JOSEPH P. LAYCOCK
EDUCATION
PhD, Boston University, January 2012, Religion and Society.
MTS, Harvard Divinity School, 2005 (Program in Religion and Secondary Education).
BA, Hampshire College, 2002.
AREAS OF CONCENTRATION
Religion in the Americas, American Catholicism, Sociology of Religion
SCHOLARLY AWARDS AND GRANTS
The Etchings Press Whirling Prize, University of Indianapolis, 2020.
Texas State University College of Liberal Arts Presidential Distinction Award for Excellence in Scholarly/Creative Activities (Philosophy), 2015.
Texas State University Golden Apple Award for Scholarly/Creative Activity, 2015.
Tenth Annual Thomas Robbins Award for Excellence in the Study of New Religious Movements (second place), 2012.
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Scholar for the Study of Religion, 2011.
Angela J. and James J. Rallis Memorial Award/Alice M. Brennan Humanities Award for research in the Humanities, Boston University Humanities Foundation, 2011.
Boston University Department of Religion and Theological Studies, Travel Grant. 2009, 2010.
The Pluralism Project, Student Research Grant, 2003.
TEACHING AWARDS
Alpha Chi National College Honor Society, Alfred H. Nolle Chapter, Favorite Professor, Spring 2016.
Outstanding Teaching Fellow in Religious and Theological Studies, Boston University, 2011.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
TEACHING
Fall 2014-present: Associate Professor, Texas State University.
Spring 2013: Instructor, University of Virginia, Semester at Sea.
2011-2012 : Adjunct Instructor, Piedmont Virginia Community College.
2009-2011: Teaching Fellow, Boston University.
Fall 2010: Instructor, Tufts University.
2006-2008: Teacher, Open Campus High School, Atlanta, GA.
2005-2006 Teacher, Indianapolis Metropolitan Career Academy, Indianapolis, IN.
WRITING/BLOGGING
Contributor, Religion Dispatches, June 2009-present. Author of dozens of articles on contemporary religious issues and controversies. Writing has also appeared in such places as Salon, Religion and Politics, The Bulletin for the Study of Religion blog, and Sightings.
EDITORIAL
Co-General Editor, Nova Religio 2016-present.
Peer review service for Nova Religio, The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, The Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, Claremont Journal of Religion, Critical Social Work, and Material Religion, Critical Historical Studies, New Zealand Medical Journal, Journal of Research on Women and Gender, Porn Studies, The Journal of Forensic Sciences, The South African Journal of Education, Journal of Religious History.
Peer review service for University of California Press, University of New Mexico Press, Routledge, Palgrave MacMillan, Lexington.
SERVICE
Co-Chair, New Religious Movements Section, American Academy of Religion, 2019-present.
Executive Council member, World Religion and Spirituality Project, 2017-present.
Steering Committee member, New Religious Movements Section, American Academy of Religion, 2016-present.
Respondent group member, AAR Guide Star for Undergraduate Religious Literacy, 2016-present.
Advisory Board member, ABC-CLIO World Religions database, 2016-2019.
PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS
Satanism. Cambridge University Press, 2023.
(with Eric Harrelson) The Exorcist Effect: Religion, Horror, and Demonic Belief Oxford University Press, 2023.
New Religious Movements: The Basics. Routledge, 2022.
(co-edited with Natasha Mikles), Religion, Culture and the Monstrous: Of Gods and Monsters. Lexington Books, 2021.
(co-edited with Natasha Mikles) The Religion Matters Reader. Norton, 2021.
The Penguin Book of Exorcisms. New York: Penguin Classics, Penguin 2020.
Speak of the Devil: How the Satanic Temple is Changing the Way We Talk About Religion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic over Role-Playing Games Says about Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds. University of California Press, 2015.
The Seer of Bayside: Veronica Lueken and the Struggle to Define Catholicism. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Vampires Today: The Truth About Modern Vampirism. Westport: Praeger, 2009.
PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES
“Field Notes: The Branch Davidian Press Conference and Thirtieth Anniversary Memorial, 19 April 2023,” Nova Religio 27:1 (2023): 99-108.
"A 'Proper Black Mass': The Rhetorical Struggle Over a Deviant Ritual," Contemporary Religion 36:1 (2021): 37-55.
“Religious Aspects of Pseudoarchaeology: The How and the Why,” Nova Religio 22:4 (May 2019): 89-95.
“Who Says a Headscarf Emoji is Religious? (And Why?)” Bulletin for the Study of Religion 46:3-4 (September-December 2017): 61-63.
