Phil Zuckerman

Phil Zuckerman is an Associate Dean and Professor of Sociology and Secular Studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. He is also a regular affiliated professor at Claremont Graduate University, and he has been a guest professor for two years at the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

Phil is the author of several books, including What It Means to be Moral (Counterpoint, 2019), The Nonreligious (Oxford, 2016), Living the Secular Life (Penguin, 2014), Faith No More (Oxford, 2011), Society Without God (NYU, 2008), and Invitation to the Sociology of Religion (Routledge, 2003). He has also edited several volumes, including The Oxford Companion to Secularism (2017), Beyond Religion (Macmillian, 2016), Atheism and Secularity (Praeger, 2010), Sex and Religion (Wadsworth,2005), and The Social Theory of W.E.B. Du Bois (Pine Forge, 2004). Phil’s books have been translated and published in Danish, Farsi, Turkish, Chinese, Korean, and Italian.

Phil writes a regular blog for Psychology Today titled “The Secular Life,” and he also writes for the Huffington Post. His work has also been published in various scholarly journals, such as Sociology Compass, Sociology of Religion, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Deviant Behavior, and Religion, Brain, and Behavior.

In 2011, Phil founded the first Secular Studies department in the nation. Secular Studies is an interdisciplinary program focusing on manifestations of the secular in societies and cultures, past and present. Secular Studies entails the study of non-religious people, groups, thought, and cultural expressions. Emphasis is placed upon the meanings, forms, relevance, and impact of political/constitutional secularism, philosophical skepticism, and personal and public secularity.

Phil grew up in Pacific Palisades, California. Phil attended Santa Monica College before transferring to the University of Oregon, where he earned a BA (1992), MA (1995), and PhD (1998), all in sociology. His favorite writers include Tarjei Vesaas, Knut Hamsun, I.B. Singer, Richard Brautigan, Moa Martinson, Tove Ditlevsen, W.E.B. Du Bois, Steve Bruce, Peter Berger, and Erich Fromm. His favorite bands/musicians include Love, Nick Drake, The Beatles, Bert Jansch, Donovan, Turid, The Innocence Mission, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, XTC, The Byrds, The Kinks, The Who, Talking Heads, Tom Petty, Elliott Smith, Kurt Vile, Cat Power, Tim Buckley, Simon and Garfunkel, Kurt Vile, Roy Harper, The Association, Terry Reid, and Nina Simone.

The father of three children, he currently lives in Claremont, California, with his wife, Stacy.