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THE
RESEARCH TEAM
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Wade
Clark Roof, co-Principal Investigator Wade Clark Roof (Ph.D., University of North Carolina) is Professor and Chair of Religious Studies. His publications include A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Journeys of the Baby Boom Generation and Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion. wcroof@religion.ucsb.edu |
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Richard
Hecht, co-Principal Investigator |
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David
W. Machacek, Project Director David W. Machacek (Ph.D., 1998, University of California at Santa Barbara) is a lecturer in Religious Studies. His publications include Soka Gakkai in America: Accommodation and Conversion. He has edited two books, Global Citizens: The Soka Gakkai Buddhist Movement in the World and Sexuality in the World's Religions. His current research focuses on the ways that public values civilize the interactions of diverse religions. machacek@religion.ucsb.edu |
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Vincent
F. Biondo III, Research Assistant Vincent Biondo (M.A., 1998, San Diego State University) is a Ph.D. candidate in Religious Studies and Islamic and Near Eastern Studies specializing in Islam in America. His research for the project focuses on how immigrant Muslims in Southern California are forging a new American Muslim identity in the context of civil institutions. vbiondo@umail.ucsb.edu |
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Kathleen
Garces-Foley, Research Assistant Kathleen Garces-Foley (M.A., 1997, Graduate Theological Union) is a Ph.D. candidate in Religious Studies, specializing in religion in America. She is the author of "Funerals of the Unaffiliated," Omega-The Journal of Death and Dying (forthcoming) and "Buddhism, Hospice, and the American Way of Dying," Review of Religious Research (forthcoming). Kathleen Garces-Foley is studying the response of Christian congregations and para-church organizations to the increasing ethnic diversity of Los Angeles. kgarcesfoley@hotmail.com |
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Rahuldeep
Singh Gill, Research Assistant Rahuldeep Singh Gill (B.A., 2002, University of Rochester) is an M.A./Ph.D. student in Religious Studies, specializing in the religions of Punjab. He has studied the ballads of Bhai Gurdas and their impact on early Sikh traditions. He is now studying the Sikh diaspora. rahuldeep@umail.ucsb.edu |
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Jonathan
H.X. Lee, Photographer Jonathan H.X. Lee (M.A., 2002, Graduate Theological Union) is a Ph.D. student in Religious Studies, specializing in East Asian Religions and the Asian religious diaspora in America. He is the author of "Creating a Transnational Religious Community: the Empress of Heaven, Goddess of the Sea Tianhou/Mazu, from Beigang, Taiwan to San Francisco U.S.A." in Immigrant Religious Communities in the Bay Area, "Ancestral Veneration in Vietnamese Spiritualities" in Viet-My: Journal of the Vietnamese Institute of Philosophy and Religion, and "The Oldest Chinese Temples in the United States: The Kong Chow Temple and the Tien Hau Temple" in Chinese America: History and Perspectives (all are forthcoming). He is currently studying Chinese religious communities in Los Angeles. jonathan_lee@umail.ucsb.edu |
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Tricia
Mein, Research Assistant Tricia Mein (B.A., 2001, Southwestern University) is an M.A./Ph.D. student in Sociology. She is examining the ways in which religious groups "go public" by providing social services to diverse constituencies. Her research also concerns the issue of federal funding for faith-based initiatives and the changing public discourses about religion in the civic arena. mein@umail.ucsb.edu |
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Leslie
Smith, Research Assistant Leslie Smith (M.A., 1999, Southwest Missouri State University) is a Ph.D. student in Religious Studies, specializing in social theory, gender, and American culture. Her publications include "Divine Order, Divine Myth: Uncovering the Mythical Construction of Gender Ideals in Protestant Fundamentalist Circles" in ARC, The Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University. She has also written on the use of material culture in the classroom in the American Academy of Religion Bulletin's Spotlight on Teaching. She is studying the response of public education to religious pluralism in southern California, looking particularly at how the public education system has handled the challenges of religious diversity and inculcated certain values about religious 'tolerance'. lesliesmith@umail.ucsb.edu |
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Saba
Soomekh, Research Assistant Saba Soomekh (M.T.S., 2001, Harvard Divinity School) is a Ph.D. student in Religious Studies. She is studying the Persian Jewish community in Southern California. ssoomekh@yahoo.com |
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Aaron
J. Tapper, Research Assistant Aaron J. Tapper (M.T.S., 2000, Harvard Divinity School) is a Ph.D. student in Religious Studies specializing in Contemporary Middle East Theology as it relates to the conflict in Israel and Palestine. His publications include "The 'Cult' of Aish Hatorah: Ba'alei Teshuvah and the New Religious Movement Phenomenon" in The Jewish Journal of Sociology (2002). He is studying the interfaith movement in Southern California. aarontapper@hotmail.com |
| Daniel
Michon, Research Assistant Daniel Michon (M.A., 2002, UC Santa Barbara; M.Ed., 1994, John Carroll University) is a Ph.D. candidate in Religious Studies, specializing in South Asian religion and culture with a focus on Sikh and Punjab studies. He is the author of "Mapping the World: Mahabharata VIII 30 and the Hermeneutics of Place," International Journal of Punjab Studies (forthcoming). He is researching the public face of Sikhism in Southern California and the Central Valley. dmichon@umail.ucsb.edu |
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| Todd
Perreira, Research Assistant Todd Perreira is a graduate student in Religious Studies. perreira@ix.netcom.com |
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