About
A scholar of American religion.
Growing up in a small town outside of Gettysburg, PA, my interest in religion was first ignited by the peace activism and weekly theological debates within my Mennonite church. After living abroad in Angers, France as a Rotary exchange student, and then in Chiang Mai, Thailand, I was struck by how integral religion is in shaping everyday life. Once I became attuned to the impact of religion, I could not unsee it. Religion is everywhere.
For over a decade, I have paired my interest in religion with American history and culture, receiving degrees in religion from Kalamazoo College, Harvard Divinity School, and Yale University.
As I have developed as a scholar, I’ve become fascinated with religion in popular culture and secular life. I understand religion as a dynamic of sociality and I am interested in tracking where and how those dynamics arise, particularly in non-traditionally religious spaces. My most recent work has explored the religion in and around the wellness industry, analyzing brands like CrossFit and SoulCycle and the communities that form around them.
While research drives me, teaching is what draws me to the life of a teacher-scholar. I love nothing more than to discuss the complexity of religious life with my students. As an instructor, my goal is to equip students with the tools of religious studies so that they may enter the world as more thoughtful and religiously literate partners in thought.
Areas of interest: American religion, secularism, capitalism, gender, race, health, and nature.