“‘Time Is a Flat Circle’: True Detective and the Specter of Moral Panic in American Pop Culture,” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 27:3 (Fall 2015): 220-235.
“Who Believed There Was A Bomb and When Did They Believe It? What Ahmed Mohamed’s Clock Says About Belief and Moral Panic,” Bulletin for the Study of Religion 44:4 (December 2015): 39-44.
“The Controversial History of the Crystal Skulls: A Case Study in Interpretive Drift,” Material Religion 11:2 (2015): 164-188.
(with Natasha L. Mikles) “Research Note: Tracking the Tulpa: Exploring the ‘Tibetan’ Origins of a Contemporary Paranormal Idea,” Nova Religio 19:1 (2015): 87-97.
(with Natasha L. Mikles) “Is Nessie a Naga? Buddhism in the West and Emerging Strategies of Importation.” Bulletin for the Study of Religion 43:4 (November 2014): 35-40.
“Approaching the Paranormal,” Nova Religio 18:1 (August 2014): 5-15.
“Zen Meets New Thought: The Erhard Seminars Training and Changing Ideas About Zen,” Contemporary Buddhism 15:2 (July 2014): 1-24.
“‘Our Secret in Plain Sight:’ Recent Scholarly Approaches to Paranormal Belief,” Religious Studies Review 40:2 (June 2014) 69-75. Co-authored with Daniel Wise.
“Yoga for the New Woman and the New Man: The Role of Pierre Bernard and Blanche DeVries in the Creation of Modern Postural Yoga,” Journal of Religion and American Culture 23:1 (Winter 2013): 101-136.
“Laughing Matters: ‘Parody Religions’ and the Command to Compare,” Bulletin for the Study of Religion 42:3 (September 2013): 19-26.
“Where Do They Get These Ideas? Changing Ideas of Cults in the Mirror of Popular Culture,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 18:1 (March 2013): 80-106.
“‘We Are Spirits of Another Sort’: Ontological Rebellion and Religious Dimensions of the Otherkin Community,” Nova Religio 15:3 (2012): 65-90.
“Carnal Knowledge: The Epistemology of Sexual Trauma in Witches’ Sabbath, Satanic Ritual Abuse, and Alien Abduction Narratives,” Preternature 1:1 (2012): 100-129.
“Levitating the Pentagon: Exorcism as Politics, Politics as Exorcism,” Implicit Religion 14:3 (2011): 295-318.
“Review Essay: Paranormal Belief: A New Frontier?,” Nova Religio 15:1 (2011): 92-97.
“Conversion by Infection: The Sociophobic of Cults in The Omega Man,” The International Journal for the Study of New Religions 1:2 (2010): 261-278.
“‘Reducing the Ornaments of Fable to the Standard of Truth:’ Tylor, Vampires, and the Anthropology of Religion.” Arc, The Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University 28 (2010): 115-139.
“Myth Sells: Mattel’s Commission of the Masters of the Universe Bible,” The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 22:2 (Summer 2010): 1-24.
“Vampires as an Identity Group: Analyzing Causes and Effects of an Introspective Survey by the Vampire Community,” Nova Religio 14:1 (2010): 4-23.
Reprinted as: “Vampires as an Ascriptive Identity Group: Analyzing Causes and Effects of an Introspective Survey by the Vampire Community,” in Adam Possamai, ed., Handbook of Hyper-Real Religions. Boston: Brill, 2012: pp. 141-163.
“From Parasite to Symbiote: The Genealogy of the Psychic Vampire,” Proteus: A Journal of Ideas 26:2 (2009): 25-31.
“God’s Last, Best Gift to Mankind: Gnostic Science and the Eschaton in the Vision of John Murray Spear,” Aries 10:1 (2009): 63-83.
“The Folk Piety of William Peter Blatty: ‘The Exorcist’ in the Context of Secularization,” Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 5 (2009): 2-27.
“Mothman: Monster, Disaster, and Community,” Fieldwork in Religion 3:1 (2008): 70-86.
BOOK CHAPTERS
“The Battle of Bayside: Contesting Religious Topographies in an Urban Apparition Site,” in Katherine Dugan and Karen E. Park, eds., American Patroness: Marian Shrines and the Making of US Catholicism. New York: Fordham University Press, 2024: 92-116.
"New Religious Movements and the First Amendment," in Bloomsbury History: Theory and Method Articles. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2002.
