About the ARDA

The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) strives to democratize access to the best data on religion. Founded as the American Religion Data Archive in 1997 and going online in 1998, the initial archive was targeted at researchers interested in American religion. The targeted audience and the data collection have both greatly expanded since 1998, now including American and international collections and developing features for educators, journalists, religious congregations, and researchers. Data included in the ARDA are submitted by the foremost religion scholars and research centers in the world. Currently housed in the Social Science Research Institute, the College of Liberal Arts, and the Department of Sociology at the Pennsylvania State University, the ARDA is funded by the Lilly Endowment, the John Templeton Foundation, Chapman University and the Pennsylvania State University.

If you know of a data collection that should be included in the Association of Religion Data Archives, please contact us using the addresses or phone number given below. If you would like to submit a data collection, please complete the Submission Form and send the data file, appropriate support material, and a completed submission form (including the authorization form) to our office. Click here for a copy of the submission form in Microsoft Word format.

Citing the ARDA

When using ARDA data in publications and presentations, the author should acknowledge the Association of Religion Data Archives and the original collector(s) of the data (e.g., The data were downloaded from the Association of Religion Data Archives, www.theARDA.com, and were collected by [name of principal investigator(s)]).

Our staff

Roger Finke (The Pennsylvania State University), Co-Director
Christopher Bader (Chapman University), Co-Director
Andrew Whitehead (IUPUI), Co-Director

Research Team

Gail Johnston Ulmer (The Pennsylvania State University), Project Manager

George Hayward (The Pennsylvania State University), Post Doc
Michael Belt (The Pennsylvania State University), Research Associate
Brandon Brown (Baylor University), Research Associate
Joyce Chang (Baylor University), Research Associate
Claude Fabinyi (The Pennsylvania State University), Research Associate
Kerby Goff (The Pennsylvania State University), Research Associate
Richie Li (Baylor University), Research Associate

Marketing & Web Development

Ruth Christensen, Software Engineer
Joel Christensen, Software Engineer
Neil Luft, Web Design (Internet Imagineering)

Research Hub

Dane Mataic (North Dakota State University), Senior Research Associate
Davis Brown, Senior Research Associate

Congregational Resource Center

Jennifer McClure (Samford University), Senior Research Associate
Arthur Farnsley (IUPUI), Senior Research Associate
Todd Ferguson (University of Mary Hardin-Baylor), Senior Research Associate

Teaching Tools

Andrew Whitehead (IUPUI), Senior Associate for Learning Resources
Danielle DiMuzio (Clemson University), Research Assistant

The Press Room

David Briggs, Editor
Sandi Dolbee

Contact us

E-mail: support@thearda.com
Phone: 814-865-6258
Fax: 814-863-7216