American Academy of Religion, Western Region
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Officers of the AARWR

List of current board members
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President
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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 Their Second Republic: Islamism in the Sudan from Disintegration to Oblivion (Hampshire, UK Ashgate Publishers) 2011 

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Past President
Jonathan H. X. Lee
  • Associate Professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University
  • Received Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2009
  • Research interests: Chinese/Chinese American Religious Studies; Asian/Asian American folklore and folklife; Peace Studies; Cambodian American Studies; Southeast and Sino-Southeast Asian American Studies
    ​Editor-in-Chief, Chinese America: History and Perspectives ​

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Vice President/Program Chair
Jason S. Sexton
  • Lecturer at California State University Fullerton; Visiting Fellow, UC Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion; Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley Center for the Study of Law & Society; Editor, Boom California (UC Press)
    • 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)​

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Vice President Elect 
Anna Hennessey

Visiting Scholar and Adjunct Faculty, Institute of Buddhist Studies, Berkeley
Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara, 2011
Research interests: Religious, artistic, and philosophical dimensions of birth; Daoism and Chinese Religions; Non-religion and Secularity. Author of Religious Imagery in the Rituals of Birth: Ontology Between the Sacred and the Secular (Lexington Books, forthcoming)​

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Regionally Elected Coordinator 
Brian Clearwater
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor  in Religious Studies at Occidental College
  • 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)

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Regional Representative - Arizona/ Nevada 
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)

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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. 

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Regional Representative - Northern California
Zayin Cabot
  • Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at California State University, East Bay
  • He received his B.A. in philosophy from the University of Hawaii, and both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in East-West Psychology (emphasis on theory and method in religious studies) form California Institute of Integral Studies
  • His first book, Ecologies of Participation: In Between Shamans, Mystics, and Divination is currently in preparation

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Regional Representative - Southern California
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

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Queer Advocate
Anjeanette LeBoeuf 
  • ​​Ph.D. Candidate, 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

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Women's Caucus Liaison
Yuria Celidwen
  • Ph.D. candidate in Mythological Studies and Depth Psychology at Pacific Graduate Institute
  • Research interests: A graduate in Contemplative Science from the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science (2014). 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 works as the chief production editor (Spanish) for the United Nations, New York.

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Diversity Advocate
Sakena Young-Scaggs
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  • IRC Doctoral Fellow, Women and Gender Studies Ph.D. Program
    School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University
    ​Research Interests: 

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 Student Representative - Southern California
​ Student Director--
Western Region Representative to the AAR Graduate Student Committee
​ Conference Manager (ex-officio, non-voting, not a board position)
 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.

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Student Representative - Northern California 
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

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Student Representative - Arizona
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. ​

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Webmaster (ex-officio, non-voting, not a board position)
John Erickson

Ph.D. Candidate, American Religious History, Claremont Graduate University
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. ​

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