Rolf Swensen, who holds a Ph.D. in United States History from the University of Oregon, is the author of twelve scholarly articles on the history of Christian Science, including “‘You Are a Woman in the Eyes of Men’: Augusta E. Stetson’s Rise and Fall in the Church of Christ, Scientist,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 24, no. 1 (2008): 75-89.He has served as University Archivist of Oregon State University, Chief Archivist of the National Archives of Papua New Guinea, and Acting Chief Librarian of Queens College, City University of New York. Now retired, his e-mail is Rolf.Swensen@qc.cuny.edu.

Dr. Andrew Ventimiglia is an Assistant Professor of Mass Media with a specialization in media law and ethics in the School of Communication at Illinois State University. His research focuses on the history and cultural effects of intellectual property law. His first book, Copyrighting God: Ownership of the Sacred in American Religion was published by Cambridge University Press in 2019. He was formerly a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the TC Beirne School of Law at University of Queensland. He was awarded his PhD in Cultural Studies from University of California – Davis in 2015, during which he conducted research into the intersection of religion and intellectual property law in the American spiritual marketplace. While at UC Davis, Dr. Ventimiglia also worked at the Center for Science and Innovation Studies and the Science and Technology Studies program. Dr. Ventimiglia additionally holds a Master of Arts in Cinema Studies and a Certificate from the Culture and Media Program from New York University.

David J. Howlett specializes in the history of religions in North America and teaches courses on Mormonism, Native American religions, the anthropology of pilgrimage, and globalization and religion. His first book, Kirtland Temple: The Biography of a Shared Mormon Sacred Space (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2014) analyzes how religious rivals engage in cooperation and contestation at a shared pilgrimage site. His second book, Mormonism: The Basics (Routledge, 2016) is co-authored with John-Charles Duffy. This work offers a topical introduction to the various streams of Mormonism and addresses, more broadly, how minority religions work out their place within a larger society and how young religions diversify over time.  David’s current research projects include a comparative study of contemporary young adult Americans on pilgrimage, and a study of the post-1960s glocalization of the Community of Christ/RLDS church in India and the United States. David has served on the editorial boards for the Journal of Mormon History, the John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, and the Mormon Studies Review. In addition, he has served as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (Bowdoin College), a teaching professor (Skidmore College), a visiting assistant professor (Kenyon College), and a Mellon Visiting Assistant Professor in Public Discourse and Writing in the Discipline (Smith College).

Michael Ashcraft, Ph.D. (1995), Truman State University, is Professor of Religion at that university.  He works in the areas of American Religious History and New Religious Movements Studies.  He has published two monographs: The Dawn of the New Cycle: Point Loma Theosophists and American Culture (2002) and A Historical Introduction to the Study of New Religious Movements (2018).

Julia Olegovna Andreeva is a junior research fellow in the Department of CaucasusEthnography, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography(Kunstkamera) RAS, St. Petersburg.

Heather J. Coleman is Professor in the Department of History, Classics, and Religion, and Director of the Research Program on Religion and Culture at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, Canada.  She is the author of Russian Baptists and Spiritual Revolution, 1905-1929 (Indiana University Press, 2005), editor (with Mark D. Steinberg) of Sacred Stories:  Religion and Spirituality in Modern Russia (Indiana University Press, 2007), and editor of Orthodox Christianity in Imperial Russia:  A Source Book on Lived Religion (Indiana University Press, 2014).

Ines Angeli Murzaku is Professor of Religion at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, as well as Director of the Catholic Studies Program and the Founding Chair of the Department of Catholic Studies at Seton Hall University. She earned a doctorate of research from the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, part of the Pontifical Gregorian University Consortium, and has held visiting positions at the Universities of Bologna and Calabria in Italy and University of Münster in Germany. She has won grants including the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Grant (SSHRC); and Fulbright Senior Research Scholar. Her research has been published in hundreds of articles and eight books, the most recent of which is Mother Teresa: Saint of the Peripheries (Paulist Press, 2021).

Jennifer McKinney is professor of sociology and director of Women’s Studies at Seattle Pacific University.  Her research interests include gender, family, and religion. She is co-author (with Dr. Martin Lee Abbott) of Understanding and Applying Research Design and has published articles in Contexts, Teaching Sociology, The Sociological Quarterly, The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Christianity Today.

Peter Schuurman did his PhD at the University of Waterloo, Canada, on a dramaturgical analysis of Max Weber’s notion of charisma through a case study of Bruxy Cavey and TMH. He is Executive Director of Global Scholars Canada and adjunct faculty of Religion and Theology at Redeemer University.