DEANA L. WEIBEL
227 Lake Michigan Hall, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI. 49548
telephone: (616) 331-3346, e-mail: [email protected]
https://www.deanaweibel.space/
227 Lake Michigan Hall, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI. 49548
telephone: (616) 331-3346, e-mail: [email protected]
https://www.deanaweibel.space/
| deanal.weibelcvoctober24.docx |
Summary:
Academic anthropologist with over 25 years of experience in ethnographic research and university teaching. Expertise in the anthropology of religion and religious studies conducting innovative research into the religious aspects of space exploration, including the research into the phenomenon known as the "ultraview effect." Field experience at the Vatican Observatory and multiple NASA research centers throughout the U.S. as well as at pilgrimage shrines worldwide, particularly in France (Rocamadour, Lourdes, Les-Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer) and the United States (Chimayó, New Mexico). Academic courses taught focus on comparative religions, religion and health, language and culture, ethnographic methods and advanced anthropological theory.
http://www.deanaweibel.space
Contact:
Address: 123 32nd. St. SE, Wyoming, Michigan 49509
Phone: 616-856-0200
Email: [email protected]
Skills:
· Inspiring lectures
· Curriculum creation
· Research and analysis
· Research writing
· Academic advisement
· Academic publication
· Administrative leadership
· Chaired two departments
· Executive Committee of the Academic Senate
Experience:
Professor of Anthropology, 08/2018 - Current
Grand Valley State University - Allendale, Michigan
· Delivered course lectures using modern technology to enhance student comprehension.
· Mentored and motivated students to increase class participation.
· Maintained student engagement through creative subject delivery and learning activities.
· Formulated well-structured syllabus of course content to detail learning goals and expected outcomes.
· Built strong student rapport by driving classroom and online discussions and providing academic advisement.
· Used exams, quizzes and projects to assess how well students grasped learning material and concepts.
· Collaborated with fellow staff members to promote positive and welcoming learning environment.
· Developed syllabus of lectures, classwork and assignments and distributed to students on first day of class.
Joint Appointment in Religious Studies, 08/2018 - Current
Grand Valley State University - Allendale, Michigan
· Created classroom syllabi based upon main semester topics and instructional targets.
· Cultivated collaborative and innovative learning environment to meet each student's unique educational needs.
· Maintained student engagement through creative subject delivery and learning activities.
Interim Department Chair, 08/2021 - 04/2022
GVSU's IRIS Department - Allendale, Michigan
· Liaised with university administration to facilitate daily operations and program management.
· Prepared reports using academic or institutional data and information.
· Directed or coordinated engaging support staff in administering department
Department Chair, 08/2012 - 08/2018
GVSU Anthropology - Allendale, Michigan
· Provided organizational leadership and collaborated with faculty to establish long-term goals, strategies and department policies.
· Fostered collaboration and development of new practices among faculty.
· Assisted faculty with developing and revising lessons to more productively reach students of varying skill levels.
· Assisted teachers with developing and revising lessons to more productively reach students of varying skill levels.
· Monitored administrative tasks and personnel and supervised budget development and adherence.
· Hired, trained and developed team members and faculty.
· Prepared reports using academic or institutional data and information.
· Advised students on course selection, progress toward graduation and career decisions.
· Recruited, hired and oriented departmental staff.
Associate Professor of Anthropology, 08/2009 - 07/2017
Grand Valley State University - Allendale, MI
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, 08/2003 - 07/2009
Grand Valley State University - Allendale, Michigan
Lecturer in Anthropology, 01/2003 - 06/2003
California State University San Bernardino - San Bernardino, CA
Lecturer in the Study of Religion, 09/2002 - 06/2003
University Of California San Diego - La Jolla, CA
Lecturer in Anthropology, 09/2002 - 06/2003
California State University, Fullerton - Fullerton, CA
Lecturer in Linguistics, 01/2002 - 06/2002
California State University, Long Beach - Long Beach, CA
Lecturer in Human Development, 09/2001 - 06/2002
California State University, Long Beach - Long Beach, CA
Visiting Guest Lecturer in Anthropology, 01/2001 - 06/2001
University Of California San Diego - La Jolla, CA
Education and Training:
Ph.D., Anthropology, 03/2001
University of California - San Diego - La Jolla, CA
· Dissertation: “Kidnapping the Virgin: The Reinterpretation of a Roman Catholic Shrine by Religious Creatives”
· Dissertation Defense Date: March 16, 2001
· Dissertation Advisor: Professor David K. Jordan
· Fulbright Scholarship Recipient, France
Master of Arts, Anthropology, 06/1995
University of California - San Diego - La Jolla, CA
· Thesis: “‘By Visions of the Night': Millennialism and Dreams Among Seventeenth Century English Sectarians.”
