Mary Ellen Konieczny is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame. She holds a PhD from the University of Chicago and an MDiv from Weston Jesuit School of Theology, and she previously worked in ministry and administration for the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. Her book, "The Spirit s Tether: Family, Work, and Religion among American Catholics", is an ethnography of liberal and conservative Catholic parishes examining how religion and family life support and shape moral and political polarization.