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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 EraCenter 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 AppalachiaNew 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

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