Skip to main content

Sociology

Faculty & Staff

3551 Cullen Boulevard, Room 450
Houston, TX 77204-3012
Phone: 713.743.3940
Fax: 713.743.3943

Link to Sociology Facebook page

Shayne Lee

Shayne Lee

Associate Professor

Phone: 713.743.3954
Email: slee3@uh.edu
Office: 471 Philip G. Hoffman Hall
Download CV


Education

Ph.D., Northwestern University
M.A., Trinity International University
M.A., Regent University
B.A., Oral Roberts University

Biography

Shayne Lee received his Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University in 2002. Dr. Lee has quickly emerged as a noted interpreter of contemporary American religion and culture, appearing as guest expert on CNN, ABC and Fox, while also providing commentary in the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Atlantic, Huffington Post, USA Today, CNN.com, Christian Science Monitor and numerous other periodicals. 

Dr. Lee is the author of four books. His first book, "T.D. Jakes: America’s New Preacher," analyzes the rise of a prominent African American spiritual leader as a microcosm of cultural changes in contemporary American religion. His second book, "Holy Mavericks: Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual Marketplace," co-authored with historian Phillip Sinitiere, uses theory of religious economy to add complexity and nuance to our understanding of spiritual appeal and the post-modern cultural turn in American Protestantism. Lee’s third book, "Erotic Revolutionaries: Black Women, Sexuality, and Popular Culture," navigates the uncharted spaces where social constructionism, third-wave feminism and Black popular culture collide. His fourth book, "Tyler Perry’s America: Inside His Films," offers a comprehensive exploration of the sociocultural relevance of Tyler Perry’s movies. Professor Lee’s current book manuscript is called "Dark Shadows: Cinema, Black Suffering, and Evil," and his next book project is a sociological study on Ingmar Bergman’s films.

Research Interests

  • Religion
  • Cinema Studies
  • Culture
  • Gender and Sexuality
  • Sociology of Science

Teaching

  • Cinema, Sex and Sanctimony
  • Malcolm Gladwell’s Sociology
  • Racial and Ethnic Relations in the U.S.
  • Sociology of Culture
  • Sexuality and Society
  • Sociological Theory

Selected Publications

  • Shayne Lee. 2015. Tyler Perry's America: Inside His Films. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Shayne Lee. 2010. Erotic Revolutionaries: Black Women, Sexuality and Popular Culture. Lanham, MD: Hamilton.
  • Shayne Lee and Phillip Sinitiere. 2009. Holy Mavericks: Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual Marketplace. New York and London: New York University Press.
  • Shayne Lee. 2005. D. Jakes: America’s New Preacher. New York and London:
  • New York University Press.
  • Aldon Morris and Shayne Lee. 2005. “The National Baptist Convention: Tradition and
  • the Challenges of Modernity.” In Church, Identity, and Change: Theology and
  • Denominational Structures in Unsettled Times. New York: Eerdmans.
  • Shayne Lee. 2004. “The Structure of a Spiritual Revolution: Black Baptists
  • and Women in Ministry.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 33(2):154–177. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241603261754
  • Shayne Lee. 2003. “The Church of Faith and Freedom: African American
  • Baptists and Social Change.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 42:31–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5906.t01-1-00159

Links