Publications
“America’s Most Famous Catholic” (According to Himself): Stephen Colbert and American Religion in the Twenty-First Century, (New York: Fordham University Press, 2019).
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“Mirror, Mirror, On Our Selves: Disney as a Site of Religio-Cultural Dialogue,” co-authored with Myev Rees, in forthcoming Religion and Popular Culture in America, 4th edition, edited by Bruce David Forbes and Jeffrey H. Mahan (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2017).
Web Essays/Podcasts
Book Excerpt. The Revealer, October 10, 2019.
Episode 137. The Classical Ideas Podcast, October 2019.
Maybe It’s Colbert’s Fault. Blog posted on Sacred Matters: Religious Currents in Culture website, December 16, 2016.
The New Frontier of Lived Religion: Authenticity and Media. Blog posted on American Society of Church History website, April 29, 2015.
The Death of Truthiness: A True Believer Mourns The Colbert Report. Satirical piece posted on Religion Dispatches, December 18, 2014.
“I Can’t Let My Thong Show at the Holy Land:” Navigating Sacrality, Profanity, and Humor in Ethnographic Research. Blog posted on American Society of Church History website, May 15, 2012.
Selected Presentations/Guest Lectures
January 2020, Cross-Residential College Event: Hobart-Willard. Office of Residential Academic Initiatives, Northwestern University.
January 2020, Guest Speaker. Alice Millar Chapel, Northwestern University.
December 2019, Book Talk on America’s Most Famous Catholic. Seminary Co-Op, Chicago, Illinois.
November 2019, “Irony, Play, and the (Serious[?]) Study of Religion Panel,” American Academy of Religion National Conference, San Diego, California.
November 2019, Fellows New Book Event, Office of Residential Academic Initiatives, Northwestern University.
October 2019, Conversation on America’s Most Famous Catholic. Espiritu Santo Catholic Church, Safety Harbor, Florida.
October 2019, Public Conversation on America’s Most Famous Catholic. Oxford Exchange, Tampa, Florida.
November 2018, “Another Plan “A”: Religious Studies Education and Careers Beyond the Academy,” Roundtable Panel. American Academy of Religion Conference, Denver, Colorado.
May 2016, “Teaching and Learning Beyond Northwestern.” Roundtable Panel at Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching Graduate Teaching Spring Symposium, Northwestern University.
January 2016, “Colbert Catholicism: Presenting A Catholic Identity on Late Nite TV,” American Catholic Historical Association Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.
May 2015, “The Value of Religious Studies,” Invited Address at Theta Alpha Kappa Induction Ceremony. DePaul University.
August 2014, “Colbert’s Religious Expressions: The Liminal Space of the Satirical Persona in American Media.” International Society for Media, Religion and Culture Conference, Canterbury, England.
April 2014, Religion, Media, and Celebrity in American Cultural Studies Perspective Panel: “Stephen Colbert “Speaks for God” as “America’s “Best-Known Catholic.” 2014 Popular Culture & American Culture Association Conference, Chicago.
January 2013, “Imagining the Holy Land at a Theme Park: Consumerism, Pilgrimage, Religious Replica, and Sacred Space at The Holy Land Experience.” American Society of Church History National Conference, New Orleans.
November 2012, “Shalom, God Bless, and Please Exit to the Right: Evangelical Christian Worship at a Disneyfied Theme Park.” American Academy of Religion National Conference, Chicago.
April 2010, “It’s a Young World After All: The Creation Museum as “New” Evangelical Technology.” “New” Evangelical Studies Conference, Santa Barbara, California.