiveness: Tenant Activity as a Social Movement” (with Stephen Burghardt).  Meeting of the Association of Voluntary Action Scholars, Denver, September 1974.

“Discomforted Tenants: Options and Choices – Testing and Refining Hirshman’s Model of ‘Exit, Voice and Loyalty’.” Meeting of the International Sociological Association, Toronto, August 1974.

“The Use of New Sociometry Techniques in the Study of Local Leadership Networks.” Bureau of Applied Social Research, Columbia University, April 1973.

“Sociology and the Study of National Influence Systems: Methodology” (with Charles Kadushin). Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, New York, April 1973.

“A Community Profile of the Brooklyn  Community Planning District 4 (Bushwick, Ridgewood).” Charter Revision Commission, New York City, February 1973.

Manuscripts in Preparation:

Books:

1. APOCALYPSE POSTPONED: Seventh-day Adventism Journeys from American Sect to Global Denomination summarizes the history of Adventism and the development of its many institutions.
2. THE CARING CHURCH? Seventh-day Adventism and Issues of Social Justice shows that sect to denomination theory is relevant to Adventism’s approach to its social issues.
3. FROM AMERICAN SECT TO GLOBAL DENOMINATION: The Growth and Spread of Seventh-day Adventism, considers the process and impact of Adventism’s globalization and growth, including the role of Adventist emigration/immigration, what social groups are prominent among its members, how the global church is governed, and the dynamics of its congregations. The growth and spread of Adventism, and what kinds of people join it, are compared with the experience of Mormons and Witnesses, two other religious groups that were also born in the USA during the nineteenth century and then globalized.
4. APOCALYPSE POSTPONED: The Future of Seventh-day Adventism, looks especially at the issues currently facing Adventism.

Journal Article:

“Reassessing the Size of Mormons, Adventists and Witnesses: Testing the Reliability of their Membership Data and Predicting the Trajectories of their Future Global Growth.” (Co-author G. Kenneth Xydias)

Published Manuscripts:

The Tenant Movement in New York, 1904-1984. (Initiator and supervisor of research, editor, and author of two segments.) Rutgers University Press, 1986. (Hardback and Paperback editions.) (xiv + 289 pages)

“Owners of Last Resort: An Assessment of the Track Records of New York City’s Early Low Income Co-operative Conversions.” Monograph, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, 1984. (152 pages)

Brisbane in the 1890s: An Australian Urban Society. University of Queensland Press, 1973, 1987. (xxxv + 373 pages) (In March 1974 this book was awarded the Australia and New Zealand Bank Prize for the best book on Australian history published during 1973.)

Community Leaders and Urban Housing Problems: Leadership Roles, Organizational Goals and Effectiveness in Seven New York City Community Planning Districts.” Bureau of Applied Social Research Monograph, Columbia University, 1973. (101 pages)

RESEARCH PROJECTS AND FUNDING

Current Research Project:
Since 1984 “Global Seventh-day Adventism amid Conflict and Change.”

Funding:

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for $25,000, 1984-85;
CUNY Scholar Incentive Award for $10,000, 1984-85;National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for $27,500, 1988-89;
PSC-CUNY Awards towards research travel costs: $3,899 in 1984-85,
$10,082 in 1985-86, $5,000 in 1987-88, $3,600 in 1988-89, $4,500 in 1999
Society for the Scientific Study of Religion for inputting questionnaire
data, $2,000, 1990;
Louisville Institute for the Study of Protestantism and American Culture Fellowship for $50,000, 1994-95, and $20,000 1997-98;
Three Constant H. Jacquet Research Grants from the Religious Research Association totaling $4,000, 1996, 1997 and 1999;
Joseph H. Fichter Research Grant from the Association for the Sociology of Religion, $1,000, in 1997;
Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Research Grants totaling 3,000 in 1997 and 1999;
Peterson Foundation grant towards sabbatical leave salary to cover manuscript preparation, $32,500, 2001;
Martin Foundation grant toward an additional year to complete the manuscript, $50,000, 2002.