“Unmasking the Alien Deception: Why Evangelicals are Studying Ufology,” in Benjamin Zeller, ed., The Brill Handbook of UFO Religions. Brill, 2021: 103-115.
“The Pentagon Exorcism: 1960s Counter-Culture and the Occult Revival,” in Benjamin E. Park, ed., A Companion to American Religious History. John Wiley & Sons, 2021: 317-328.
“The Secret History of the 1928 Exorcism in Earling, Iowa,” in Adam Possamai and Giuseppe Giordan, eds., The Social Scientific Study of Exorcism. Springer Press, 2020: 17-32.
"How the Necronomicon became real: the ecology of a legend," in Darryl Caterine and John W. Morehead, eds., The Paranormal and Popular Culture: A Postmodern Religious Landscape. New York: Routledge, 2019: 184-197.
"Vampirism: Modern Vampires and Embattled Identity Claims," in Dennis Waskul and Marc Eaton, eds., The Supernatural in Society, History, and Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2018: 177-189.
“Space Brothers and Mayan Calendars: Making Sense of ‘Doomsday Cults’,” in Kelly Jean Murphy and Justin Schedtler, eds. Apocalypses in Context. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2016: 441-468.
“Forward” in Jack Hunter, ed., Strange Dimensions: A Paranthropology Anthology Psychoid Books 2015: 19-30.
(with Thomas Fabisiak) “Outlaw Christ: Transgression as Transcendence in the Work of GG Allin,” in Scott Wilson, ed., Music at the Extremes: Essays on Sounds Outside the Mainstream. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2015: 245-266.
“The Trial of the West Memphis Three: Rival Visions of Evil,” in Sharon Packer and Jody Pennington, eds., A History of Evil in American Pop Culture: What Hannibal Lecter, Stephen King, and Vampires Reveal about America. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2014: 327-338.
“Crossing the Spiritual Wasteland in ‘Priest,’” in John W. Morehead and Kim Paffenroth, eds., The Undead and Theology. Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2012: 19-33.
REFERENCE MATERIALS
“Marian Apparitions.” In Adam Possamai, ed., The Sage Encyclopedia of Sociology of Religion. Thousand Oaks, CA:, Sage, 2020:466-467.
“Paranormal.” In Adam Possamai, ed., The Sage Encyclopedia of Sociology of Religion. Thousand Oaks, CA:, Sage, 2020: 565-565.
“Catholicism.” In Frank J. Smith, ed., Religion and Politics in America: An Encyclopedia of Church and State in American Life. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2016: 117-125.
“Cults.” In Frank J. Smith, ed., Religion and Politics in America: An Encyclopedia of Church and State in American Life. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2016: 219-221.
Spirit Possession around the World: Possession, Communion, and Demon Expulsion across Cultures. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2015. Edited volume.
“Exorcism.” In Matt Cardin, ed., Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics: The Paranormal from Alchemy to Zombies. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2015: 79-81.
“Keel, John A.” In Matt Cardin, ed., Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics: The Paranormal from Alchemy to Zombies. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2015: 137-139.
“Religion and the Paranormal.” In Matt Cardin, ed., Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics: The Paranormal from Alchemy to Zombies. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2015: 260-264.
“Demons, Demonology: Christianity, Modern Europe and America,” Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2013: 566-570.
“Religion in Schools.” In Ruth Chadwick, ed., Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics Volume 3. San Diego: Academic Press, 2012: 757-765.
BOOK REVIEWS
Tenzan Eaghll and Rebekka King, eds., Representing Religion in Film (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022). In Journal of Religion and Film 27:2 (2003).
Douglas E. Cowan, The Forbidden Body: Sex, Horror, and the Religious Imagination (New York University Press, 2022). In Nova Religio 26:4 (May 2023): 118-119.
Brian McCuskey, How Sherlock Pulled the Trick: Spiritualism and the Pseudoscientific Method (Penn State University Press, 2021). In Nova Religio 26:1 (August 2022): 106-107.
Markus Altena Davidson, ed., Narrative and Belief: The Religious Affordance of Supernatural Fiction (Routledge 2018). In Nova Religio 23:3 (February 2020):125-128.
Nick Groom, The Vampire: A New History (Yale University Press, 2018). In Nova Religio 23:3 (February 2020): 119-120.
Douglas E. Cowan, Magic, Monsters, and Make-Believe Heroes: How Myth and Religion Shape Fantasy Culture (University of California Press, 2019). In Nova Religio 23:2 (November 2019): 121-122.
Melissa M. Wilcox, Queer Nuns: Religion, Activism, and Serious Parody (New York University Press, 2018). In Nova Religio 22:4 (May 2019): 112-115.
