Jim was born and raised in Seattle, before the "coffee era".  He went to school in Seattle's Central District, a multi-ethnic community. He graduated from Stanford in 1970 with a B.A. in Intellectual History and a second "degree" for "willfully and maliciously blocking a public street or sidewalk" in an anti-war demonstration. Was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. He received his M.A. in Sociology in 1973 from the New School for Social Research. He then worked in various theatre companies in the San Francisco area for several years before returning to graduate school. He received his Ph.D. in 1984 from the Religion and Society program of the Graduate Theological Union. His dissertation was on the social theories of Mary Douglas.
Before coming to Redlands in 1989, Jim was previously: Research Director at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology Managing Director of the Cultural Development Institute Assistant Professor at the College of Notre Dame From 2000 to 2009, Jim was also Research Consulting Professor at the Fielding Graduate Institute, a Ph.D. program based in Santa Barbara, California. Jim helps non-profit organizations manage various life-cycle transitions.  You can find details about his consulting work at www.mcguire-spickard.com and at www.organizationspecialists.com.	Jim (on the right) with his brother Paul,  who teaches ethnic history at  U/C Santa Barbara.
Jim has a long history of peace activism. His institutional connections have varied through the years, but have primarily been with the Society of Friends, Amnesty International, and the Salvadoran Medical Relief Fund. He is currently on the Advisory Board of the Children's Bereavement Center of South Texas -- a truly good organization. Jim has edited several scholarly books, one of which -- Personal Knowledge and Beyond: Reshaping the Ethnography of Religion (a collection on reflexive ethnography) -- has been published by NYU Press.  He is currently working on several books and a number of articles, mostly about the role of religion in the contemporary world. To get more information about his intellectual projects, click here. You can find out about Jim's book on quantitative sociology here. When not working, Jim cycles, hikes, cooks, and spends time with his family. He is fond of mountains, kids, photography, and acoustic music.  Jim sells his photography here.
Jim and his daughter, Janaki, about 1984 (click here for some of her writing)	Jim has two children, Janaki (age 31) and Dmitri (age 28).  Janaki currently works as a comunications specialists at the Philadelphia office of Friend General Conference. She has worked at the Employment Justice Center in Washington, D.C. and at William Penn House, a Quaker seminar center on Capitol Hill.  Before that, she taught calculus and physics at Olney Friends School -- another worthy organization. I have posted her reflection piece on war here. (I discovered it when I was adding the link to WPH to the previous paragraph.  She hadn't told me about it, but I'm very proud of her insight and her heart.)   Dmitri lives in San Antnio, Texas, where he manages a small store. He's a cool guy.

You may reach Jim by e-mail Jim_Spickard@redlands.edu

If you read Danish, you can read an interview with him about his work here.

Check out his other web sites:

www.McGuire-Spickard.com www.SocialTheory,info www.SocialData.info