Completed Research Projects:

1982-83 “Assessing the Track Records of Low Income Housing Co-operatives Formed During the Early 1970s.” New York City, faced with the enormous problem of managing 10,000 buildings which had suddenly fallen into its hands as a result of foreclosures for non-payment of real estate taxes, evolved “experimental”, rapidly growing programs aimed at creating low-income co-operatives. However, the idea was not so experimental, for I knew of at least 62 buildings that had become low-income co-operatives under various programs in the early 1970s. I studied their track records in the hope of shaping the new programs to be more effective.
Funding: Contract for $9,500 from the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

1978-82 “The Impact of Tenant Activism upon the Social Process of
Housing Abandonment.” A panel study of every building on 33 blocks in
six neighborhoods in various stages of housing decay, where a variety
of tenant strategies were in use in at least one building per block.
Funding: $40,776 from HUD, $29,739 from the Board of Higher Education/Professional Staff Congress,City University of New York and $10,000 from the Taconic Foundation.

1977-78 “The Political Face of the Real Estate Industry in New York City.” The political organization of the real estate industry, and the roles of its constituent parts in several key landlord-tenant issues in the state legislature.
Funding: $14,000 from the New York Community Trust.

1973-81 “Tenant Mobilization and its Consequences.” A study of the precursors of
tenant activism, and of the evolution of the tenant movement since the first major rent strikes in New York City in 1904, with special attention to the transformation of the movement since 1971 and its consequences both politically and for the housing
involved.
Funding: $200,000 from the Center for Metropolitan Studies, National Institutes of Mental Health.

1971-72 “New York City Neighborhood Study.” Broad-based and in-depth surveys of
seven New York City neighborhoods.
Position: Director of one of five sub-sections of this $1.4 million NSF-funded study through the Bureau of Applied Social Research, Columbia University.

1963-70 “An Analysis of Brisbane Society in the 1890s.” Ph.D. dissertation. This research employed both sociological and historical techniques to analyze the society of a city of 120,000 people. It dealt with demography, economic structure and development, human ecology, family life, the needy, education, leisure activities, and religion.

1962-63 “Secular Education in Queensland, 1859-1875.” B.A. (Honours) research thesis. The political struggle that eventually ended state aid to parochial and private schools in Queensland.

SPECIFIC TRAVEL GRANTS

1999 Awards from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Religious Research Association to fund summer travel costs to allow return visits to South Africa and Papua-New Guinea to study the Adventist response to the end of Apartheid and the dynamics and impact of many Adventists taking positions of political power in PNG.

1998 Award from the Association for the Sociology of Religion to fund summer travel within the US to follow up on local administrative responses and the reactions of women pastors to the decision by the world Adventist church rejecting the request of the church in North America to be allowed to ordain women to the pastoral ministry.

1997-98 Fellowship from the Louisville Institute for the Study of Protestantism and American Culture to provide an opportunity for additional data gathering in Eastern Europe further exploring ties between Adventism and the states there under the Soviet Union and the situation of Adventism there following the demise of the USSR.

1996 Queens College President’s Research Award [one semester’s released time]

1994-95 Fellowship from the Louisville Institute for the Study of Protestantism and American Culture to provide time for data analysis in the study of international Seventh-day Adventism.

1988-89 National Endowment for the Humanities College Teachers Fellowship, to provide time for travel to collect data in the study of Seventh-day Adventism.

1984-85 National Endowment for the Humanities College Teachers Fellowship, to provide time for travel to collect data in the study Seventh-day Adventism.

1983-84 Mellon Foundation fellowship for cross-disciplinary research in the Queens College History Department.

1980-81 Mellon Foundation fellowship for cross-disciplinary teaching and research in the Queens College Political Science department.

1975 Personal grant from the Ford Foundation to enable me to interview urban movement leaders in seven countries in Western Europe.

ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL HONORS

1994 Queens College President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching [$5,000]
1993 Queens College Student Association Teacher of the Year
1974 Australia and New Zealand Bank Prize for the best book on Australian
history published in Australia in 1973.
1971 Australian-American Travel Grant (Fullbright-Hays).

