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Professor Stephen A. Kent researches new and alternative religions, combining perspectives from sociology with religious studies. He has published research on Scientology, the Children of God/The Family, fundamentalist Mormon polygamy, and other new and alternative religions operating in Canada, the United States, and around the world.

Professor Kent teaches undergraduate and graduate courses that explore religion and deviance. He also conducts numerous reading courses with both undergraduates and graduate students, including students from other disciplines.

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Received The Margaret Thaler Singer Award (for advancing the understanding of coercive persuasion and undue influence) from the International Cultic Studies Association.

Received the Bill Meloff Award for Undergraduate Teaching, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta.

Received one of three campus-wide Graduate Student Supervisor Awards 2009 from the Graduate Students’ Association, University of Alberta.

Received the Izaac Walton Killam Post-Doctoral Scholarship, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta.