Elizabeth McAlister is a professor at Wesleyan University with expertise in Afro-Caribbean religions including Haitian Vodou, Pentecostalism, race theory, transnational migration and evangelical spiritual warfare.

Jaimie Gunderson is a religious studies professor at the University of Pittsburgh, whose research interests include Christian origins, Christianity in late antiquity, New Testament, Greco-Roman religions, material religion, affect theory and UFOs.

Cometan, also known as Brandon Reece Taylorian, is an associate lecturer in the Lancaster University Law School and an associate lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, where he teaches on the program Religion, Culture and Society. His research interests include freedom of religion or belief, new religious movements, traditionalist Catholicism and the relationship between […]

Tammy Adams is a self-described “life purpose shaman” who received mentoring from Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama. Contact is through Laura Mack.

Susannah Crockford is a lecturer in anthropology at Exeter University, specializing in environmental and medical anthropology and the anthropology of religion. Her first book, Ripples of the Universe: Spirituality in Sedona, Arizona, deals with issues related to the politics and economics of wellness, health and spirituality. She is working on a second book, a multi-sited […]

Sam Kestenbaum is a journalist covering religion in America. He has written about religious life during and in response to the pandemic, including a profile of Clay Clark, the frontman of a prophecy-and-politics roadshow; New Age author Christiane Northrup’s conspiracy makeover; a faith-healing TikToker whose fandom grew during lockdown months; and a Pentecostal church that […]

“New Religious Movement” is one of those tricky, catch-all terms that can refer to lots of different communities, including ones that have very little in common. Broadly, a New Religions Movement (NRM) is a religious group that came into existence more recently (typically somewhere around the 19th century or later). Other terms include alternative spiritualities, […]

Edward Graham-Hyde is a researcher and teacher of religion, whose focus includes the terminology around “cults” and “New Religious Movements” as well as specific groups such as the Church of Scientology and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Benjamin Zeller is chair of the religion department at Lake Forest College. He focuses on religious currents that are new or alternative, including new religions, the religious engagement with science, and the quasi-religious relationship people have with food.