"A richly researched ethnography that takes readers on a journey across the transnational ties of a Catholic women’s religious institute, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Sociologist Casey Ritchie Clevenger juxtaposes key takeaways in her debut book: that religious selves (and the orgnizations in which they are embedded) are at once transnationally connected and locally rooted. Religious sisters—like so many who labor and volunteer in organizations that cut across national boundaries—look the same, but different. Research doesn’t always adequately attend to those differences; Unequal Partners does."

American Journal of Sociology

“An insightful and moving case study… Casey Ritchie Clevenger manages to not only provide a rich description of the social and religious lives of these congregations… but also to speak to the larger social forces at play in the construction of transnational identities and competing narratives of global connection and competition.”
 

Sociology of Religion

“Scholarly and engaging from the outset, Clevenger’s Unequal Partners tackles a significant question, namely, how transnationalism emerges and impacts the living-out of what is, in one sense, a universal identity—being a Catholic nun—but which is highly contingent on localized realities as well as the dynamics of the transnational flow of both material and symbolic resources. Clevenger presents a rich empirical profile and thoughtful analysis of the kinds of women who become nuns, what their lives are like, and how and why American and Congolese nuns differ, even as they also overlap in significant ways.”

Michele Dillon, author of Postsecular Catholicism: Relevance and Renewal

“Clevenger's beautiful ethnography brings readers deep into the lived realities of Catholic sisters around the globe and the challenges of transnational sisterhood in the global Christian and sociological context.”

Wendy Cadge, author of Paging God: Religion in the Halls of Medicine

 “Unequal Partners reads like a personal exploration into the world and life of Catholic sisters. One can easily picture life in a Congolese convent, eating the local food, traveling on the treacherous highways, and witnessing the colorful habits of the nuns, which stands in sharp contrast to the living situation of sisters in the United States, who often live in apartments by themselves or with one or two other sisters. Through historical and social analysis of sisters in these two settings, Clevenger takes up the question of the degree to which cultural differences play a substantial role in shaping the lives of sisters.”

Donald E. Miller, author of Spirit and Power: The Growth and Global Impact of Pentecostalism