About Me
About Me
I am an academic expert with over 15 years of teaching in public universities and community colleges, through online and in classroom courses for undergraduate students. Currently, I am a full-time Instructor for Arizona State University in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies (SHPRS).
Because I have an undergraduate degree in Education, I care about pedagogy and methodology. My interest in curriculum and online course development is fundamental to who I am as an instructor, and I am always looking to extend my expertise to the newest technology. I teach classes on religion and popular culture, religion in America, women and religion, and witchcraft and heresy in Europe.
My overarching professional goal is to promote religious literacy (an understanding of how religion operates and informs individual and group identity), and my main concern is a deep commitment to students' success.
I am originally from Texas, growing up in the panhandle and western oil-patch region of the state. But I came of age in Houston, which I consider my hometown. I attended college at the University of Houston a million years ago, where (like many women of my generation) I majored in Education.
I earned my M.A. and Ph.D. in Religious Studies at Arizona State University in 2002 and 2012, where I wrote a thesis about the Divine Feminine in the Mormon tradition and a dissertation about LDS women's spiritual hybridity. I'm an "Americanist" who is particularly interested in religious hybridity and the intersections of religion, gender, and popular culture in America.
I am a music lover and a former musician, and my husband and I frequently travel to attend concerts featuring artists like Peter Gabriel, Paul McCartney, Imagine Dragons, Bruce Hornsby, PARVIS, Jesca Hoop, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin, Sarah McLachlan, and others. We often combine great music with visits to our children. (The picture you see is me with Shawn Colvin in the fall of 2017. I am the short, blue-haired woman.)
Finally, the worst thing that ever happened to me was the death of our second child in 2015. Her loss was at the heart of my decision to return to school for an MSW.