Officers of the AARWR
President
Jason S. Sexton
Jason S. Sexton
- Jason Sexton author/editor of seven published books, and is Visiting Research Scholar at UCLA's California Center for Sustainable Communities. Prior to this, he taught in California's state university and served a stint as interim state university associate dean of academic programs. He is Editor-at-Large of UC Press's Boom California, and is a theologian whose writing on California culture, the prison, and Evangelicalism has appeared in both scholarly and popular media. He earned his Ph.D. in Theology from University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
- Research Interests: The interrelationship of theology and culture, with particular interest in California, the prison, evangelicalism, and religion. Author of The Trinitarian Theology of Stanley J. Grenz (Bloomsbury/T&T Clark) and co-editor of Theology and California Theological Refractions on California's Culture (Routledge)
Past President
Abdullahi A. Gallab
Abdullahi A. Gallab
- Associate professor African and African American/religious Studies Arizona State University
- Research interests: Islamism and contemporary Islamic discourses and developments
- Author of:
- The first Islamist Republic: Development and Disintegration of Islamism in the Sudan, (Ashgate, Farnham, Surrey, UK 2008) republished by Routledge (New York, NY, US 2016).
- A Civil Society Deferred: The Tertiary Grip of Violence in the Sudan (University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 2011) paperback 2013
- Their Second Republic: Islamism in the Sudan from Disintegration to Oblivion (Ashgate, Farnham, Surrey, UK 2014) republished by Routledge, New York, NY, US, 2016).
- Hasan al-Turabi, the Last of the Islamists: the Man and His Times 1932-2016. (Lexington Books, Lantham, Marylan, US 2018).
Vice President/Program Chair
Anna Hennessey
Visiting Scholar, Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, University of California, Berkeley
PhD. in Religious Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara, 2011
Research interests: religious, artistic, and philosophical dimensions of birth; abstract concepts of birth and genesis in the formation of cultural/national identity; visualization and birth; cross-cultural approaches to birth
Author of Imagery, Ritual, and Birth: Ontology Between the Sacred and the Secular (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018)
Anna Hennessey
Visiting Scholar, Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, University of California, Berkeley
PhD. in Religious Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara, 2011
Research interests: religious, artistic, and philosophical dimensions of birth; abstract concepts of birth and genesis in the formation of cultural/national identity; visualization and birth; cross-cultural approaches to birth
Author of Imagery, Ritual, and Birth: Ontology Between the Sacred and the Secular (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018)
Vice President-Elect
Roy Whitaker
Roy Whitaker
- Academic Position: Assistant Professor of Black Religions and American Religious Diversity at San Diego State University since 2014
- Education: Ph.D. in Religious Studies, with a specialization in Philosophy of Religion and Theology, from Claremont Graduate University in 2014
- Research Interests: Religious Pluralism: Martin Luther King Jr; Hip Hop Religion; Race and Religion; New Religious Movements; Africana and Continental Philosophy of Religion
- Author: “‘Our Loyalties Must Become Ecumenical’: Martin Luther King Jr. as a Pluralist Theologian.” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 51, no. 3 (Summer 2016): 402–22
Regionally Elected Coordinator
Brian Clearwater
Brian Clearwater
- Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2014
- Research interests: Postcolonial Theory; Religion, Race, and Law in Native America; Indigenous urban diasporas
- His dissertation is “No Lock on the Tipi Door”: Extending Religion in the American Indian Urban Diaspora: Healing, Renewal and Decolonizing Spaces (2014)
Regional Representative - Arizona/ Nevada
Souad T. Ali
Souad T. Ali
- Associate Professor at Arizona State University
- Head of Classics and Middle East Studies and Director of Arabic Studies
- Author of A Religion, Not A State: Ali ‘Abd al-Raziq’s Islamic Justification of Political Secularism (University of Utah Press 2009)
Regional Representative - Hawaii/ Pacific Islands
Open position. Anyone interested in serving may be appointed by the board on an interim basis and will stand for election at the March 2019 AARWR annual meeting.
Open position. Anyone interested in serving may be appointed by the board on an interim basis and will stand for election at the March 2019 AARWR annual meeting.
Regional Representative - Northern California
Thien-Huong Ninh
Thien-Huong Ninh
- Assistant Professor of Sociology at Cosumnes River College
Research interests: Religion, Race and Gender; Immigrant Religion; Asian Religious Diasporas; East Asian New Religious Movements.