· Thesis Advisor: Professor David K. Jordan
Bachelor of Arts, Linguistics, 06/1991
University of California, Irvine - Irvine, CA
· 3.58 GPA
Languages:
English: Native
French: Full Professional
Spanish: Limited
Accomplishments :
BOOKS:
Under Contract (Undergoing revisions):
· Weibel, Deana L. The Ultraview Effect: What we can Learn from Astronauts about Awe, Humility, and Exploring the Unknown (working title)
Published:
· Weibel, Deana L. (February 2022) A Sacred Vertigo: Pilgrimage and Tourism in Rocamadour, France. Lexington Books.
· Crane, Hillary and Deana Weibel (eds.) (December 2012) Missionary Impositions: Conversion, Resistance, and Other Challenges to Objectivity in Religious Ethnography, edited volume on the topic of the ethical complications of fieldwork among proselytizing informants. Lexington Books.
PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS:
Published:
· Co-authored with Michael Di Giovine, “Anthropological Perspectives on Pilgrimage” for the edited volume Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Pilgrimage: Historical, Current, and Future Directions, edited by Heather Warfield, for publication by Peter Lang Publishing.
· “Astronauts as Chosen People: Religious Ways of Understanding the Astronaut Experience and Life After Space,” a chapter for the edited volume Religion & Outer Space, edited by Eric Mazur and Sarah McFarland Taylor, in press at Taylor and Francis.
· “Sherpas on the Moon: The Case for Including ‘Native Guides' in Space Exploration,” for the edited volume, Reclaiming Space: Progressive and Multicultural Visions of Space Exploration, edited by James Schwartz, Linda Billings and Erika Nesvold, Oxford University Press.
· Schwartz, James SJ, Sheri Wells-Jensen, John W. Traphagan, Deana Weibel, and Kelly C. Smith. "What do we need to ask before settling space?" Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 74:4 (2021).
· Weibel, Deana L. 2020 “The Overview Effect and the Ultraview Effect: How Extreme Experiences in/of Outer Space Influence Religious Beliefs in Astronauts” for a special issue of the journal Religions, edited by Deana L. Weibel and Glen E. Swanson
· Weibel, Deana L. 2020 “Following the Path that Heroes Carved into History: Space Tourism, Heritage, and Faith in the Future” for a special issue of the journal Religions, edited by Mohammad Sharifi and Michael di Giovine.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2019 “Medieval 'Miracle of Equilibrium' or Contemporary ‘Sanctuary of Rock-Hard Faith'?: How Digital Media Guides Visitors' Experiences at the Shrine of Rocamadour, France,” a chapter in an edited volume on “Religion and Mobile Apps” for Palgrave Macmillan's Contemporary Anthropology of Religion series, edited by Jacqueline Fewkes.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2019 “Mock Rituals, Sham Battles, and Real Research: Anthropologists and the Ethnographic Study of the Bontoc Igorot in 1900s ‘Igorrote Villages,'” in Histories of Anthropology Annual. Volume 13, University of Nebraska Press. Edited by Regna Darnell and Frederic W. Gleach.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2016 “Rocamadour Pilgrimage” in The Oxford Companion to Cheese by Catherine Donnelly (ed.). Oxford University Press
· Weibel, Deana L. 2015 'Up in God's Great Cathedral': Evangelism, Astronauts, and the Seductiveness of Outer Space” in The Seductions of Pilgrimage: Afar and Astray in the Western Religious Tradition, by Michael Di Giovine and David Picard (eds). Ashgate Studies in Pilgrimage, Ashgate Publishing, pp. 233-256.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2014 “A Savage at the Wedding and the Skeletons in My Closet: My Great-Grandfather, “Igorotte Villages,” in Mutuality: Anthropology's Changing Terms of Engagement, by Roger Sanjek (ed). University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 99-117.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2012 “Blind in a Land of Visionaries: When a Non-Pilgrim Studies Pilgrimage” in Missionary Impositions: Conversion, Resistance, and Other Challenges to Objectivity in Religious Ethnography, Hillary K. Crane and Deana L. Weibel (eds). Lexington Books, pp. 92-109 .
