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Deana L. Weibel, Ph.D.
Photo credit belowKendra Stanley-Mills/GVSU University Communications. Patch designed by Karl Tate, karltate.com.
I’M BOTH A SPACE ANTHROPOLOGIST AND AN ANTHROPOLOGIST OF RELIGION In 1995 I undertook my first field study in the French shrine towns of Lourdes and Rocamadour, where I explored pilgrimage, Black Madonna devotion, and the delicate balance between tourism and faith.
I became fascinated by how people recognize a place as sacred—how objects, landscapes, and intention interact to form what pilgrims call sacred space.
Even as I studied these earthly shrines, my lifelong fascination with space—and with the people who explore it—never faded. In 2004 I conducted my first interview with a NASA astronaut, planting the seed for what would become a new phase of my work.
By 2015, religion in space exploration had moved to the center of my research. Over the next decade I carried out a multi-sited ethnography including NASA’s Human Research Program, private-sector pilots and engineers in the Mojave Desert, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Jesuit astronomers of the Vatican Observatory. These encounters convinced me that spirituality is not a relic of Earth but a fundamental part of human culture—one that inevitably travels with us beyond the atmosphere.
A human presence in space means religion will be practiced there.
How it will be practiced is the question that drives my work.
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Work and LifeWORK:
I study how humans encounter the sacred in extraordinary environments—from medieval pilgrimage sites to spacecraft. My research brings together ethnography, astronaut interviews, and long-term fieldwork to understand how religion and spirituality adapt when people cross boundaries few have ever crossed. I’ve worked with NASA scientists and physicians, private-sector engineers and test pilots in the Mojave Desert, Jesuit astronomers at the Vatican Observatory, and astronauts who have seen both Earth and the infinite beyond. My focus is simple but expansive: how do humans make meaning in the most extreme places imaginable? LIFE: In addition to English, I speak fluent French, conversational Spanish, and a bit of Italian and Portuguese. I live in Michigan with my amazing husband, legendary son, and two excellent cats. I love travel, animals, genealogy, and the feeling of standing somewhere that makes me look up. |
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Contact Information
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Deana Weibel, Ph.D. [email protected] Professor, Anthropology Department IRIS: Integrative, Religious, and Intercultural Studies Department Co-Organizer, Roger That! Telephone: 616-331-3346 Twitter and Instagram: ethnoethereal Lake Michigan Hall 227 Grand Valley State University |