In this line of research, I have been researching student activism and organizations at U.S. colleges and universities. Specifically, along with current and former Oklahoma State University graduate students Dhruba Das, Gabby Gomez, Jericho McElroy, and Jessica Schachle-Gordon, I have constructed a comprehensive database of political student groups (e.g., College Democrats and College Republicans), religious student groups (e.g., Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim student groups), and social activist groups (e.g., Asian or Asian American, Black, Latinx, Native American, and LGBTQ+ student groups) across the nearly 2,000 U.S. colleges and universities. Drawing on political opportunity structure, educational opportunity structure, threat-based, and resource mobilization theories in social movement studies, my colleagues and I have been examining how sociopolitical contexts, school characteristics, and student body resources shape students’ ability to form organizations and achieve their goals. I am also supplementing this quantitative work with ethnographic and interview-based work on student activism on select U.S. college and university campuses. Recent articles stemming from this project have been published in Sociological Forum, The Sociological Quarterly, Sociological Inquiry, Sociological Focus, Socius, Sociology of Education, and Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.
Coley, Jonathan S., Gabby Gomez, Jericho R. McElroy, and Jessica L. Schachle-Gordon. 2026. “The Sociology of Student Activism.” The Sociological Quarterly 67(4), forthcoming.
Student activism has long occupied a central place in the study of social movements and social change. This introductory essay to The Sociological Quarterly’s special issue on student activism reviews key developments in the sociology of student activism related to three central questions: Why do students engage in activism? How do students engage in activism? And what changes does student activism bring about? This essay also introduces each of the articles in this special issue, which span a wide range of countries and movements and employ diverse methodological approaches. Together, this special issue demonstrates the continued vitality of student activism as an object of sociological inquiry and illustrates how further research on student activism can generate theoretical insights that extend well beyond the study of student activism itself.
Coley, Jonathan S., Gabby Gomez, Jericho R. McElroy, and Jessica L. Schachle-Gordon. 2026. “Shuffling the Files: Theoretical Bricolage and Strategies for Advancing Research on Social Movements.” The Sociological Quarterly 67(4), forthcoming.
Social movement studies possesses a rich and well-developed theoretical canon. Yet, given the maturity of the subfield, many researchers repeatedly turn to familiar questions and concepts to study social movements. Drawing inspiration from C. Wright Mills’ account of intellectual craftsmanship, we argue that social movement scholarship can be advanced through theoretical bricolage—the creative recombination of theories and concepts from multiple sociological subfields. Using student activism as a generative case, this concluding essay to The Sociological Quarterly’s special issue on student activism identifies a series of questions that have not yet been fully answered and demonstrates how insights from classical sociological theory, cultural sociology, social psychology, sociology of knowledge, sociology of morality, sociology of organizations, and sociology of work could help address them. Specifically, we consider questions regarding how organizational inequalities shape student activism; how student activists symbolically represent their movements; how rituals pattern student activism; how activist groups facilitate political conversion and shape students’ sense of morality and joy; how student activists transform what counts as knowledge; whether student activism produces prosocial or antisocial consequences; and how student activism shapes participants’ future careers. Placing established ideas into new relationships can generate fresh questions and new possibilities for social movement research.
Coley, Jonathan S., Dhruba Das, Gabby Gomez, Jericho R. McElroy, and Jessica L. Schachle-Gordon. 2025. “How Educational Opportunity Structures Shape the Presence, Forms, and Outcomes of Campus Activism.” Sociological Focus 58(1): 33-50. (external link)
How do characteristics of colleges and universities shape campus activism? In this review article, we provide an overview of the growing body of sociological research on educational opportunity structures at U.S. colleges and universities. Specifically, we synthesize research that discusses how various characteristics of U.S. colleges and universities—including their public or private status, their secular or religious identity, their wealth, their prestige, their residential character, their bureaucratic rules, and their administrators’ openness to campus activism—influence whether student activist groups emerge, adopt different forms, and achieve their goals. We conclude by discussing remaining gaps in our knowledge and highlighting several potential lines for future research.
