CV

Click link below for my full CV

Education

• 2018 Ph.D., Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
• 2006 M.A.T., Language Arts, Lewis & Clark College Graduate School
• 2004 M.A.R. (cum laude), History of Christianity, Yale Divinity School
• 2002 B.A. English, Philosophy (with honors), Lewis & Clark College

Academic Positions

• 2020-2022 Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Santa Barbara
• 2019-2020 Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor, University of Southern Mississippi
• 2018-2019 Lecturer, University of California, Santa Barbara
• 2011-2018 Teaching Assistant/Associate, University of California, Santa Barbara
• 2006-2010 Teacher, Wood Middle School (Wilsonville, OR)
• 2005-2006 Instructor, Mt. Hood Community College (OR)

Publications

Journal Articles

• 2019. “Organic Farming as Spiritual Practice and Practical Spirituality at Sunburst Farms.” Nova Religio 23.1: 60-88.
• 2015. “‘Need a Minister? How about Your Brother?’: The Universal Life Church between Religion and Nonreligion,” Secularism & Nonreligion 4.12: 1-13.

Book Chapters

• 2019. “Biodiversity and Spiritual Well-being” (with Katherine N. Irvine, Rebecca Bell-Williams, and Sara L. Warber). In Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change, edited by Melissa R. Marselle, Jutta Stadler, Horst Korn, Katherine N. Irvine, and Aletta Bonn, 213-247. New York: Springer.
• 2017. “Your Wedding, Your Way: Personalized, Nonreligious Weddings through the Universal Life Church.” In Organized Secularism in the United States: New Directions in Research, edited by Ryan T. Cragun, Lori L. Fazzino, and Christel Manning, 253-278. New York: De Gruyter.

Encyclopedia Entries

• 2015. “Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI).” In Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics: The Paranormal from Alchemy to Zombies, edited by Matt Cardin, 49-51. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
• 2015. “Randi, James.” In Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics: The Paranormal from Alchemy to Zombies, edited by Matt Cardin, 253-254. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
• 2012. “Antigua and Barbuda.” In Encyclopedia of Global Religion, vol. 1, edited by Mark Juergensmeyer and Wade Clark Roof, 44-45. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
• 2012. “Virgin Islands (British).” In Encyclopedia of Global Religion, vol. 2, edited by Mark Juergensmeyer and Wade Clark Roof, 1361-1362. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
• 2012. “Virgin Islands (U.S.).” In Encyclopedia of Global Religion, vol. 2, edited by Mark Juergensmeyer and Wade Clark Roof, 1362-1363. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Conference Proceedings

• 2013. “Thrasymachus: Diagnosis and Treatment” (with Nicholas D. Smith). In Dialogues on Plato’s “Politeia” (“Republic”): Selected Papers from the Ninth Symposium Platonicum (International Plato Studies, Volume 31), edited by Noburu Notomi and Luc Brisson, 60-65. Sankt Augustin, Germany: Academia Verlag.

Book Reviews

• In press. Review of Speak of the Devil: How the Satanic Temple is Changing the Way We Talk about Religion, by Joseph P. Laycock, Religion.
• 2020. Review of Our Non-Christian Nation: How Atheists, Satanists, Pagans, and Others Are Demanding Their Rightful Place in Public Life, by Jay Wexler, Sociology of Religion 81.3: 347-347.
• 2018. Review of Inventing American Religion: Polls, Surveys, and the Tenuous Quest for a Nation’s Faith, by Robert Wuthnow, Religion 48.1: 132-135.
• 2016. Review of Media Portrayals of Religion and the Secular Sacred: Representation and Change, by Kim Knott, Elizabeth Poole, and Teemu Taira, Religion 46.3: 480-484.
• 2014. Review of Religion and Hip Hop, by Monica R. Miller, Religion 44.1: 186-189.
• 2012. Review of Aimee Semple McPherson and the Making of Modern Pentecostalism, 1890-1926, by Chas. H. Barfoot, Religion 42.4: 674-677.

Selected Online Academic Articles

• 2021. “Sunburst (Brotherhood of the Sun),” World Religions and Spirituality Project, June 22.
• 2020. “Universal Life Church Monastery,” World Religions and Spirituality Project, July 28.
• 2020. Contribution to “Asian Americans and American Religion: Recommendations for Your Summer Reading and Fall Syllabi,” Anxious Bench [Patheos], May 28.
• 2017. “On Reading Ralph Ellison Theologically,” Religious Studies Project, June 16.
• 2016. Review of Losing Our Religion: How Unaffiliated Parents Are Raising Their Children, by Christel Manning, Reading Religion, July 8.
• 2014. “Better Know an Archive: UCSB’s American Religions Collection,” Religion in the American West, June 16.
• 2013. Review of Theater in a Crowded Fire: Ritual and Spirituality at Burning Man, by Lee Gilmore, Religion in the American West, June 3.
• 2013. Review of What Matters? Ethnographies of Value in a Not So Secular Age, edited by Courtney Bender and Ann Taves, Practical Matters 6, May 4.
• 2013. “Religion, Secularism, and the Chaplaincy,” Religious Studies Project, April 24.
• 2013. Review of Cascadia: The Elusive Utopia: Exploring the Spirit of the Pacific Northwest, edited by Douglas Todd, Religion in the American West, April 8.
• 2012. “James Sheerin’s Search for the Holy Grail: Perceptions of Religion in the American West,” Religion in the American West, July 16.
• 2012. “Approaches to Studying Irreligion and Secular Spirituality in the Pacific Northwest,” Religion in the American West, July 16.
• 2012. “The Last Best Hope of Earth? Bron Taylor and the Limits of Dark Green Religion,” Religion Studies Project, April 25.