CAREER AS A CHURCH MUSICIAN

Ron Lawson at the console of the E.M. Skinner organ in the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Mount Vernon, NY in 2000.

1955-58 Formed and directed a sanctuary choir, Seventh-day Adventist church, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.

1959-66 Formed and directed a sanctuary choir, Central SDA Church, Brisbane, Queensland.

1963-70 Chapel organist, Emmanuel College, University of Queensland (Presbyterian Seminary—week-night pre-dinner services.)

1964-70 Salaried singer, St. John’s Anglican Cathedral, Brisbane

1974-88 Organist, New York Adventist Forum (St Paul’s Chapel, Columbia University—5-manual Aeoleon-Skinner organ)

1989 Organist, Baptist Church, Ossining, NY (6 months)

1989-2002 Music Director (organist and choir director), Ascension Episcopal Church, Mt Vernon, NY. (3-manual Skinner organ, 4 salaried choral section leaders)

2002-05 Music Director, St Peter’s Episcopal Church, North-west Bronx, NY (4-manual organ, 4 salaried choral section leaders)

Organising and Volunteer Roles

1962 Was one of the movers in creating the Queensland University SDA Society (QUSDAS). President 1963-5, hosted the SDA university societies National Convention, 1964.

1964-6 Superintendent of a newly-formed youth Sabbath School at Central SDA Church, Brisbane. There were over 100 university students at the church by then, a congregation in which only two members (a married couple) were university graduates, and that couple were never asked to hold an office. The leadership of the church became so worried about the questions addressed in classes in the youth Sabbath School that they suddenly closed it down in 1967.

1970-1 Delayed taking up a Fullbright travel grant to the US for post-doctoral study at Columbia University in order to take the “Hippy Route to Europe” with my friend, Greg Mann. We hitchhiked to Darwin in Northern Australia, flew from there to what was then known as Portuguese Timor and then to Bali, and then on through South East Asia (Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, to India, where we traveled the sub-continent by train for 9 weeks, and then in a van with two other British guys through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey to Istanbul, israel, Greece, and then north through what was then Communist Eastern Europe – Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland, and then by train to Leningrad, and then through Finland, Sweden, Norway, and then back to Sweden, where I ran out of time and had to take my travel grant flights to NYC, arriving there Sept 1, 1971. A stranger in the megalopolis, I was fortunate in finding a spiritual home and friends in the Forum Chapter that met weekly in St Paul’s Chapel, Columbia U.

1974-2015 President of the Metro New York Adventist Forum.

1975-77 Founder and president of the Sociologists’ Gay Caucus, as it was originally named. Helped to create and then served on the Committee that Examined the Status of Homosexuals in the Sociology Discipline.

1979 Played a major role in the planning for the first national Kampmeeting sponsored by SDA Kinship, a support group for LGBTIQ Seventh-day Adventists, and in shaping the future of the organization.

1980-1997 Held the post of Church Liaison in SDA Kinship.

1984 Launched what became a huge study of global Adventism. As I became free to travel from time to time (as I took sabbatical leaves or was given grants)

I traveled to the following countries on research trips designed to allow me to interview Adventists world-wide:

Italy, Serbia, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, East Germany, Poland, the Soviet Union, West Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Britain, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Korea

1984-5	28,000 miles around the USA and Canada
1985-6	Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Australia, Papua-New Guinea, New Zealand, Fiji
1988-89	Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire (Congo), Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Burkina-Faso, Senegal, The Gambia, Britain, France, Spain, Switzerland
1999	England, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Germany
2002	The Netherlands, France, England
2008	South Africa, Zimbabwe, Australia, Papua-New Guinea, New Zealand
2014	Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, England
2018	Germany, France, the Netherlands, Britain

2016-19 Organizer of the Asheville Adventist Forum in Asheville, North Carolina.

Ron at home in Kew Gardens with Sophie in January 2014 – photo by Kevin Truong