Research
The focus of my research is American religion and culture,
particularly the intersection of religion, sexuality and
politics. I have a Ph.D. in American Studies, and I teach in the
areas of religion, cultural studies, and gender and sexuality
studies. I write about the role of religion in social movements;
religion, media and popular culture; and conservative Christianity and
the Christian Right.
Current Book Project
Increasingly, state prisons in the United States have established
religious programs as the central means of rehabilitation for
incarcerated men and women In Florida, entire state prisons have
been designated as multi-religious institutions where men and
women participate in a variety of faith-based programs. The
prisons are intended to provide a wide spectrum of religious programs,
but they tend to be predominantly Protestant and evangelical in
focus. How do men and women practice religion in the coercive
spaces of prison? What are the implications of these prisons for
how we envision faith-based policy in the United States? Is
individual transformation the solution to issues like crime,
imprisonment, drug addiction and poverty? Should the federal
government fund religious organizations to provide social services?
In my book on Twilight
fans, I am interested in the way religion occurs
outside of traditional venues, and how religious practices are
experienced and imagined in and through popular culture.