Jelani Ince is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology. His research and scholarship centers on race in American life, with a focus on the role of churches and social movements in the production of racial regimes. He explores how people respond to widespread cultural beliefs about inclusion, diversity, and justice and how they structure their worlds to demonstrate a commitment to those ideals. His book Shepherds and Kings: How Philanthropy Stymies Diversity's Potential  uses ethnography and in-depth interviews to understand the relationship between donor power, institutional survival, and philanthropic dependence in multiracial Protestant congregations that publicly commit to diversity.

He teaches graduate courses in culture and organizations and qualitative fieldwork, and undergraduate courses in social psychology and the sociology of race and ethnicity.

Ince is a recipient of the 2026 Faculty Summer fellowship, New Approaches to Meet the Moment, for his project Shepherds and Kings. In this innovative performance research project, he will explore how the failures of organizational DEI projects may be stymied by the heavy-handed influence of elite donors.