Douglas E. Cowan, America’s Dark Theologian: The Religious Imagination of Stephen King. (New York University Press, 2018). In Nova Religio 22:4 (May 2019): 129-131.
Will Allen, director, Holy Hell. In Nova Religio 22:3 (February 2019): 139-139.
A&E Television Networks, Cults and Extreme Beliefs. In Nova Religio 22:3 (February 2019): 137-138.
Eric Kurlander, Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2017). In Journal of the American Academy of Religion 86:12 (June 2018): 566-568.
Plane`te Bleue Te ́le ́vision, prod., Occult Crimes. 2015. Television series, ten episodes. In Nova Religio 21:4 (2018): 133-135.
Christopher D. Bader, Joseph O Baker, and F. Carson Mencken, Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and other Curiosities in Religion and Culture (New York University Press, 2017). In Nova Religio 21:3 (2018): 118-119.
Aaron John Gulyas, Conspiracy Theories: The Roots, Themes and Propagation of Paranoid Political and Cultural Narratives (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016). In Nova Religio 21:1 (August 2017): 116-117.
The Stanford Prison Experiment directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez. In Nova Religio 20:4 (2017):145-146.
Jill M. Krebs, Our Lady of Emitsburg, Visionary Culture, and Catholic Identity: Seeing and Believing (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015). In American Catholic Studies 127:3 (Fall 2016): 80-81.
Lisa M. Bitel, Our Lady of the Rock: Vision and Pilgrimage in the Mojave Desert. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2015). In Nova Religio 20:2 (November 2016): 113-114.
Paula M. Kane, Sister Thorn And Catholic Mysticism in Modern America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013). In Journal of Religion 94:4 (October 2015): 566-567.
Olu Jenzen and Sally R. Munt, The Ashgate Research Companion to Paranormal Cultures (Farnjam, Vt: Ashgate Publishing, 2013). In Nova Religio 18:4 (May 2015): 110-111.
Russell Sandberg, Religion, Law, and Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014). In Journal of Church and State 57:3 (2015): 555-556.
Michael Kinsella, Legend Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat (MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2011). In Religious Studies Review 40:3 (September 2014): 136-137.
Isaac Weiner, Religion Out Loud: Religious Sound, Public Space and American Pluralism (New York University Press, 2014). In Contemporary Religion 29:3 (2014): 537-539.
Danielle Kirby, Fantasy and Belief: Alternative Religions, Popular Narratives and Digital Cultures (Bristol, Conn.: Equinox, 2013). In Numen 61:2-3 (2014): 311-312.
Darryl V. Caterine, Haunted Ground: Journeys Through Paranormal America (Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger, 2011). In Preternature 2:2 (2013): 276-278.
Jeffrey J. Kripal, Mutants and Mystics: Science-Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011). In Symposia Vol. 4 (2012).
W. Scott Poole, Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting (Waco, Tx: Baylor University Press, 2011). In Monsters and the Monstrous 2:1 (May 2012).
Robert Love, The Great Oom: The Improbable Birth of Yoga in America (New York: Viking, 2010). In Nova Religio 15:3 (2012): 122-123.
Terry Eagleton, On Evil (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2010). In Symposia 3 (2011).
Peter Sloterdijk, God’s Zeal: The Battle of the Three Monotheisms (Malden: Polity Press, 2009). In Symposia 2 (2010).
Douglas Cowan, Sacred Terror (Waco, Tx.: Baylor University Press, 2008). In Journal of Religion and Film 13:2 (2009). <http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/BookReviews/SacredTerror.html>
Christine Wicker, Not in Kansas Anymore: Dark Arts, Sex Spells, Money Magic, and Other Things Your Neighbors Aren’t Telling You (New York: HarperCollins, 2005). In Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies 10:2 (2008): 279-281.
SELECTED PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS
Panelist, "The Academy and The Impossible," Archives of the Impossible Conference, Rice University, March 4, 2022.
"The Exorcist Effect," University of California–Riverside Religious Studies Colloquium Series, February 24, 2022.
“Rethinking Church and State with The Satanic Temple,” Current Issues in North American and Cultural Studies Lecture Series, University of Bonn, Bonn Germany, May 4, 2021.
"The Secret History of the Earling Exorcism," The American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, November 19, 2018.
“The Only True Vampire Religion”: The Temple of the Vampire, the Free Market, and the Cultic Milieu,” Association for the Study of Esotericism Biannual Conference, Rice University, May 26, 2018.
