Sophie Bjork-James

Media Appearances

• The misleading controversy over an Olympic women’s boxing match, briefly explained

  “Trans issues in particular challenge … biblical concepts of gender,” Sophie Bjork-James, a Vanderbilt University anthropologist who studies the religious right, previously told Vox. “Evangelicals tend to believe that men and women have very different qualities that are innate in us. I think there’s a huge interest in maintaining a gender binary because it really does provide a foundation for their theology and their everyday lives.”

  August 2nd, 2024

• "A cesspool for bigotry": Elon Musk's threats against Anti-Defamation League may backfire

  Musk's failure to address the spread of antisemitic messages is "incredibly dangerous" because antisemitic conspiracies often lead to more violence, pointed out Sophie Bjork-James, a professor at Vanderbilt University, who researches the white nationalist movement.

  September 9th, 2023

• Anti-LGBTQ+ activism spiked during Pride Month, with California leading the way

  It also correlates with a legislative push to roll back gains for the LGBTQ+ community, Sophie Bjork-James, an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University with a focus on the religious right and white nationalism, told Insider.

  July 15th, 2023

• Experts warn against canceling Pride campaigns after extremists threaten Target

  "I think this will embolden alt-right actors, who now are going to believe that with social media campaigns and targeted actions against retailers that they can proceed in limiting visibility of LGBTQ people," said Sophie Bjork-James, a professor at Vanderbilt University, who researches the white nationalist movement, in an interview.

  May 30th, 2023

• Experts: Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric could galvanize extremists

  Such may have been the case when 31 members of the neo-Nazi group Patriot Front were arrested in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on Saturday and charged with conspiracy to riot at a Pride event, said Sophie Bjork-James, an assistant professor in anthropology at Vanderbilt University who researches the white nationalist movement, racism and hate crimes in the U.S. The arrests came as a toxic brew of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has been on the rise in Idaho and elsewhere.

  June 14th, 2022

• Americans' erratic relationship with religion will be tested again after abortion ruling, experts say

  “Abortion is framed as a black and white issue in evangelism in that it’s always bad, and I think what we’re going to see – especially if Roe is overturned – is that there’s a gray area that’s going to jump into the picture in ways that many pro-life people have never thought about,” said Sophie Bjork-James, a professor of anthropology at Vanderbilt University.

  May 29th, 2022

• Teachers who mention sexuality are ‘grooming’ kids, conservatives say

  Sophie Bjork-James, an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University who studies evangelical politics and the white-nationalist movement, said the religious right has advanced similar lines of argument in the past. In the 1980s, for instance, when women were entering the workforce in large numbers and placing their children in day-care centers, she said, some Christian conservatives drove what became known as the “satanic panic” — the false alarm that day cares were sites of satanic ritual and sexual abuse.

  April 5th, 2022

• QAnon’s ‘Save the Children’ morphs into popular slogan

  Under the guise of benefiting children, many of the posts seek to lure people into the QAnon conspiracy theory circle and encourage support for Trump, said Sophie Bjork-James, an anthropology professor at Vanderbilt University who studies the religious right and QAnon.

  October 28th, 2020

• Notre Dame Cathedral fire spurs Islamophobic conspiracy theories on social media

  As firefighters worked to contain the fire that ravaged the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Monday, Twitter and YouTube struggled to take down conspiracy theories being pushed by both anonymous accounts and verified white nationalists who spread Islamophobic theories about the disaster.

  April 16th, 2019

• Far-Right Internet Groups Listen for Trump’s Approval, and Often Hear It

  On Wednesday, minutes after President Trump posted an incendiary campaign ad falsely accusing Democrats of flooding the country with murderous illegal immigrants, virulent racists on an online message board erupted in celebration.

  November 4th, 2018