Jennifer McKinney
Professor of Sociology, Director of Women's Studies, Chair of Sociology Department
Email: mckinj@spu.edu
Phone: 206-281-2595
Office: 310
Education: PhD, Purdue University; MS, Purdue University; BA, Kentucky Wesleyan College. At SPU since 2001.
Dr. Jennifer McKinney is professor of sociology and director of Women’s Studies at ɬÀï·¬. Her research interests include gender, family, and religion. She is author of Making Christianity Manly Again: Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, and American Evangelicalism (Oxford, 2023) and co-author (with Dr. Martin Lee Abbott) of Understanding and Applying Research Design and has published articles in Contexts, Teaching Sociology, The Sociological Quarterly, The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and
Christianity Today.
Selected publications
Publications
Books
Snedker, Karen A. and Jennifer McKinney. Under Contract. Roofless: Homelessness and the Rise of Tent Cities. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
McKinney, Jennifer. 2023. Making Christianity Manly Again: Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, and American Evangelicalism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Abbott, Martin and Jennifer McKinney. 2013. Understanding and Applying Research Design. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Articles and Chapters (Selected)
Karen A. Snedker, Jennifer McKinney, and Charles C. Lanfear. 2025. “A Tent Census: How Counting Tents Informs an Understanding of Unsheltered Homelessness in ɬÀï·¬.” Socius 11, .
McKinney, Jennifer. 2020. “Transgender,” in Discerning Ethics: Diverse Christian Responses to Divisive Moral Issues edited by Hak Joon Lee and Tim Dearborn. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.
McKinney, Jennifer and Karen Snedker. 2017. “Hosting a Tent City: Student Engagement and Homelessness.” Teaching Sociology 45(3): 252-259.
McKinney, Jennifer and Karen Snedker. 2016. “From Charity to Change.” Contexts 15(2): 80-82.
McKinney, Jennifer. 2015. “Sects and Gender: Resistance and Reaction to Cultural Change.” Priscilla Papers 29(4): 15-25.
Public Sociology (Selected)
McKinney, Jennifer. 2023. “American Evangelicalism and Complementarianism: When Authority Leads to Abuse.” OUP Blog. May 15.
Snedker, Karen A. and Jennifer McKinney. 2018. “Four Myths about Homelessness: Voices from a Tent City.” The Conversation. June 5.
Snedker, Karen A. and Jennifer McKinney. 2018. “Hosting a Homeless Encampment Changed Our University.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 11, B32-B33.
McKinney, Jennifer. 2016. “Mars Hill Church (ɬÀï·¬).” The World Religion and Spirituality Project.
Book Reviews (Selected)
McKinney, Jennifer. 2024. Guiding God’s Marriage: Faith and Social Change in Premarital Counseling by Courtney Ann Irby. Review of Religious Research 66(3): 291-292.
McKinney, Jennifer. 2017. Understanding Gender Dysphoria: Navigating Transgender Issues in a Changing Culture by Mark A. Yarhouse. Christian Scholars Review 46(3): 312-314.
Please see Jennifer McKinney’s CV for more information.