"A 'Proper' Black Mass: The Rhetorical Struggle over a Deviant Ritual," Religion and the American Normal, Princeton University, February 9, 2018.
Discussant, “Archaeology and New or Alternative Religious Movements,” Society of American Archaeology Annual Meeting, Vancouver, March 30, 2017.
“Is the Satanic Temple a Religion, or a Campaign of Trolls, and Who Gets to Decide?,” The International Society for Heresy Studies Annual Meeting, New York University, June 3, 2016.
“There are Such Things! Vampire Studies Symposium 2015,” North Central Texas College, Corinth, Texas, October 31, 2015. Invited panelist.
“Vampires: Exploring Death Through the Lens of the Undead Elite,” Zombethics. Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, October 30, 2015. Invited panelist.
Professional Development Workshop, Boston University, Department of Religious Studies. Boston, Massachusetts, October 22, 2015. Invited speaker.
“How the Necronomicon Became ‘Real’: Strategies of Re-Enchantment,” The LeMoyne College Religion and Literature Forum, Syracuse, New York, October 2, 2015.
“Time is a Flat Circle: True Detective and the Reciprocal Relationship Between Horror Fiction and Moral Panic.” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego, California, November 23, 2014.
“Heaven on Earth: Apparitional Movements, Space, and Power.” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego, California, November 23, 2014.
“Yoga for the New Woman and the New Man: The Role of Pierre Bernard and Blanche DeVries in the Creation of Modern Postural Yoga.” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, November 18, 2012.
“The Other Kind of ‘Apocalypse:’ The Christian Worldview of ‘They Live,’” Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion annual meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, March 3, 2012.
“The Pope is an Imposter!: Marian Devotion in the Wake of Vatican II,” American Catholic Historical Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, January 5, 2012.
“The Case of the Vampires: New Religious Movements, The Sacralization of Pop Culture, and Practical Strategies for Chaplaincy,” Didactic seminar, University of Virginia Chaplaincy Services and Pastoral Education, November 28, 2011.
“Vampires are Real,” Flash Seminar, University of Virginia, October 25, 2011.
“Vampires Today: The Truth About Modern Vampirism,” Invited lecture at Hampshire College, April 4, 2011.
“Where Do They Get These Ideas?: Changing Ideas of “Cults” in Popular Culture,” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, October 31, 2010.
“From Esoteric to Exoteric: Pierre Bernard and the Arrival of Tantra to the West,” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, October 31, 2010.
“Vampires from Slavic Folklore to Edward Cullen,” Invited lecture at Boston University Academy, September 16, 2010.
“Out Demons Out: A Durkheimian Reading of the 1967 Exorcism of the Pentagon,” Association for the Sociology of Religion Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, August 12, 2010.
“Carnal Knowledge: The Epistemology of Sexual Trauma in Witch’s Sabbath, Satanic Ritual Abuse, and Alien Abduction Narratives,” The Poetics of Pain: Aesthetics, Ideology, and Representation, annual conference, CUNY, February 26, 2010.
“God’s Last, Best Gift to Mankind: Gnostic Science and the Eschaton in the Vision of John Murray Spear,” “Lunch and Learn” lecture, University of Michigan, December 22, 2009.
“Conversion by Infection: The Sociophobic of Cults in Omega Man,” Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association annual meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, November 7, 2009.
“Ontological Rebellion: The Otherkin Community and the Struggle for Reality,” Association for the Sociology of Religion annual meeting, San Francisco, California, August 8, 2009.
“Myth Sells: Mattel’s Commission of the He-Man Bible,” National Popular Culture Association annual meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 7, 2009.
Panel Respondent, Ethics, Religion and Teaching: From Teaching to Practice, Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion annual meeting, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, March 13, 2009.
“The Gospel According to Biff: Pedagogical Uses of Satire,” Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion annual meeting, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, March 15, 2009.
“Psychic Vampirism: a Genealogy of an American Metaphysical System,” Association for the Study of Esotericism annual meeting, Charleston, North Carolina, May 30, 2008.
“Teaching Islam in Georgia Public Schools in Theory and Practice,” Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion annual meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, March 8, 2008.
“Gathering Data with the Vampire: Analyzing Causes and Effects of an Introspective Survey by the Vampire Community,” American Academy of Religion annual meeting, San Diego, California, November, 2008.
“World Religion in Secondary Schools: Contending Schools of Thought,” Religious Studies in Secondary Schools annual meeting, San Antonio, Texas, November 2004.