Other Publications

• 2010. “My Oregon Territories.” In Oregon Stories, compiled by Ooligan Press, 171-172. Portland, OR: Ooligan Press [Portland State University].

Selected Grants, Awards, and Honors

• 2021 Donia Human Rights Center Book Preparation Workshop Grant (“Asian American Religions, Religious Freedom, and the State,” with Melissa Borja), University of Michigan ($9,530)
• 2018 Walter Capps Memorial Award, Religious Studies Department, UCSB
• 2018 UCSB University Service Award
• 2018 UCSB Academic Senate Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award Nominee
• 2016 Certificate of Gratitude, CARE Advocate Office for Sexual Violence, UCSB
• 2015 UCSB Academic Senate Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award Nominee
• 2015 Dean’s Prize Teaching Fellowship, UCSB
• 2015 Cordano Catholic Studies Grant
• 2015 UCSB Open Access Fund Award, UCSB Library
• 2014 UCSB Academic Senate Doctoral Student Travel Grant
• 2014 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Travel Award
• 2014 UCSB Graduate Dean’s Advancement Fellowship ($6,750)
• 2013 UCSB Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research (ISBER) Graduate Research Award for Social Science Surveys (GRASSS) Grant ($600)
• 2013 Chair’s Distinguished Service Award, Religious Studies Department, UCSB
• 2012 Professor Robert S. Michaelsen Memorial Award for Academic Achievement in The Study of American Religion, Religious Studies Department, UCSB
• 2012 Graduate Students Association Excellence in Teaching Award Nominee, UCSB
• 2010-2013 Rowny Research Fellowship, Religious Studies Department, UCSB
• 2003-2004 Paul L. Holmer Scholar, Yale Divinity School
• 1998-2002 Dean’s Scholar, Lewis & Clark College

Podcast Interviews Conducted

• 2016, Interview with David Gordon White, “Historical, Popular, and Scholarly Constructions of Yoga,” Religious Studies Project, June 22
• 2016, Interview with Joseph Blankholm, “Permutations of Secularism,” Religious Studies Project, May 16
• 2016, Interview with Lynn Davidman, “Conversion and Deconversion as Concepts in the Sociology of Religion,” Religious Studies Project, April 25
• 2015, Interview with Darren Sherkat, “Religious Demography in the U.S.,” Religious Studies Project, November 25
• 2015, Interview with Rudy Busto, “Race and Religion: Intertwined Social Constructions,” Religious Studies Project, June 1
• 2014, Interview with Wade Clark Roof, “Baby Boomers, Quest Culture, and Spiritual Seeking: An Interview with Wade Clark Roof,” Religious Studies Project, December 15
• 2014, Interview with Michele Dillon, “Habermas, Religion, and the Post-Secular,” Religious Studies Project, March 10

Research Experience

• 2020-2022 Meaning of Religion Project (part of $2.8 million Templeton Foundation grant, “Spirituality and Prosocial Values in the Absence of Religion among Millennials and Their Families”) and Secular Communities Survey (largest-ever survey of U.S. nonbeliever groups), UCSB
• 2010-2013 Conduct interviews and create annotated bibliography about contemporary sexuality and spirituality, UCSB
• 2002-2004 Transcribe sermon manuscripts for The Works of Jonathan Edwards Project, Yale Divinity School

Selected Professional Service

• 2021-present: Steering Committee, Asian North American Religion, Culture, & Society Unit, AAR
• 2020-present: Co-Chair, Sociology of Religion Unit, AAR
• 2019: Steering Committee, Sociology of Religion Unit, AAR
• 2016-present: manuscript reviewer for Bloomsbury Academic and Secularism & Nonreligion
• 2015-present: Scholar as Resource, Religion and Diversity Project (Canada)
• 2014-2016: Interviewer, Religious Studies Project (podcast series)

Professional Affiliations

• American Academy of Religion
• North American Association for the Study of Religion
• The Study of Religion as an Analytic Discipline
• American Sociological Association
• American Anthropological Association
• Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
• Association for the Sociology of Religion
• Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network
• American Society for Church History