background

EDUCATION

B.A. (1986), Sociology and Anthropology, Wheaton College (IL); M.S. (1990) and Ph.D. (1993), Rural Sociology, Penn State

RESEARCH AND TEACHING 

I came to Elizabethtown College in 1993 and has served in a variety of both teaching and administrative capacities. I was the founding Director of the Honors Program from 1999-2005 and also served as Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology from 2014-2020.  

I initiated the return of the Criminal Justice major and have been teaching courses in the program as well as working to development important partnerships with local criminal justice-related agencies that provide research, internship, and networking opportunities. Under my guidance, the program has developed a niche that focuses on criminal justice reform and inmate reentry—two cutting edge realities that both state and federal governments are addressing in part because of the high cost of incarceration as well as the new recognition that a criminal justice system primarily focused on punishment and retribution is not successfully creating paths to reintegrate former inmates back into their communities. 

I teach Discovering Society, Race and Ethnic Relations, Sociological Theory, Criminology and the Criminal Justice System. In addition, a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease four years ago has led to a new interest in aging and gerontology, and along with Dr. Tamera Humbert, developed a course entitled Aging, Regeneration, and Spirituality—that introduces students to the challenges and opportunities that the aging process creates.  In this course, students attend “Rock Steady Boxing” workout sessions for folks with Parkinson’s Disease, spend in-depth time with an aging adult over the course of the semester, visit the local Senior Center, interact with guest speakers—both gerontology experts as well as older adults—and write a major paper that integrates their learning with the rapidly growing literature on aging.

• “Roadsigns Revisited: A Comparison of Anabaptists in the Global South and the United States.” Mennonite Quarterly Review.86:205-228, 2012.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. “How Can We Sing Those Songs? Testimony in Light of Findings from the 2006 Mennonite Church USA Member Profile.” Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology. 10:64-67, 2009. 
• Kanagy, Conrad L. “Mutual Aid and the ‘New Voluntarism’” in Building Communities of Compassion eds., Donald B. Kraybill and Willard Swartley, Scottsdale,  PA: Herald Press, 1998.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. and Leo Driedger. “Changing Mennonite Values: Attitudes on Women, Politics, and Peace, 1972-1989.” Review of Religious Research 37: 342-54, 1996.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. and Donald B. Kraybill. “From Milk to Manufacturing: The Rise of Entrepreneurship in Two Old Order Amish Communities.” Mennonite Quarterly Review 70:263-79, 1996.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. “The Formation and Development of a Protestant Conversion Movement among the Highland Quichua of Ecuador” reprinted in Religion and Democracy in Latin America, ed., William H. Swatos, Jr., Transaction Publishers, 1995.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. and Hart M. Nelson. “Religion and Environmental Concern: Challenging the Dominant Assumptions.” Review of Religious Research 37:33-45, 1995.
• Kanagy, Conrad L., Craig R. Humphrey and Glenn Firebaugh. “Surging Environmentalism: Changing Public Opinion or Changing Publics?” Social Science Quarterly 75: 804-19, 1994.
• Kanagy, Conrad L., Glenn Firebaugh and Hart M. Nelson. “The Narrowing Regional Gap in Church Attendance in the United States.” Rural Sociology 59: 515-24, 1994.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. and Fern K Willits. “A Greening of Religion? Some Evidence from a Pennsylvania Sample.” Social Science Quarterly 74: 674-83, 1993.
• Nelson, Hart M. and Conrad L. Kanagy. “Churched and Unchurched Black Americans” in Church and Denominational Growth eds., David Roozen and Kirk Hadaway, Abingdon Press, 1993.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. “Social Action, Evangelism, and Ecumenism: The Impact of Community, Theological, and Church Structural Variables.” Review of Religious Research 34: 34-50, 1992.
• Crider, Donald L., Fern K. Willits and Conrad L. Kanagy. “Rurality and Well-Being During the Middle Years of Life.” Social Indicators Research 24: 253-268, 1991.
• Kanagy, Conrad L., Fern K. Willits and Donald M. Crider. “Anomia and Religiosity: Data from a Panel Study of Middle-Aged Subjects.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 29: 226-235, 1990.
• Kanagy, Conrad L. “The Formation and Development of a Protestant Conversion Movement among the Highland Quichua of Ecuador.” Sociological Analysis 50: 205-217, 1990.