Alena Smith
alenasmith13.bsky.social
Alena Smith
@alenasmith13.bsky.social
PhD Candidate @Stanford | religion & politics
Reposted by Alena Smith
I'm excited to be co-organizing a Working Group at MPSA 2026 with @alenasmith13.bsky.social and @brooklynwalker.bsky.social. If you’re mapping out your conference schedule, we hope you’ll join us in Chicago to build community and share research on religion & politics.
www.mpsanet.org/conference/w...
Working Groups/CWC - Midwest Political Science Association
www.mpsanet.org
November 17, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by Alena Smith
@alenasmith13.bsky.social and I were awarded the 2025 Best Student Paper Award from @sssreligion.bsky.social. Thank you to everyone who helped along the way! @apsareligion.bsky.social @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org #polrel #polisky
December 3, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Alena Smith
Congratulations to @julthomson.bsky.social & @alenasmith13.bsky.social, winners of the SSSR’s 2025 Student PaperAward (Published) for ‘Sacred speech: Analyzing the influence of congressional leadership on religious rhetoric,’ published in Politics and Religion.

sssreligion.org/awards-grant...
December 11, 2025 at 4:01 AM
Reposted by Alena Smith
@kkdumez.bsky.social If you haven't heard it yet, there's a new (excellent!) song out with the same title as your book about how churches today have left Jesus ("Blessed is America, but only for Americans"): www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsZu...
Googly Eyes, Joy Oladokun & Allison Ponthier | Jesus and John Wayne (Official Audio)
YouTube video by googly eyes
www.youtube.com
July 16, 2025 at 5:49 PM
New post up at Religion in Public with @julthomson.bsky.social! We look at what happened to religious rhetoric in Congress after Mike Johnson became Speaker.
In short, no change in “God talk” on the House floor, more in Republican newsletters to voters.
religioninpublic.blog/2025/07/14/t...
The Johnson Effect: How the New Speaker Sparked a Religious Rhetoric Surge
By Alena Smith and Julianna J. Thomson [Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons] After Mike Johnson (R-LA) became Speaker of the House in October 2023, Republican legislators started using significantly mo…
religioninpublic.blog
July 15, 2025 at 1:04 PM