Website: thninh.wordpress.com
Photo Credit: Kimberly Esslinger
Regional Representative - Southern California
Marie Cartier
Marie Cartier
- Dr. Cartier has a Ph.D. in Religion with an emphasis on Women and Religion from Claremont Graduate University
- Author of the critically acclaimed book Baby, You Are My Religion: Women, Gay Bars, and Theology Before Stonewall (Routledge 2013)
- She is a senior lecturer in Gender and Women’s Studies and Queer Studies at California State University Northridge, and in Film Studies at Univ. of CA Irvine
Queer Advocate
Anjeanette LeBoeuf
Anjeanette LeBoeuf
- Ph.D., Women Studies in Religion at Claremont Graduate University
- Research interests: Popular Culture and Religion, South Asian Religions with emphasis on Hinduism, and Feminist and Queer Theory
- She is a permanent contributor to the academic blog FeminismandReligion.com
Women's Caucus Liaison
Yuria Celidwen
Yuria Celidwen
- Ph.D. candidate in Mythological Studies and Depth Psychology at Pacific Graduate Institute, and a graduate in Contemplative Science from the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science (2014).
Research interests: Ethics and Compassion within World Mythologies and Mystical Traditions from an interdisciplinary approach that joins reason and emotion, scientific inquiry and contemplative practices for social and environmental justice. She co-chairs the Indigenous Religions Unit at the AAR-WR, and works as chief production editor (Spanish) for the United Nations, New York.
Diversity Advocate
Sakena Young-Scaggs
Sakena Young-Scaggs
- Ph.D. in Women and Gender Studies at Arizona State University, 2019
- Faculty, Barrett Honors College, ASU
- Dissertation: "Afrofuturism, Womanist Phenomenology, and the Black Imagination: A Liberative Revisioning of Black Humanity"
Student Representative - Southern California
James Berry
Ph.D. Student in History of Christianity and Religions of North America at Claremont Graduate University
Research Interests: Religion and International Relations; Charity; Parachurch Organizations; Evangelicalism; Religion and Violence
James Berry
Ph.D. Student in History of Christianity and Religions of North America at Claremont Graduate University
Research Interests: Religion and International Relations; Charity; Parachurch Organizations; Evangelicalism; Religion and Violence
Conference Manager (ex-officio, non-voting, not a board position)
Joseph Kim Paxton
Joseph Kim Paxton
- Ph.D. student in Practical Theology at the Claremont School of Theology
- Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology at Sierra States University
Research interests: Trauma and pastoral care, coping, spiritually-integrative psychotherapy, thriving, and group conflict.
Student Representative - Northern California
Andrew K. Lee
Andrew K. Lee
- Ph.D. student in Historical and Cultural Studies of Religion at Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA
Research Interests: medieval mysticism; historical theology; comparative religion
Student Representative - Arizona
Tyler Feezell
PhD Student, East Asian Languages and Civilizations (Chinese), Arizona State University
Graduate Teaching Associate in Chinese Program, Translator/English Editor for Studies in Chinese Religions and Taiwan Journal of Religious Studies
Research Interests: Daoist ritual and manuscript culture, Chinese popular religion, ritual studies, Chinese popular literature, religious poetry, digital humanities research methodologies, and Chinese language learning
Tyler Feezell
PhD Student, East Asian Languages and Civilizations (Chinese), Arizona State University
Graduate Teaching Associate in Chinese Program, Translator/English Editor for Studies in Chinese Religions and Taiwan Journal of Religious Studies
Research Interests: Daoist ritual and manuscript culture, Chinese popular religion, ritual studies, Chinese popular literature, religious poetry, digital humanities research methodologies, and Chinese language learning
Webmaster (ex-officio, non-voting, not a board position)
John Erickson
Ph.D., American Religious History, Claremont Graduate University and Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood Los Angeles.
Received Dual MA Degrees in Women's Studies in Religion and Applied Women's Studies from Claremont Graduate University in 2011.
Research interests: LGBT History, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Masculinity Studies, American Religious History, Government, Policy, and Religion.
John Erickson
Ph.D., American Religious History, Claremont Graduate University and Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood Los Angeles.
Received Dual MA Degrees in Women's Studies in Religion and Applied Women's Studies from Claremont Graduate University in 2011.
Research interests: LGBT History, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Masculinity Studies, American Religious History, Government, Policy, and Religion.