The Communal Studies Association is a research member association focused on the U.S.’s historical communal sites, intentional communities and communal societies. They publish a journal, host an annual conference and present awards to researchers and other writers in the area of communal studies.

Sarah Dees is an ethnohistorian of religion, race, and culture in the United States. Her scholarship primarily focuses on the representation of Native American and Indigenous religions in political, scientific, and popular realms.

Tom Wassink is a psychiatry and genetics researcher at the University of Iowa. He’s also the co-pastor of Sanctuary Community Church in Coralville, Iowa.

The Rev. Robert “Bud” Grant is an environmental theology professor and Catholic priest at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa.

Marlys Popma was John McCain’s national coordinator for evangelical and social conservative outreach during his 2008 campaign. She previously served as president of the Iowa Republican Party and currently sits on one of the state’s judicial nominating commissions, helping to vet judicial appointments. Popma is also the senior campaign director for CampaignHQ, a conservative call […]

John Waldmeir is a professor of religious studies at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, where there is an Irish studies program within the Catholic studies program. He is the author of a forthcoming book on the Catholic church in Ireland.

Christopher B. James is an assistant professor of evangelism and missional Christianity at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. He is author of Church Planting in Post-Christian Soil: Theology and Practice (2017) and is an expert on churches and worship in non-traditional places.

Wanda Deifelt is a professor of religion at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. She was a member of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity that produced the Vatican document “From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017.” She is originally from Brazil and represented that country on the commission.

Robin Globus Veldman is a visiting scholar at Texas A&M University. She studies the relationship between religion and the environment, with a focus on American evangelicalism.