Research and Writing

Book Manuscript

[in progress] The New Heretics: Secularism, Skepticism, and the End of Christianity (under contract with NYU Press).

Book Chapters

Forthcoming. “Competencies and Curricula: Structuring the Religious Studies Major,” in The Architecture of the Academy: Processes, Institutions, and Power in the Academic Study of Religion. Ed. Leslie Dorrough Smith. Sheffield: Equinox.

Forthcoming. “Intersections of Would, Can, and Will: What to Do When White Supremacists Come to Town,” in Grounding Education in Environmental Humanities: Exploring Place-Based Pedagogy in the South. Eds. David Aftandilian and Lucas Johnston. New York: Routledge.

2017. “Religion is Bullshit,” pp.149-161 in Stereotyping Religion: Critiquing Clichés. Eds. Craig Martin and Brad Stoddard. London: Bloomsbury Press. 

2016. “Precision and Excess: Doing the Discipline of Religious Studies,” pp. 150-154 in Theory in a Time of Excess. Ed. Aaron Hughes. Sheffield: Equinox Press.

2016. “Civic Engagement in the Heart of the City,” pp. 74-87 in Teaching Civic Engagement in the Religion Classroom. Eds. Forrest Clingerman and Reid Locklin (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

2013. “Coffee with McCutcheon: A Conversation about Language, Pedagogy and Critical Pluralism,” pp.81-84 in Supplements to Method and Theory in the Study of Religion. Eds. Aaron Hughes, Russell McCutcheon and Kocku von Struckrad (Leiden: Brill).

Non-Refereed Journal Articles (Invited)

2018. “Critical Trajectories and the Timing of Critique.” [first author] Co-authored with Warren Goldstein and Jonathan Boyarin. Critical Research on Religion 6(1): 3-8.

2018. “Specter and Horizon: Critique in Ethnographies of North American Christianity.” Part of a Roundtable Symposium: “Toward a Critical Anthropology of Religion.” Critical Research on Religion 6(1): 21-27.

2017. “Editorial: On a Balanced Critique: (or on the limits of critique).” [second author] Co-authored with Warren Goldstein and Jonathan Boyarin. Critical Research on Religion 5(1): 4-8.

2016. “Editorial: Critical Theory of Religion vs. Critical Religion.” [second author] Co-authored with Warren Goldstein, and Jonathan Boyarin. Critical Research on Religion 4(1): 3-7.

2015. “Editorial: How Can Mainstream Approaches Become More Critical?” [third author] Co-authored with Warren Goldstein, Roland Boer, and Jonathan Boyarin. Critical Research on Religion 3(1): 3-12.

2014. “The Anthropology of Christianity Goes to Seminary.” Religion and Society: Advances in Research 5: 255-260.

2013. “Open Space Technology and the Study of Religion: A Report on an Experiment in Pedagogy.” Co-authored with Tyler Baker, Nicholas Dion, Jinging Liang, James McDonough, and Joshua Samuels. Bulletin for the Study of Religion 42(2): 28-32.

2012. “The Academe, the Author and the Atheist: Bourdieu and the Reception of the Study of Religion.” Bulletin for the Study of Religion 41(1): 14-19.

2009. “Notes on a North American Anthropology of Christianity.” Bulletin for the Study of Religion 39 (1): 11-16.

2008. “Preaching to the Choir: The Lives and Literature of “Agnostic” Christians.” The Centre for the Study of Religion Graduate Student Journal 8:48-54.

Scholarly Essays

2017. “When White Supremacists Come To Town.” Teaching, Religion, Politics – online series hosted by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Religious Studies and Theology.

2017. “Teaching Dual Nationalism: A Pedagogy of Displacement.” Teaching, Religion, Politics – online series hosted by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Religious Studies and Theology.

2106. “Whose Loss is it Anyway?: A Discussion on Nostalgia and Social Media.” Studying Religion in Culture – Guest Blog for the University of Alabama, Department of Religious Studies.

2016. “Whither the Sociology of Religion: A Response to Grace Davie on New Directions in the Sociology of Religion.” The Religious Studies Project.

2014. “Ritual Language and Christian Ontologies.” Practicum: Critical Theory, Religion, and Pedagogy Blog.

2013. “Ethics of Belief and the Discipline of Sincerity, Or, Progressive Christianity 101, How Not to Pray to an Interventionist God.” Anthropology News. Society for the Anthropology of Religion.

2010. “Civic Engagement and Civic Spaces: A New Perspective on Pedagogy and Homelessness” in Spotlight on Teaching: AAR Religious Studies News.

2009-2011. Regular contributions to the University of Toronto’s Religion in the Public Sphere Blog, The Religion Beat (http://religionbeat.blogspot.com).

Encyclopedia Entries

2017. “Can One Study One’s Own Religion Objectively?” pp.290-292 in Religion in Five Minutes. Eds. Russell McCutcheon and Aaron Hughes. Sheffield, UK: Equinox.

2010. “Canada: Protestantism and the United Church of Canada.” In The Encyclopaedia of Religion in America (eds.) Charles H. Lippy and Peter W. Williams, 395-404. Washington: C.Q. Press.

Book Reviews

Forthcoming. “A Diagram for Fire: Miracles and Variation in an American Charismatic Movement by Jon Bialecki.” Marginalia Review of Books.

2015. “Sensational Devotion: Evangelical Performance in Twentieth Century America by Jill Stevenson.” Practical Matters 8:104-107.

2013. “Vernacular Religion in Everyday Life: Expressions of Belief by Marion Bowman and Ülo Valk (eds.).” Religion and Society: Advances in Research 4: 208-210.

2013. “Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in the Age of Conservatism by David R. Swartz.” AnthroCyBib: The Anthropology of Christianity Bibliographic Blog.

2011. “Words upon the Word: An Ethnography of Evangelical Group Bible Study by James S. Bielo.” Religion and Society: Advances in Research 2: 167-168.

Reports and Documents towards Curriculum Development of BA/BS in Religious Studies

Spring 2016. Implementation Portfolio of BA/BS in Religious Studies (submitted to Tennessee Higher Education Council).

Fall 2016. Letter of Intent for the development of BA/BS in Religious Studies (submitted to Tennessee Board of Regents).

Fall 2014. Feasibility Report toward Religious Studies major program (submitted Provost’s office).

Reports – Other

2013. Returning to High School in Ontario: Adult Students, Postsecondary Plans and Program Supports. [second author] Co-authored with Christine Pinsent-Johnson and Shannon Howell. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Control Counsel of Ontario.