Articles
- Details
- Published on 10 October 2006
- Written by Wesley Wildman
- Hits: 12702
The Institute appoints Research Associates and shorter-term Research Fellows from time to time in order to encourage research that meets the Institute's goals and to support scholars with compatible interests. There are also other personnel involved in administration of publications and website content production.
Doctoral Fellows, including Lindamood Fellows
Editorial and Administrative Staff
Directors
|
|
Patrick McNamaraFOUNDING DIRECTORNeuroscientist Patrick McNamara has worked for some years on Parkinson's Disease and conducted research on sleep and dreams. He is involved in a number of research projects having to do with the scientific study of religion (see the Institute Activities pages for details). His landmark three-volume collection of essays on the scientific study of religion is well known: Where God and Science Meet. More information about Patrick is available here. |
|
|
Wesley J. WildmanFOUNDING DIRECTORPhilosopher and theologian Wesley Wildman has worked on many aspects of science and religion. He is particularly interested in what light can be shed on religious behaviors, beliefs, and experiences from the biological and human sciences. Director of Boston University's innovative humanities-science doctoral program in Religion and Science, he is deeply committed to multidisciplinary research and training. More information about Wesley is available here. |
|
|
Robert C. NevilleDIRECTOR AND PROGRAM OFFICERRobert Cummings Neville writes and teaches in the fields of philosophy, religious studies, and systematic theology. He was dean of the Boston University School of Theology from 1988 to 2003. Then he was dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University from 2003 to 2006. He was executive director of the Danielsen Institute from 2005 to 2009. He has also taught at Yale University, Fordham University, Wesleyan University (part-time), SUNY Purchase, and SUNY Stony Brook. More information about Bob is available here. |
Research Associates
|
|
Richard SosisSENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, 2008-2012Anthropologist Dr. Richard Sosis is well known for his research on cooperation. He is particularly interested in identifying the evolutionary conditions for the emergence of cooperation within the ecology of human behavior. Recently he has focused his research efforts on the complex relationship among religion, cooperation, and trust. More information about Rich is available here. |
|
|
James P. BurnsSENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, 2008-2010Dr. James Burns is a counseling psychologist with a Ph.D in Counseling Psychology from Northeastern University's Bouve College of Health Sciences. His research has examined the relationship between levels of anger and aggression in adolescent males and their levels of spirituality. At the Institute, he focuses on mental health issues in adolescence, particularly the relationship between executive control functions of the prefrontal lobe and religion and spirituality among youth in Catholic inner-city schools. Currently James works in the administration of Boston College. |
|
|
Charles L. NunnSENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, 2008-2012Dr. Charles Nunn's research addresses a wide variety of fundamental questions in evolutionary anthropology using phylogenetic methods, theoretical modeling, and field research. He is working IBCSR on phylogentic approaches to religious violence. More information about Charlie is available here. |
|
|
Katherine Verdolini AbbottSENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, 2009-2011Dr. Katherine Verdolini Abbott is Professor of Communication Science and Disorders in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research has addressed numerous issues relevant to voice. Recently, and in partnership with IBCSR, she is exploring the effects of relaxation and medition on vocal fold inflammation. More information about Kittie is available here. |
|
|
F. LeRon ShultsSENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, 2011-2013Dr. F. LeRon Shults is Professor of Theology and Philosophy in the Institute for Religion, Philosophy and History at the University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway. His many books and articles address religion and human life in the context of the contemporary human and physical sciences. He is working with the institute on extending the networks supporting the biocultural study of religion in a variety of research areas, including secularism, naturalism, compassion, and political and religious ideology. More information about LeRon is available here. |
|
|
Catherine Caldwell-HarrisSENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, 2011-2013Catherine Caldwell-Harris, Associate Professor of Psychology at Boston University, has conducted research in several areas within the cognitive and behavioral sciences, including psycholinguistics, cross-cultural psychology and individual differences. She notes that everyday observations as well as research suggest that causes of individual differences in religious belief are a complex outcome of genetic temperamental predispositions, family upbringing, societal values, and idiosyncratic life experiences. In one of Dr. Caldwell-Harris' studies, atheists reported finding as much meaning in life as did religious persons, but they eschewed terms related to supernaturalism (like 'spiritual'), and focused their moral concerns on the pragmatic here-and-now. Dr. Caldwell-Harris has also studied low religious belief in individuals with Asperger Syndrome. Dr. Caldwell-Harris is developing a new project to study religious doubt in Turkey, a country where she has long conducted research on topics including bilngualism and individualism-collectivism. |
Postdoctoral Fellows
|
|
