Margarita A. Mooney

Profile
Margarita A. Mooney is Associate Professor of Congregational Studies. She earned her MA and PhD in sociology from Princeton University, and her BA in psychology at Yale University. Most recently, she served as an associate research scientist in the Department of Sociology at Yale, and previously taught at Princeton University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is currently the co-principal director with Philip Gorski of the Human Flourishing and Critical Realism in the Social Sciences Project, funded by a $2.5 million grant from The John Templeton Foundation.

As a sociologist of religion, Mooney explores how religious beliefs and congregations facilitate immigration integration, and how religious beliefs and practices contribute to congregants’ health and well-being. She is the author or coauthor of some 20 articles. A practicing Roman Catholic, her current research for a forthcoming book, Living a Broken Life, Beautifully, combines both quantitative and qualitative research data in exploring the relationship between religion, moral meaning, and resilience.

Curriculum Vitae
Personal Website

Select Publications

• Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora (University of California Press, 2009)