Education

Ph.D. 1999, Syracuse University, Department of Religion, Syracuse NY
Dissertation: The Perpetual Millennium: Narrative Closure and the End of Days
Advisor: Patricia Cox Miller Committee: Michael Barkun, James Wiggins, Phillip Arnold, and Geoffrey Galt Harpham
M.A. 1993, Syracuse University, Department of Religion, Syracuse NY
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Field Study, 1993
America and the Holy Land
A.B. 1989, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie NY

Experience

Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar VA
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, 2004-
Associate Professor of Religion, 2005-
Assistant Professor of Religion, 1999-2005
Instructor, 1998-1999
Associate Director of the Honors Program, 2000-2003; Director 2004-
Syracuse University, Syracuse NY
Teaching Assistant, 1995
Adjunct Instructor, 1995-1998
University College, Syracuse NY
Adjunct Instructor, 1996-1997
LeMoyne College, Syracuse NY
Adjunct Instructor, 1997

Courses Taught

Introductory: The Study of Religion, World Religions, The Bible, Good and Evil, Sacred Words and Sacred Texts
Intermediate: Christianity, Judaism, American Religions, Latin American Religions, Religions of Africa, Women and Religion, Judaic Literature
Advanced: Philosophy of Religion, Psychology of Religion, Religion and the Arts, American Spiritualism, Hermeticism and Religion, Death
Special topics, Honors Seminars, and Women’s Studies: Religion and Romanticism, Free Love in America, The History of Secrecy, The Religion of Socrates, On Monsters

Publications

Edited volumes:

Co-editor, with Hillel Schwartz, The End that Does: Art, Science, and Millennial
Accomplishment, volume in the series “Millennialism and Society,” Brenda Brasher, executive editor, Equinox Books, London. The series is currently at press.

Editor, The Occult in Nineteenth-Century America, The Davies Group, 2006.

Co-editor, with Lisa Poirier, of monograph series, Contexts and Consequences: New Studies
in Religion and History, The Davies Group

Monographs in series thus far:

Brian Hoffert, The Huang-Lao Silk Manuscripts: A Conceptual Unification of China
Laurie Cozad, Context as Weapon: The Keepers of Indian Orthodoxy Versus the Snake in the Grass-Roots Movement
Jennifer I. M. Reid, Worse than Beasts: An Anatomy of Melancholy and the Literature of Travel in 17th and 18th Century England
James Constantine Hanges, Christ, the Image of the Church : The Construction of a New Cosmology and the Rise of Christianity

Articles and chapters:

“Sex in the City of God: Free Love and the American Millennium,”
in Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 15:2 (2005) 187-208.

Co-authored, with Eric Casey, “From Eleusis to America: Masonry and the Modern Mysteries,”
in The Occult in Nineteenth-Century America, Davies Group: 2006, 214-244.

“The Elusive Isis: Theosophy in the Mirror of Millennialism,” in The End that Does: Art,
Science, and Millennial Accomplishment, Hillel Schwartz and Cathy Gutierrez, eds.,
Equinox Press, 2006, 115-133.

“The Millennium and Narrative Closure,” in War in Heaven/Heaven on Earth, Stephen D.
O’Leary and Glen McGhee, eds., Equinox Press: 2005, 46-58.

“Multiple Memoirs: Women’s Writing and American Spiritualism,” Christianity and
Literature, collected conference papers, fall 2003: 135-147.

“From Electricity to Ectoplasm: Hysteria and American Spiritualism,” Aries: A Journal for the
Study of Western Esotericism 3:1 (2003) 55-81.

“Spiritualism,” in The Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, Rosemary
Keller and Rosemary Ruether, eds. Indiana University Press, 2006.

“Deliverance Deferred: Growth in Millennial Heavens,” Journal of the Center for Millennial
Studies, Boston University, Spring 2000.

“Representation and Ideals: The Construction of the Women of the Holy Land,” Pilgrims and
Travelers to the Holy Land, Menachem Mor, ed., Creighton University Press: 1994;
1997, 181-194.

Encyclopedia entries:

“Dead: Communication with” entry in Encyclopedia of Religion and Communication,
Routledge, forthcoming.

“Millennialism” entry in A Handbook for the Study of Religion, Ken Lokensgard and Oz
Lorentzen, eds., The Davies Group, forthcoming

“Great Awakenings and the Antebellum Period” entry in Encyclopedia of Religious Freedom,
Elizabeth Eno and David Levinson, eds., Routledge, 171-174.

