My research has mostly concerned nonreligion, atheist activism, social movements, and the way institutions establish or contest authority. More recently, I have worked on responsible uses of generative AI in research.
AI and research practice
Eacersall, D., Pretorius, L., Smirnov, I., Spray, E., Illingworth, S., Chugh, R., Strydom, S., Stratton-Maher, D., Simmons, J., et al. (2025). "Navigating ethical challenges in generative AI-enhanced research: The ETHICAL framework for responsible generative AI use." Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching, 8(2). DOI · Open manuscript
A practical framework for researchers deciding whether and how to use generative AI while accounting for accuracy, privacy, bias, disclosure, and institutional rules.
Nonreligion and atheist movements
Simmons, J. (2024). "Indigenous atheists in Canada: Challenging assumptions and navigating belonging." Secular Studies, 6(1), 62-83. DOI
Based on interviews with Indigenous atheists in three Canadian cities, this article examines belonging, contact with non-Indigenous atheist groups, and the common assumption that Indigenous identity is necessarily spiritual.
Simmons, J. (2024). "The politics of nonreligion." In J. M. Smith and R. T. Cragun (Eds.), Secularity and nonreligion in North America: An introduction, 152-170. Bloomsbury Academic. Book
A chapter on the political commitments, internal divisions, and organizational problems that shape nonreligious life in North America.
Simmons, J., and Sandhu, A. (2020). "Between Islam and Islamophobia: Stigma management among Canadian atheist activists." Secular Studies, 2(2), 117-137. DOI
Examines how Canadian atheist activists criticized Islam while trying to avoid contributing to anti-Muslim racism and xenophobia.
Simmons, J. (2020). "Feminist women's attitudes towards feminist men in the Canadian atheist movement." Religion and Gender, 10(2), 182-201. DOI
Looks at how feminist women in Canadian atheist organizations assessed men who identified as feminists, including the practical limits of allyship within movement spaces.
Simmons, J. (2019). "Politics, individualism, and atheism: An examination of the political attitudes of atheist activists in a Canadian city." Secularism and Nonreligion, 8(2), 1-9. DOI
Finds a shared commitment to personal liberty, individualism, and expansive free expression among activists who otherwise disagreed about party politics and social justice.
Simmons, J. (2018). "'Not that kind of atheist': Scepticism as a lifestyle movement." Social Movement Studies, 17(4), 437-450. DOI
Uses interviews and participant observation to explain why some atheist activists came to identify as sceptics and treated personal habits as a site of social change.
Simmons, J. (2017). "Atheism plus what? Social justice and lifestyle politics among Edmonton atheists." Canadian Journal of Sociology, 42(4), 425-446. DOI
Studies Edmonton secularists' response to Atheism Plus and the tension between collective social justice projects and a strongly individualist account of activism.
Institutions, expertise, and social control
Sandhu, A., and Simmons, J. (2023). "Police officers as filmmakers: The cinematography of body worn cameras." Policing and Society, 33(5), 593-603. DOI
Treats body-worn camera footage as a constructed visual record. Camera position, movement, framing, and police practice all affect what viewers later take to be an objective account.
Simmons, J., and Kent, S. A. (2015). "An expansion of the rational choice approach: Social control in the Children of God during the 1970s and 1980s." International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 6(1), 27-49.
Revises rational-choice theories of religion by examining punishment, restraint, and social control within the Children of God.
Simmons, J. (2013). "Positive psychology as a scientific movement." International Journal of Science in Society, 4(1), 43-52. DOI
A study of how positive psychology presented itself as a scientific movement and managed disputes about its legitimacy.
Graduate research
Simmons, J. (2018). Atheist identity and lifestyle among activists in Edmonton. PhD dissertation, University of Alberta. PDF
An interview and ethnographic study of atheist identity, lifestyle, organization, and activism in Edmonton.
Simmons, J. (2012). Positive psychology as a scientific movement: A case study in scientific legitimacy. MA thesis, University of New Brunswick. University repository
Examines positive psychology as a scientific and intellectual movement, with particular attention to how its members argued for legitimacy.
For a more exhaustive bibliographic record, see ORCID or Google Scholar. Essays and fiction remain listed under Projects.