CV (abridged)
RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS
Anthropology of Christianity, race, social politics, democracy, human rights, media studies, documentary film and photography
EMPLOYMENT
2020-2022 Postdoctoral Fellow, Recovering Truth: Religion, Journalism, and Democracy in a Post-Truth Era, Center for Religion and
Conflict, Arizona State University
EDUCATION
2020 Ph.D., Department of Anthropology, NYU
Winner-2021 NYU University-Wide Outstanding Dissertation Award
Winner-2021 NYU GSAS Dean's Outstanding Dissertation Award
2017 Graduate Certificate in Culture and Media, Departments of Anthropology and Cinema Studies (Tisch), NYU
2017 M.Phil., Department of Anthropology, NYU
2011-2014 M.A., Department of Religious Studies, Missouri State University
2006-2011 B.A., summa cum laude in the Honors College with departmental distinction, Department of Religious Studies, MSU
HONORS AND AWARDS
2020-2021 SSRC Religion, Spirituality, and Democratic Renewal Fellow
2019-2020 Charlotte W. Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship in Religion and Ethics
2019-2020 NEH-Orthodox Christian Studies Dissertation Fellowship
2019 NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, Summer Fieldwork Fellowship
2019 NYU Outstanding Teaching Award
2018-2019 Louisville Institute Dissertation Fellowship
2017 NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, Research Fellowship
2017 NYU Annette Weiner Fieldwork Grant
2016 NYU Patricia Dunn Lehrman Fellowship for American Art
2016 NYU Dean’s Student Travel Grant, GSAS
2015 NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, Summer Pre-fieldwork Grant
2015 NYU Dean’s Student Travel Grant, GSAS
2014-2017 NYU Dean’s Fellowship (three-year summer fellowship)
2014-2019 NYU Five-Year Opportunity Fellowship Program
2014-2019 NYU Five-YearMacCracken Fellowship (full tuition plus stipend)
2014 Fulbright/University of St. Andrews Four-Year Doctoral Fellowship
(one offered every four years) (declined)
2014 Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, honorable mention
2014 MSU Religious Studies Department Student Enhancement Grant
2013 MSU College of Humanities and Public Affairs Travel Grant
2013 MSU Graduate College Travel Grant
2012 MSU Graduate College Thesis Grant
2012 MSU Graduate College Travel Grant
2012 American Academy of Religion Marion McFarland Taylor Award for Best Research Paper
2012 MSU Religious Studies Department Student Enhancement Grant
2011-2013 MSU Graduate Assistantship and Full Tuition Grant, (One of three chosen competitively)
2011 MSU Religious Studies Memorial Award for Academic Excellence
2010-2011 MSU Honors College Scholarship
2010 MSU Honors College Department Honors Thesis Grant
2008-2011 MSU James P. Robinson Ecumenical Scholarship (renewed yearly)
2007-2008 AmeriCorps Education Award
2006-2007 MSU Midwest Campus Compact Citizen-Scholar (M3C) Fellows Program
PUBLICATIONS AND FILMS
Books
Between Heaven and Russia: Religious Conversion and Political Apostasy in Appalachia. New York: Fordham University Press, 2022.
Book Chapters
Published
2021.“Head Coverings, Vaccines, and Gender Politics: Tensions Among Eastern Orthodox Women in Digital Spaces.” Fordham University Press.
2019. “Enshrining Gender: Orthodox Women and Material Culture.” In Gender and Orthodoxy. Edited by Helena Kupari and Elina Voula, London: Routledge Press.
2016. “Holy Pixels: The Transformation of Eastern Orthodox Icons.” In Digital Orthodoxy in the Post-Soviet World. Edited by Mikhail Suslov, 261-284. Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag.
Encyclopedia Articles
2016. “Architecture, Orthodox.” In The Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States: Volume 5. 122-3. Edited by George Thomas Kurian and Mark Lamport. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
2016. “Greek Orthodox Archdiocese.” In The Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States: Volume 5. 1014-16. Edited by George Thomas Kurian and Mark Lamport. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
2016. “Holy Order of Mans / Christ the Savior Brotherhood.” In The Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States: Volume 5. 1122-24. George Thomas Kurian and Mark Lamport. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
2016. “Orthodox Churches.” In The Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States: Volume 5.1701-3. Edited by George Thomas Kurian and Mark Lamport. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
2016. “St. Herman.” In The Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States: Volume 5.1083-4. Edited by George Thomas Kurian and Mark Lamport. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
Online Publications
2020. “Fieldwork and Fallout with the Far Right.” American Ethnologist website, 18 June 2020, https://americanethnologist.org/features/reflections/fieldwork-and-fallout-with-the-far-right
2019. “American Conversions to Russian Orthodoxy Amid the Global Culture Wars.” Berkeley Forum. https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/american-conversions-to-russian-orthodoxy-amid-the-global-culture-wars
2017. “Engaging with Appalachia’s Coal Crisis: Old Stereotypes and New Initiatives.” Public Orthodoxy, ed. Nathaniel Wood. https://publicorthodoxy.org/2018/11/15/engaging-with-appalachias-coal-crisis/
2014. “Sacred Waste.” In Discard Studies Compendium. Edited by Max Liboiron, Michelle Acuto, and Robin Nagle. http://discardstudies.com/discard-studies-compendium/#Sacredwaste
2013. with Aaron Sokoll, “Embodiment in Orthodox Prayer and Spirituality.” Reverberations, eds. Steven Barrie-Anthony, Jonathan VanAntwerpen, and Candace West, found at http://forums.ssrc.org/ndsp/2014/07/02/embodiment-in-orthodox-prayer-and-spirituality/
2013. with Aaron Sokoll, “Connective Implications of the Material Holy.” Reverberations, eds. Steven Barrie-Anthony, Jonathan Van Antwerpen, and Candace West, found at http://forums.ssrc.org/ndsp/2013/10/09/connective-implications-of-the-material-holy/
Journal Articles
2011. “From An Embryo to God’s Acre: A Turnerian Examination of Life in the Moravian Choir System,” LOGOS: A Journal of Undergraduate Research 4: 167-182.
2010. “‘Cheerless Asceticism’: How the New York Times Portrayed the Shakers from 1851-1899,” LOGOS: A Journal of Undergraduate Research 3: 102-109.
Book Reviews
2014. Robert L. Nadeau, Rebirth of the Sacred: Science, Religion, and the New Environmental Ethos. The Journal of Ecocriticism6 (1): (online).
2012. Gary Scott Smith, Heaven in the American Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press, In Religion iFirst 1-3 (June 25, 2012): http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2012.697829
Films
2019. Living Bread (19 mins). Role: Director, Cinematographer, and Editor
2017. Pixelating Holiness (15 mins). Role: Director and Editor. [Distributed by Documentary Educational Resources, www.der.org] Screenings: Margaret Mead Film Festival, American Academy of Religion, Australian Anthropological Association