Overarching Research Agenda

My research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of global and transnational sociology, organizations, culture, gender and sexuality, and political sociology. My research agenda advances understanding of the social and cultural dimensions of organizations and how organizations, in turn, influence cultural and political outcomes, particularly for LGBT populations, in the U.S. and cross-nationally.

World Culture & Transnational LGBTI Advocacy

My research explores how disparate cases of backlash against LGBTI people may be linked through broader transnational processes. To date, most literature treats backlash as unique events and derivations from the globalizing trend toward equality which are more attributable to the internal politics, cultures, and histories. Conversely, scholarship on international norms, generally, and LGBTI equality, specifically, can at times over-assume a slow-moving, homogenizing trend; what determines whether a country adheres to international norms is the extent to which they are exposed to the cultural values in question. My dissertation makes an intervention into both of these literatures by arguing that backlash is a transnational process and an example of how illiberal actors are changing the cultural values imbued within the international arena – eroding rights and legitimizing backlash to liberal norms. 

Publications

Velasco, Kristopher. Conditionally Accepted. “Transnational Backlash and the Deinstitutionalization of Liberal Norms: LGBT+ Rights in a Contested World.” American Journal of Sociology. Preprint.

Velasco, Kristopher. Forthcoming. “Opposition Avoidance or Mutual Engagement?: The Interdependent Relationship in Where Opposing Transnational LGBT+ Networks Locate.” Social Forces. Preprint.

Gonsalves, Tara and Kristopher Velasco. 2022. “Seeking Friends in Troubled Times: The Structure and Dynamics of Transnational LGBT Networks in Europe.” Mobilization: An International Quarterly 27(1): 91-114. PDF. Link.

Lerch, Julia C., Evan Schofer, David John Frank, Wesley Longhofer, Francisco O. Ramirez, Christine Wotipka, and Kristopher Velasco. “Women’s Participation in the Post-Liberal Era: A Global Perspective.” International Sociology 37(3): 305-329. PDF. Link.

Velasco, Kristopher. 2020. “A Growing Queer Divide: The Divergence between Transnational Advocacy Networks and Foreign Aid in Diffusing LGBT Policies.” International Studies Quarterly 64(1): 120-132. PDF. Link.

Velasco, Kristopher. 2018. “Human Rights INGOs, LGBT INGOs, and LGBT Policy Diffusion, 1991-2015." Social Forces 97(1): 377-404.” PDF. Link.

Working Drafts

Velasco, Kristopher. “Mapping the Middle: Using Text Analysis to Evaluate How World Culture Shapes the Saliency and Framing of LGBT Issues in Domestic Media Coverage.” Preprint.

U.S. Nonprofit Sector

I also have a related, but separate, line of research looking at service and advocacy organizations in the U.S. This line of research focuses on the cultural and social elements of these organizations and their consequences. For example, as sites of cultural (re)production, one project investigates the changing discourse within organizational missions to understand evolving collective identities for sexual and gender minorities (e.g., the evolution of “gay and lesbian” to “LGBT” to “LGBTQ” to “LGBTQIA” to abandoning acronyms altogether for more inclusive terms like “queer”). Through analyzing why discourse is changing, better insights can be drawn into understanding key drivers behind a dramatic cultural change occurring within the U.S. 

A second project, at American Sociological Review, investigates how organizational missions’ emotional valence influences donations and volunteers. Using sentiment analysis across 90,000+ nonprofit mission statements and experiments, robust findings reveal that articulating the mission of the organization within an emotional frame, particularly using positive emotions, increases an organization’s external support. Findings are more pronounced for volunteering, highlighting that emotional appeals are particularly salient in driving embodied experiences. Together, these two lines of research demonstrate how culture and social ideas penetrate organizational behaviors and the consequences this has – whether for an individual donor, national discourse around key populations, or the cultural ideas undergirding the entire international order. 

Publications

Velasco, Kristopher and Pamela Paxton. 2022. “Deconstructed and Constructive Logics: Explaining Inclusive Language Change in Queer Nonprofits, 1998-2016.” American Journal of Sociology 127(4): 1267-1310. PDF.

Messamore, Andrew, Pamela Paxton, and Kristopher Velasco. 2021. “Can Government Intervention Increase Volunteers and Donations? Analyzing the Influence of VISTA with a Matched Design.” Administration & Society 53(10): 1547-1579. PDF.

Ressler, Robert W., Pamela Paxton, Kristopher Velasco, Lilla Pivnick, Inbar Weiss, and Johaness Eichstaedt. 2021. “Nonprofits: A Public Policy Tool for the Promotion of Community Subjective Well-Being.” Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory 31(4): 822-838. PDF.

Ressler, Robert W., Pamela Paxton, and Kristopher Velasco. 2021. “Donations in Social Context.” Nonprofit Management & Leadership 31(4): 693-715. PDF.

Paxton, Pamela, Kristopher Velasco, and Robert W. Ressler. 2020. “Use of Emotion in Mission Statements Increases Donations and Volunteers.” American Sociological Review 85(6): 1051-1083. PDF.

Velasco, Kristopher, Pamela Paxton, Robert W. Ressler, Inbar Weiss, and Lilla Pivnick*. 2019. “Do National Service Programs Improve Subjective Well-Being in Communities?” American Review of Public Administration 49(3): 275–291. PDF.

Weiss, Inbar, Pamela Paxton, Kristopher Velasco, and Robert W. Ressler. 2019. “Revisiting Declines in Social Capital: Evidence from a New Measure.” Social Indicators Research 142(3): 1015-1029. PDF.