Coley, Jonathan S., Jericho R. McElroy, and Jessica L. Schachle. 2023. “Red Schools, Blue Schools? Republican and Democratic Student Groups at U.S. Colleges and Universities.” Sociological Forum 38(1): 4-26. (external link)
How prevalent are Republican and Democratic student groups, and why are some schools home to Republican and Democratic student groups while other schools are not? Some commentators and scholars suggest that Republican student groups may be less prevalent than Democratic student groups and, when present, will likely be found at “red schools” in Republican-leaning areas of the country. However, other scholars argue that both Republican and Democratic student groups should be similar in their overall prevalence and will most typically be located at a similar set of “engaged schools.” Analyzing our original database of Republican and Democratic student organizations across 1,953 four-year, not-for-profit U.S. colleges and universities, we first show that Republican student groups are nearly as common as Democratic student groups: Republican student groups can be found at 39% of campuses, while Democratic student groups are present on 40% of campuses. Employing binary and multinomial logistic regression analyses, we then show that Republican and Democratic student groups tend to be located at the same types of schools, i.e., larger, wealthier, public schools that offer political science majors. Our article represents the most comprehensive study to date of Republican and Democratic student organizations and advances theorizing on student organization presence more generally.
Coley, Jonathan S, Dhruba Das, and Gary J. Adler, Jr. 2022. “Creating Sacred Spaces: Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim Student Groups at U.S. Colleges and Universities.” Sociology of Education 95(3): 171-188. (Lead article.) (external link)
Why are some schools home to Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim student organizations while others are not? In this article, we draw on theories of student mobilization, especially recent theoretical insights on educational opportunity structures, to understand the factors associated with the presence and number of minority religious student organizations at U.S. colleges and universities. Analyzing an original database of minority religious student groups across 1,953 four-year, not-for-profit U.S. colleges and universities, we show that schools that are located in liberal, pluralistic contexts and that are large, wealthy, and not affiliated with Christian denominations exhibit greater odds of having at least one minority religious student organization. Similar factors are associated with the overall number of minority religious student organizations at a school. Our article represents the most comprehensive study to date of minority religious student organizations and sheds light on issues of unequal access to student organizations more generally.
Schachle, Jessica, and Jonathan S. Coley. 2022. “Making Space: Racialized Organizations and Student of Color Groups at U.S. Colleges and Universities.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 8(3): 386-402. (external link)
A growing body of scholarship demonstrates the positive role that Asian, Black, Latinx, and Native American student groups play in the lives of students of color. Yet, we currently know little about the prevalence of student of color organizations and the characteristics of colleges and universities that are home to one or more student of color organizations. Analyzing our original database of officially recognized student of color organizations across 1,910 four-year, not-for-profit U.S. colleges and universities, we find that although a slight majority of U.S. colleges and universities are home to Black student groups, most U.S. colleges and universities lack Asian, Latinx, and Native American student groups. Drawing on recent insights from racialized organization theory, and employing logistic and Poisson regression, we also show that schools that have higher percentages of students of color, offer ethnic studies majors, and maintain centers devoted to issues of racial diversity, equity, and inclusion are more likely to have at least one student of color organization. A similar set of factors is associated with the overall number of student of color organizations at any given school. Our study advances scholarship on student of color mobilization within higher education and sheds light on issues of unequal access to student organizations more generally.
Coley, Jonathan S. 2021. “Creating Secular Spaces: Religious Threat and the Presence of Secular Student Alliances at U.S. Colleges and Universities.” Sociological Forum 36(3): 649-667. (external link)
Why are some U.S. colleges and universities home to secular student organizations while others are not? Recent literature suggests that threat can inspire mobilization when groups perceive challenges to their rights or their social standing. Developing the concept of religious threat, I consider whether Secular Student Alliances (the country’s largest association of student groups comprised of atheists, agnostics, and other religious skeptics) tend to be located at schools where secular students feel threatened by evangelical Christians. Through a logistic regression analysis of Secular Student Alliance presence across the 1,953 four-year, not-for-profit U.S. colleges and universities, I first show that colleges and universities located in states and counties with a high percent of evangelical Christians, and colleges and universities where activist-oriented evangelical Christian organizations are located, are more likely to be home to Secular Student Alliances. Through qualitative content analyses of 47 Secular Student Alliance newsletters from 2014-2017, I then show that student leaders indeed frame their groups as a way to counter threats posed by evangelical Christians. The article contributes to social movement theory on the mobilizing effects of threat and represents the most comprehensive study to date of secular student mobilization.
McElroy, Jericho R., and Jonathan S. Coley. 2021. “Gun-Free Zones? Political Opportunities, Resource Mobilization, and Shooting Sports Organizations at U.S. Colleges and Universities.” Sociological Inquiry 91(2): 398-425. (external link)
Coley, Jonathan S. 2021. “Mobilizing for Religious Freedom: Educational Opportunity Structures and Outcomes of Conservative Christian Campus Activism.” Research in Social Movements, Conflicts, and Change vol. 44(1): 175-200. (external link)
Coley, Jonathan S., and Dhruba Das. 2020. “Creating Safe Spaces: Opportunities, Resources, and LGBTQ Student Groups at U.S. Colleges and Universities.” Socius.(external link)
