Projects & Presentations

MA Thesis & Study

"God is my Quarantine Buddy: Debates in Ritual Practice Among North American Pagans in 2020"

The past four decades of research in the contemporary paganism faith movement in the United States have focused on the creation of cosmologies based on scholarship, reclamations of heritage, counter-culturalism, and environmentalism. However, the dialogue has changed drastically in recent years due to the rapid and global communication between faith groups through the Internet. This became more apparent when so many had to digitize the entirety of their social lives during the pandemic of 2020. Contemporary paganism in the 21st century has become an amorphous mass of intersectional social issues and individual cosmologies because of the nature of human impact on the surrounding world. This is not just due to the intergenerational mixing of cultures brought on by globalism and a socially conscious attempt to avoid poaching someone else’s belief system while celebrating and discovering one’s own. Rather, this is a purposeful and ongoing dialogue that highlights how younger generations integrate their social and political values with their faith: personal cosmologies that function alongside a global political community are generally more important than a general cohesive doctrine that is shared by people of multiple disparate socio-political backgrounds.

URL: https://uh-ir.tdl.org/handle/10657/8339

Upcoming Presentations

“The Evolution of Primary and Secondary Burial in Greece”

13th International Conference on Spirituality and Religion, Athens Greece, June 20rd - 22th 2023

Upcoming Publications

“Constructing the Sacred Self: 21st Century Paganism, Self-Care Meditation, and Ascetic Witchcraft”

Chapter in Religious Responses to Pandemic and Crisis

Edited by Dr Eberhart, Dr Bortkataky-Varma, and Dr Kartzow

Routlege 2023

“Shakespeare Rewrites Homer: the Bard's Perceptions of Ancient Greek and Roman Religion”

Chapter in Shakespeare and Religion, Volume 1

Edited by Dr Burns

Vernon Press 2023

“Brewing Therapy: Coffee House AUs in Fanfiction as a Means of Emotional Closure”

Chapter in Fix It Fics: Challenging the Status Quo through Fan Fiction

Edited by Dr Tonti

Vernon Press 2024

Past Presentations

“The Silent Residents of South Texas: Unmarked and Undocumented Burial Grounds and How they Tie Into Existing Wildflower Conservation”

The Royal Anthropological Institute’s Anthropology and Conservation Virtual Symposium, London UK

October 25th-29th 2021

"Negotiating with the Body: Religious Body Modification Among 21st Century Pagans"
London Center for Interdisciplinary Research Conference on "Models and Alternatives: Myths, Archetypes, and Symbols"
September 25th & 26th 2021

“The Impact of Colonialism on the Funerary Practices of African Rural Areas in the 20th Century”

11th International Conference on Spirituality and Religion, Cordóba Spain, June 3rd - 5th 2021

“A God in His Own House: Negotiating Luck and Superstition in Cult Activity”

University of Houston Inter-Departmental Poster Session, ForagerOne (online) April 1st - 15th 2021

“Of Grave Importance: Funeral Ritual as a Defense Against the Supernatural” The University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Anthropological Society Presents (webinar series) March 19th 2021

“The Divination of Human Decay: a Cross-Cultural Analysis of Human Remains in Eastern Europe and the Balkans”

International Conference on the Aesthetics of Decay: Creative Modes of Destruction, hosted by London Center for Interdisciplinary Research, virtual, February 14th 2021

“The Social Role of Medieval Women in the Dissemination of English Religious Doctrine”

10th International Conference on Spirituality and Religion, virtual, October 5th - 7th 2020

Watch it on YouTube by clicking this link