· Weibel, Deana L. 2012 “Magnetism and Microwaves: Religion as Radiation” In The Body and Religion: Modern Science and the Construction of Meaning, David Cave and Rebecca Sachs Norris (eds). Brill Academic Publishing. pp. 171-198.
· Weibel, Deana L. and Glen E. Swanson. 2006. Malinowski in Orbit: ‘Magical Thinking' in Human Spaceflight. Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 13 (3): 53-61.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2005a. “The Virgin Mary Versus the Monkeys” In Religious Innovation in a Global Age, George N. Lundskow (ed.). McFarland. pp. 247-257.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2005b. “Of Consciousness Changes and Fortified Faith: Creativist and Catholic Pilgrimage at French Catholic Shrines” In Pilgrimage and Healing, Jill Dubisch and Michael Winkelman (eds.). University of Arizona Press.. pp. 111-134.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2003. Controlling Chance, Creating Chance: Magical Thinking in Religious Pilgrimage. The Journal for the Academic Study of Magic 1: 161-178.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2002a. The New Age and the Old World: the Interpretation and Use of European Shrines by Religious Creatives. Maria: A Journal of Marian Studies 2.(2): 81-87.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2002b. 'The Energy We Call the Goddess': the Religious Creativist Use of a Roman Catholic Shrine. Maria: A Journal of Marian Studies 2.(2): 88-94.
GUEST EDITING:
· Guest editor (with space historian Glen E. Swanson) of a special issue of the journal Religions called “The Mutual Influence of Religion and Science in the Human Understanding and Exploration of Outer Space” (2020) (to be published in book format, 2021).
BOOK REVIEWS:
· Weibel, Deana (2020) Review of Space Tourism, edited by Erik Cohen and Sam Spector. Invited submission to the Journal of Tourism and Social Change.
· Weibel, Deana (2014) Review of Tourism and the Power of Otherness: Seductions of Difference, edited by Michael DiGiovine and David Picard. Invited submission to the International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS:
· Weibel, Deana L. (2024) “’Not quite the plan, but here we are’: NASA ritual and the reintegration of the Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts. The Space Review, September 30, 2024. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4865/
· Weibel, Deana L. (2024) "The sacred Moon: Navigating diverse cultural beliefs in lunar missions" The Space Review, January 29, 2024. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4733/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2024) "The sacred Moon: Navigating diverse cultural beliefs in lunar missions" The Space Review, January 29, 2024. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4733/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2023) "Honoring and dishonoring the dead in outer space: How a Virgin Galactic spaceflight sparked a scandal in anthropology" The Space Review, September 25, 2023. https://thespacereview.com/article/4657/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2023) "The highs and lows of extreme tourism: The Titan accident and commercial expeditions to space and the deep sea" The Space Review. July 31, 2023. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4630/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2023) “Astronauts as Chosen People: Religious Ways of Understanding the Astronaut Experience and Life After Space,” a chapter for the edited volume Religion & Outer Space, edited by Eric Mazur and Sarah McFarland Taylor, for publication by Taylor and Francis.
· Weibel, Deana L. (2023) "Cultural considerations in space exploration: Insights for NASA’s Artemis 2 mission" The Space Review. June 5, 2023. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4596/1 Weibel, Deana L. (2022) "Boozy Chimps in Orbit and Intoxicating Saturns: Where Space Pop Meets Tiki Culture" The Space Review. July 5, 2022.https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4414/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2021) "Black ugliness and the covering of blue: William Shatner's suborbital flight to 'death,'" The Space Review. October 18, 2021. https://thespacereview.com/article/4265/1
· Weibel, Deana L., and Glen E. Swanson. "Introduction to Special Issue: The Mutual Influence of Religion and Science in the Human Understanding and Exploration of Outer Space." (2021): 444.
