Hannah Gould is a cultural anthropologist in Australia interested in death, Buddhism and material culture in Australia and Northeast Asia. Gould’s research spans new traditions and technologies of Buddhist death rites, the life cycle of religious materials and modern lifestyle movements.

Alina Kokoschka is a researcher in Islamic studies, specializing in the aesthetics of Islamization, with a focus on the material worlds of Islam and Arabic script in the digital space. She also has interest in the relationship between people and things as well as criticism of representations of Islam and “Islamic art.”

Jessica Hughes is senior lecturer in classical studies at The Open University in the United Kingdom. Her research specialisms include votive offerings, classical reception and the changing religious landscape of Campania, Southern Italy.

Kaitlyn Ugoretz is an anthropologist of religion and the associate editor of publications at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, including the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. Ugoretz specializes in contemporary Japanese religion, globalization, technology and media. Her digital ethnographic research focuses on the globalization of Shinto and the development of transnational online Shinto communities.

Gerry Bowler teaches at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of Santa Claus: A Biography and The World Encyclopedia of Christmas, and the co-author of Europe in the Sixteenth Century. He has published works on topics ranging from Renaissance monarchy and Bloody Mary to the Simpsons, the Spice Girls and the history of […]

Al Otro Lado provides legal and humanitarian support to refugees, deportees, and other migrants in the U.S. and Tijuana, Mexico, partnering with numerous faith organizations on both sides of the border.

Asylum Access is a network of national organizations in Thailand, Malaysia and Mexico who support forcibly displaced individuals and communities through advocacy and legal aid.

Alicia Wrenn is vice president of resettlement and integration at HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees and was originally known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Wrenn leads U.S. programs supporting refugees and asylum-seekers.

Ruth Illman is director of the Donner Institute for Research into Religion and Culture at Åbo Akademi University Foundation (SÅA) in Turku, Finland. Her research concerns questions pertaining to Jewish life in the Nordics today, cultural encounters and interreligious dialogue, ethnographic research methodology within cultural studies. She was co-editor of a volume on religion and […]