Nathaniel BarrettPOSTDOCTORAL FELLOW, 2007-2012Dr. Nat Barrett is a post-doctoral researcher specializing in cognitive science and philosophy. He was Project Coordinator for the Religion, Psychology, and Well-Being Project of the Danielsen Institute at Boston University. His IBCSR-related research involves working with Wesley Wildman on the philosophical and neuro-cognitive basis for interpreting some types of religious experience as forms of perception, and in particular contesting the claim of cognitive reliability that some philosophers of religion advance on behalf of religious experience on the basis of this association with perception. |
|
|
Luke J. MatthewsPOSTDOCTORAL FELLOW, 2008-2012Dr. Luke Matthews is Director of Data Analytics at Activate Networks Inc., a startup social network analysis company. He was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University. He holds a PhD and MA in Anthropology from New York University, and bachelor's degrees in Anthropology and Biology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Matthews has studied biocultural inheritance in systems ranging from social networks of capuchin monkeys, to ancient human migrations and extant human cultural variation. His research has been featured in New Scientist, The Washington Post, The New York Times and other venues. His primary research interests include network and phylogenetic analysis, cultural dynamics, personality genetics, and applied social science. |
|
|
Brandon Daniel-HughesPOSTDOCTORAL FELLOW, 2008-2009Dr. Brandon Daniel-Hughes teaches religious studies at John Abbott College in Montreal, Quebec. His research interests focus on contemporary interpretations of traditional religious symbols and doctrines. He is particularly interested in the ways in which religious communities sustain supernatural worldviews even while selectively embracing contemporary technologies and ideals. He also studies the contributions of the intellectual traditions of American naturalism, evangelicalism, and pragmatism, as well as the founder of Pragmatism, Charles Sanders Peirce. As a post-doctoral researcher at IBCSR, his research involves working with Wesley Wildman on the cognitive psychology of religious moderates, as compared with people holding extreme religious beliefs. The focus of his research efforts is the Ideological Spectrums Project, which studies the reasons people adopt the political, religious, and moral views they do. More information about Brandon is available here. |
|
|
Aimee RadomPOSTDOCTORAL FELLOW, 2011-2012Dr. Aimee Self Radom has a PhD in Counseling Psychology and Religion from Boston University and is working at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. She is also a postdoctoral fellow working on the Spectrums Project, which is an empirical investigation of religious ideology. Aimee's particular interest is in the interaction between religious ideology and personality. |
Doctoral Fellows
|
|
Erica HarrisDOCTORAL FELLOW, 2007-2011Erica Harris is currently a research psychologist in the medical sevice corps for the United States Navy, working on sleep studies. When working with IBCSR, she was a PhD student in Boston University Medical School, specializing in behavioral neuroscience. She was heavily involved in IBCSR-related research in the laboratory of Patrick McNamara, and her research focus was on the evolution of religious behaviors, beliefs, and experiences. |
|
|
Derek MichaudDOCTORAL FELLOW, 2008-2010Derek Michaud is a PhD candidate in the Division of Religious and Theological Studies at Boston University. His dissertation research revolves around the intersection of early modern science, philosophy, and theology in the 17th century Cambridge Platonist John Smith’s doctrine of the spiritual senses. He was a contributing editor for ibcsr.org. More information about Derek is available here. |
|
|
Jeffrey EdmondsDOCTORAL FELLOW, 2008-2010Jeffrey Edmonds is a PhD candidate in the Division of Religious and Theological Studies at Boston University. Jeff’s interests focus on the intersection of national security, foreign policy, and religious violence. His current work involves the use of cultural phylogenetic analysis using tools adapted from evolutionary biology in order to understand the emergence of violence in small religious groups. Jeff has served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and continues to serve part-time as a Major in the U.S. Army Reserve. |
|
|
Joel DanielsDOCTORAL FELLOW, 2009-10
|
|
|
P. Monroe ButlerDOCTORAL FELLOW, 2009-2011Paul Butler is an MD-PhD student at Boston University School of Medicine, graduating in 2012 and moving on to a neurology residency at Tufts Medical. He is researching aspects of neurocognition in patients with Parkinson's disease under the direction of Dr. Patrick McNamara and contributes book reviews to the ibcsr.org website. |
|
|
Connor WoodLINDAMOOD FELLOW, 2010-2012
|
|
|
Nicholas DiDonatoLINDAMOOD FELLOW, 2010-2012
|
|
|
Daniel AnstedLINDAMOOD FELLOW, 2011-2012
|
|
|
Ian CooleyDOCTORAL FELLOW, 2012-2013Ian Cooley is a doctoral student in the Division of Religious and Theological Studies at Boston University. With an MSc in the Philosophy and History of Science from the London School of Economics, he is interested in the phenomenology of religious experience. He is currently working with Dr. Wesley Wildman on the Quantifying Religious Experience Project (QRXP). |
|
|
Jonathan MorganCONTRIBUTOR to SCIENCEONRELIGION.ORG, 2012Jonathan Morgan is a masters student studying psychology and theology at Boston University's School of Theology. He is particularly interested in understanding spirituality and its relationship to mental health. He is a regular contributor to ScienceOnReligion.org. |
Editorial and Administrative Staff
|
|
James HaagASSISTANT EDITOR FOR RELIGION, BRAIN & BEHAVIOR, 2010-2011James Haag brings a PhD in religion and science, as well as considerable experience, to his work as Assistant Editor on the Taylor & Francis journal Religion, Brain & Behavior. He is Adjunct Lecturer in Philosophy at Suffolk University in Boston, MA. More information about James is available on Academia.edu. |
