Winnifred Fallers Sullivan

Sullivan is the author of three books analyzing legal discourses about religion in relation to the religion clauses of the First Amendment and related legislation. Each of these books offers a close reading of a US religion case using the resources of legal anthropology, socio-legal studies, and the academic study of religion. Sullivan's fourth book portrays chaplains and their ministries as a product of the legal regulation of religion and as a form of spiritual governance. A scholar of prison religion in the US, a field of increasing importance as mass incarceration attracts the public attention it deserves, Sullivan has done more to influence recent public discussions of the zone where concerns with religion, law, secularization, and freedom intersect. Her most recent book, Church State Corporation considers the church as it figures in US law.