Amy Adamczyk, PhD.
Dr. Amy Adamczyk is Professor of Sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Programs of Doctoral Study in Sociology and Criminal Justice at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY). During the 2019-2020 school year she was the Interim Deputy Executive Officer of the Ph.D. Program in Criminal Justice at the Graduate Center. In 2005 she received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the Pennsylvania State University. She holds MA degrees from the University of Chicago and the Graduate Center/ Queens College, and she completed her BA degree at Hunter College.
Her research focuses on how different contexts (e.g. nations, counties, friendship groups), and personal religious beliefs shape people’s deviant, criminal, and health-related attitudes and behaviors. Her research has been published in the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Justice Quarterly, the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Social Science Research, Social Science Quarterly, Sociological Quarterly, Sociology of Religion, and the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
In February 2025, she will publish her third book, Fetal Positions: Understanding Cross-National Public Opinion about Abortion, which examines the factors shaping cross-national views about abortion (Oxford University Press). Her coauthored book, Handing Down the Faith, was a finalist for Christianity Today’s 2022 Book of the Year Award, Marriage & Family Category. She is also the recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Book Award from the International Section of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.
In 2023 her coauthored article received the Distinguished Sociology of Religion Journal Article Award from the Association for the Sociology of Religion. With her colleague she received the 2017 Best Paper of the Year Award from the Journal of Management, Spirituality, and Religion. In 2009 John Jay College awarded her the Donald MacNamara Award for Junior Faculty, in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2016, 2019, and 2024 she was the recipient of John Jay College’s Research Excellence Award, and in 2011 she received the John Jay College's Midcareer Award.
Her research has been supported with grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and the Global Religion Research Initiative.
