The Lived Theology and
Community Building Workgroup
Omar McRoberts
Assistant Professor of Sociology (University of Chicago). B.A. Public Policy Studies (University of Chicago); M.A. and Ph.D. Sociology (Harvard University).
Professor McRoberts' scholarly and teaching interests straddle the Sociology of Religion and Urban Sociology. He is currently preparing a book manuscript based on his dissertation (Harvard, 2000) Saving Four Corners: Religion and Revitalization in a Depressed Neighborhood. The book examines the structure, composition and impact of religious life in a poor, predominantly black neighborhood in Boston. He is also conducting a study of black religious responses to poverty and social welfare policy over most of the last century, culminating with W. Bush's Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives.
His previous publications include: "Understanding the 'New' Black Pentecostal Activism: Lessons from Ecumenical Urban Ministries in Boston." Sociology of Religion 60:47-70 (1999) and "Black Churches, Community, and Development." Shelterforce: The Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Building Jan/Feb 2001:1.
When Professor McRoberts is not thinking about religion, community, and poor neighborhoods he enjoys cooking, playing congas, listening to music - mostly jazz and reggae - and reading and writing poetry. He has published poems in the anthology Soulfires, edited by Daniel J. Wideman and Rohan B. Preston (Viking, 1996).