· Weibel, Deana L. (2020) “‘Maybe You Were Put Here to be the Answer': Religious Overtones in the New Space Force Recruitment Video” The Space Review. May 11, 2020. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3942/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2020) “Magnificent Isolation: What We Can Learn from Astronauts about Social Distancing and Sheltering in Space.” The Space Review. March 23, 2020. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3903/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2019) “Destiny in Space.” Anthropology News 60 (4): 26-27.
· Weibel, Deana L. (2019) “Astronauts vs. mortals: space workers, Jain ascetics, and NASA's transcendent few.” The Space Review. April 18, 2019. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3690/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2017) “Space exploration as religious experience: Evangelical astronauts and the perception of God's worldview.” The Space Review. August 21, 2017. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3310/1#idc-cover
· Weibel, Deana L. (2015 Kindle edition, 2016 Print edition) “Pennies from Heaven: Objects in the Use of Outer Space as Sacred Space” in Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Intersection of Space Travel and Religion, Paul Levinson and Michael Waltemathe (eds.), Connected Editions (Kindle version) and Fordham University Press (print edition).
· Weibel, Deana (2015) “Lessons from GVSU's Ethnographic Field School,” (blog post) Engaged GVSU: Reflections from the GVSU Office of Community Engagement, https://gvsucommunity.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/lessons-from-gvsus-ethnographic-field-school/.
· Weibel, Deana L. and Katie L. Kujala, (2014) "Blessed Goats: On the Melding of Church and Cheese in Rocamadour, France," in the "Research Notes" section of the Spring 2014 issue of Digest: A Journal of Foodways and Culture.
· Weibel, Deana L. & Patricia O. Afable. (2012) “'The Igorrote Village' at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, 1909: Bontoc Performers and their American Showman" In Igorot by Heart: Keynotes and Selections of a Generation, John Dyte et al (eds.) Igorot Global Organization, pp. 213-243.
· Weibel, Deana L. (2007a) Society for the Anthropology of Religion monthly column in Anthropology News, “Magic, Science and Religion in Space?” Volume 48, Number 2.
· Weibel, Deana L. (2007b) “A New Take on Kinship Studies” in the Grand Valley State University Anthropology Club's Winter 2007 Anthropology Advocate.
EDITED REPORTS:
· An Ethnographic Study of Volunteering at Festival of the Arts, Grand Rapids, edited with Michael Wroblewski, submitted to Mark Azkoul and Baird Hawkins of the Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts Board of Directors on July 18, 2022.
· “Stories” for Bethany: A Collection of Refugee Stories Based on Interviews Conducted by the Students of ANT 400, Ethnographic Methods, Fall Semester 2016, submitted to Alyssa Hall of Bethany Refugee and Immigrant Services on December 14, 2016.
CONFERENCES ORGANIZED:
· Co-Organizer/Founder (February 2017, February 2018, February 2019, February 2020, February 2021, February 2022, February 2023, February 2024, Forthcoming February 2025) Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger B. Chaffee, a two-day interdisciplinary public event being put on by GVSU and the Grand Rapids Public Museum to recognize the contributions of Grand Rapids native, astronaut Roger B. Chaffee to the exploration of space, and to emphasize that the study of space involves science, society and the arts.
PAPERS PRESENTED:
Invited presentations:
· “The Space Flown Body: How Medical Spaceflight Researchers Manifest the Destiny of Human Biology,” for the Space Intersections Symposium, ASU Barrett and O’Connor Washington Center, Washington, DC. May 14, 2024.
· August 2023. "Reflections of Humans in Space," a workshop for the International Space University's 2023 Space Studies Program at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica in São José dos Campos, Brazil.
· “An Outrageous View of the Heavens: The Ultraview Effect as a Cognitive and Cultural Response to the Panorama of Deep Space,” hosted by the Moon Village Association as part of a series by their Cultural Working Group, online, June 6, 2023.
· “Avoiding Annihilation: Human Salvation through Planet B and Other Spiritual Missions of the Private Space Industry,” University of Southern California, hosted by the Confronting the Second Space Age: From Cosmic Speculation to Astro-Capitalism Working Group and the Department of Anthropology,
· “Outer Space as Sacred Space: On the Religious Lives of Space Professionals,” Fyrecon Education Conference for Writers and Artists, Salt Lake City, Utah (presented online), November 12, 2022.
