Sarah Pike
PhD Indiana University
Trinity 231
530-898-6341
spike@csuchico.edu
My training is in religion in America and my research and teaching blend ethnographic and historical methods and materials with an ongoing interest in popular culture. In my courses I explore the relationship between religion and ethnicity, identity and cultural expression. I am particularly interested in points of conflict and tension within and between religious communities. My teaching responsibilities have included RS 185 Religion and America's Ethnic Minorities, RS 153 The End of the World, RS 146 Religion and American Society, RS 188 American Indian Worldviews, and RS 280 the senior seminar, on topics including "Cults" and New Religions, Religion and Animals, and Religion, Nature and Environmentalism.
My research has focused on new religious movements and I have written numerous articles and book reviews on topics including the New Age movement and the Burning Man festival. My ethnography of contemporary Pagan festivals, Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community, was published by the University of California Press in 2001 and New Age and Neopagan Religions in America was published by Columbia University Press in the Contemporary American Religion Series in 2004. It was named a Choice “Outstanding Academic Tile.” I am currently writing about mourning rites at the Burning Man festival and working on two book-length projects concerning adolescents and religion: “Rites of Youth: Religion, Youth Culture, and Radical Activism” and "Captured by Darkness: The Religious Experiences of Adolescents on the Margins of American Society."
Résumé (doc)