“Spiritualism” entry in Encyclopedia of the Midwest, Peter Williams, ed., Indiana University
Press, in press

“Spiritualism” and “End Times” entries in Encyclopedia of Religion and American Cultures,
Gary Laderman and Luis Leon, eds., ABC-CLIO Publishers, 389-391 and 606-608.

Presentations

“A Mirror with a Memory: Spirit Photography as Anti-Art,” Esotericism, Art, and the
Imagination, Association for the Study of Esotericism, University of California at Davis,
CA, 2006.

[Invited] “Somebody Up There Loves Me: From Telegraphs to Tivo in American Religion”
Syracuse University Department of Religion annual retreat, Syracuse NY,
2006.

[Invited] “Perfecting the Past: Esotericism in the American Renaissance,” Hidden Histories:
Eros, Spirit, and Freedom, the Dugan Lectures, Rice University, TX, 2005.

[Invited] “Deadly Dates: Bodies and Sex in Spiritualist Heavens,” Hidden Intercourse: Sexuality in Western Esotericism, Esalen Institute, CA, 2005.

“Disorders of the Soul: American Spiritualism and the Kabbalah” Esotericism: From Europe to
America, Association for the Study of Esotericism, Michigan State University, East
Lansing, MI, 2004

“Sex in the City of God: Free Love and the American Millennium” Socialism and Sexuality
Seminar, Boston, MA, 2003

“Time and Again: Postponing the Apocalypse in Mormon Scripture” Millennial
Disappointments, Center for Millennial Studies, Boston University, 2002

“Multiple Memoirs: Women’s Writing and American Spiritualism” Society for Christianity
and Literature, St. Francis College, Brooklyn, NY, 2002

“The Ghost in Millennial Machines: Spiritualism and the Quest for Objectivity” Millennialism,
Power, and Technology, Center for Millennial Studies, Boston University, MA, 2001

“Disorders of the Soul: Curing History in American Spiritualism” Southeastern Commission
for the Study of Religion Annual Meeting, Charlotte, NC, 2001

“Past Nostalgia: The Ethics of the Dead” Swords Into Ploughshares, Center for Millennial
Studies, Boston University, MA, 2000

“The Beginning of the End: American Millennialism and the Rise of the Novel” Material Cultures of the Book, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2000

“Plato’s Ghost: The Recollections of 19th Century Postmillennialism” Millennialisms: Religions and the End of Times and Worlds, Eastern International Region of the American Academy of Religion, Syracuse, NY, 2000

“Relics of the Living: Spiritualism’s Memory in the Afterlife” Women’s Spiritualities in the 19th Century, North Eastern Modern Languages Association, Buffalo, NY, 2000

“Deliverance Deferred: Growth in Millennial Heavens” New World Orders: Millennialism
in the West, Center for Millennial Studies, Boston University, MA, 1999

“From Electricity to Ectoplasm: Hysterical Pregnancies and American Spiritualism” Eastern
International Region of the American Academy of Religion, Buffalo, NY 1997

“A Body Divided: Medieval Mystics and the Language of Mortification” Third Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Gender Studies, Marist College, NY, 1996

“The ‘Other’ Chosen People: Early Mormon Identity and the Jews” Othering the Apocalypse, Center for Millennial Studies, Boston University, MA, 1995

“Representation and Ideals: Constructions of Women of the Holy Land” Pilgrims and Travelers to the Holy Land, Creighton University, NE, 1993

“Ironic Distances: Travel Literature from the Holy Land” Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
1993

Honors and Grants

Mednick Fellowship, awarded by Virginia Foundation of Independent Colleges, 2005
Sweet Briar College Student Government Association Excellence in Teaching Award, 2002
Sweet Briar College Faculty Grant, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004
Syracuse University Summer Research Grant, 1997
Benjamin Fellow to the Rudolf Chair of Judaic Studies, Syracuse University, 1995
Dorot Travel Grant, 1993
Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship, Syracuse University, 1991-1994

Professional Memberships

Steering Committee, Western Esotericism Group, American Academy of Religion
Peer reviewer, Journal for the Center of Millennial Studies, Boston University
Book reviewer, Aries: A Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism
Associate, Center for Millennial Studies, Boston University
American Academy of Religion

Languages

French, Spanish, and German