Academics

Title
Assistant Professor of Religion

Degree
BA Portland State University 1999; MA, PhD University of California, Santa Barbara 2003, 2007

Teaching Experience

Visiting fellow at Vassar; teaching assistant and teaching associate at the University of California, Santa Barbara

Specialities

Religion and law/politics, law and society, religion and human rights.

Interests

The intersection of religious and political narratives, particularly within contexts of socio-historical crisis; secularism and the separation of church and state in the United States; religion and the 'culture wars' within the U.S.; religion and international human rights standards.

Publications

"Political Myth and the Sacred Center of Human Rights: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Narrative of 'Inherent Human Dignity,'" forthcoming in Human Rights Review (June 2011).

"Radical Islam and Human Rights Values: A 'Religious-Minded' Critique of Secular Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 78.2 (2010): 1-28.

"Rogue Agents, Religion, and the Rule of Law: The Limits of Legalism in the Face of Technologies of Mass Destruction," Implicit Religion 2.1 (2009).

"The 'Humanity' of Radical Jihad," ISIM Review (2006).

Dissertation
"Making and Unmaking Political Myth in the Era of Human Rights," with honors, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007.

Distinctions

Consortium for Faculty Diversity Dissertation Fellowship at Vassar College (2006-2007); Departmental Fellowships - University of California, Santa Barbara Department of Religious Studies (2001-2003, 2005-2006); Graduate Study Fellowship - American Indian Graduate Center (2004-2006)