Dusty Hoesly
About:
My research focuses on American religions and secularism, specializing in how minority religions and spiritual movements shape modern American culture. I employ humanistic and social scientific methodologies to investigate how religion is constructed through discourse and institutions. I have published work on the Universal Life Church and contemporary American weddings, organic foods in new religious movements, biodiversity and spiritual wellbeing, and religion in the American West.
Current projects include an intergenerational study of religion, spirituality, and values, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, and a monograph on the Universal Life Church. I am also developing articles about the Orientalist origins of the brainwashing concept, the Esalen Institute’s spiritualization of geopolitics, and the federal taxation of religious groups.
I have conducted podcast interviews and written articles for the Religious Studies Project, published book reviews and encyclopedia entries, and contributed articles for academic blogs. These can be found on my CV.
I am co-chair of the Sociology of Religion Unit at the AAR. Previously, I was a visiting assistant teaching professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and a lecturer at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Articles:
- “Organic Farming as Spiritual Practice and Practical Spirituality at Sunburst Farms.” Nova Religio 23.1 (August 2019): 60-88.
- “Your Wedding, Your Way: Personalized, Nonreligious Weddings through the Universal Life Church.” In Organized Secularism in the United States: New Directions in Research, edited by Ryan T. Cragun, Lori L. Fazzino, and Christel Manning, 253-278. New York: De Gruyter, 2019.
- “Biodiversity and Spiritual Well-being” (with Katherine N. Irvine, Rebecca Bell-Williams, and Sara L. Warber). In Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change, edited by Melissa R. Marselle, Jutta Stadler, Horst Korn, Katherine N. Irvine, and Aletta Bonn, 213-247. New York: Springer, 2017.
- “Need a Minister? How about Your Brother?’: The Universal Life Church between Religion and Nonreligion.” Secularism and Nonreligion 4.12 (October 2015): 1-13.
- “James Sheerin’s Search for the Holy Grail: Perceptions of Religion in the American West.” Religion in the American West, September 24, 2012.
