Description:

CURRENT POSITION:

Professor

 

OFFICE HOURS:

Monday, 1:10-3:00

Tuesday, 10:00-12:00, 1:10-3:00

Wednesday, 1:10-3:00

Thursday, 10:00-12:00

Or by appointment

 

FIELD OF STUDY:

New religious movements, collective behavior, deviance

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

How new religions originate and change over time; commitment-building processes; conversion and defection; charismatic leadership

 

COURSES – Spring, 2013:

Soci 130, Sociology of Alternative Religions, MWF, 11:10-12:00, SS 356

Soci 318, Sociological Research Methods, MWF, 9:10-10:00, SS 254

 

EDUCATION:

B.A. Sociology, Arizona State University, 1966

M.A. Sociology, Arizona State University, 1968

Ph.D. Sociology, University of Oregon, 1972

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Robert W. Balch. 1982. "Bo and Peep: A Case Study of the Origins of Messianic Leadership." Pp. 13-72 in Millennialism and Charisma, edited by Roy Wallis. Belfast: The Queen’s University.

Robert W. Balch, Gwen Farnsworth, and Sue Wilkins. 1983. "When the Bombs Drop: Reactions to Disconfirmed Prophecy in a Millennial Sect." Sociological Perspectives 26:136-158.

Robert W. Balch. 1995. "Charisma and Corruption in the Love Family: Toward a Theory of Corruption Charismatic Cults." Pp. 155-179 in Sex, Lies, and Sanctity: Religion and Deviance in Contemporary North America, edited by Mary Jo Neitz and Marion Goldman. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

Robert W. Balch, John Domitrovich, Barbara Mahnke, and Vanessa Morrison. 1997. "Fifteen Years of Failed Prophecy: Coping with Cognitive Dissonance in a Baha’i Sect." In Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem, edited by Thomas Robbines and Susan Palmer. London: Routledge.

Robert W. Balch. 1999. "Making Sense of the Heaven’s Gate Suicides." Pp. 109-228 in Cults, Religion, and Violence, edited by David G. Bromley and J. Gordon Melton. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Robert W. Balch. 2006. "The Rise and Fall of Aryan Nations: A Resource Mobilization Perspective." Journal of Political and Military Sociology 34 (summer): 81-113.

Robert W. Balch and David Taylor. 2011. "Seekers and Saucers: The Role of the Cultic Milieu in Joining a UFO Cult." In Heaven’s Gate: Postmodernity and Popular Culture in a Suicide Group, edited by George Chryssides. Farnham: Ashgate.