· April 2022. "A Conversation with Deana Weibel, Author of A Sacred Vertigo," online, hosted by Michael Di Giovine, editor of the Lexington Books series The Anthropology of Pilgrimage: Heritage, Mobility, and Society.
· “‘How Can You Steward What You Don't Know?': Religious and Spiritual Motivations for and the Understanding from Robotic Space Exploration,” Explorers Club Northern California Chapter meeting, online, March 26, 2021.
· November 2019, Panel member for the Sagan Meetings on the topic of ethnics and space settlement at the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop meetings, Wichita, Kansas.
Refereed presentations:
· Forthcoming, November 2024. “Defining the Role of Anthropology in the Future of Space Tourism.” At the American Anthropological Association meetings, Tampa, Florida.
· November 2021. “A Sacred Vertigo” for the Sacred Journeys session of the Explorers Club Pathfinders Symposium. (Virtual conference)
· July 2021, “Through the Courtesy of Mr. R. Schneidewind”: “Igorrote Villages” as Anthropological Projects and Research Sites in the Early Twentieth Century” at the joint Virtual Conference of EASA's Europeanist Network (EuroNet) and History of Anthropology Network (HOAN) (Virtual conference)
· January 2020, “One Giant Leap (of Faith): Astronaut Religiosity and the Experience of Being in Outer Space” (poster presentation) at the NASA Human Research Program Investigators Workshop, Galveston, TX.
· November 2019, “Inevitability, Adaptability, Destiny: Religious and Non-Religious Arguments for a Human Future in Outer Space” at the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop, Wichita, KS.
· May 2019, “Something Beyond What We Understand”: Shifting between Scientific and Religious Models of the Universe in Space Professionals' Conceptualizations of Outer Space” at the Society for the Anthropology of Religion meetings, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
· November 2018, “The Overview Effect and the Ultraview Effect: How Extreme Experiences in Outer Space Affect Religious Beliefs in Astronauts” at the American Anthropological Association meetings, San Jose, California.
· May 2017 “'Time from Eternity to Eternity': Space Exploration and the Astronaut experience of God's Worldview” (co-authored with Joshua Ambrosius) at the Society for the Anthropology of Religion Meetings, New Orleans, Louisiana.
· February 2017 “Witnesses to the Heavens: Space Exploration in a Religious Context" at the Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger B. Chaffee conference, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
· November 2016, “Medieval 'Miracle of Equilibrium' or Contemporary ‘Sanctuary of Rock-Hard Faith'?: How Digital Media Guides Visitors' Experiences at the Shrine of Rocamadour, France” at the American Anthropological Association meetings, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
· June 2016, “Academics at the Fairs: Linguistic and Cultural Research with Exhibited Igorots in the Early 20th Century” at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Pacific Division's Annual Meeting, San Diego, California.
· November 2015, Discussant, panel on “The Seductions of Pilgrimage: Sacred Journeys Afar and Astray in the Western Religious Tradition,” at the American Anthropological Association meetings, Denver, Colorado.
· November 2015, “Mock Rituals, Sham Battles, and Real Research: Anthropologists and the Ethnographic Study of the Bontoc Igorot in 1900s ‘Igorrote Villages'” at the American Anthropological Association meetings, Denver, Colorado.
· April 2015, “Communitas, Morality, Sorrow and Truth: Supernatural Means of Ascertaining Unorthodox Histories of Religiously Significant Sites,” at the Society for the Anthropology of Religion Meetings, San Diego, California.
· March 2015, “Teaching Anthropology Is Not a ‘Sin': Emphasizing the Practical Aspects of the Anthropology Major” (co-authored with Tara Hefferan and Elizabeth Arnold) at the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meetings, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
· December 2014, “Religious Creatives, Sacredness and the Anthropologist,” at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, Washington, D.C.
· December 2014, “A Guide to Conquest: What Crusades Tourism Reveals about the Construction of French National Identity” (co-authored with Meagan Roche) at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, Washington, D.C.
· May, 2014 "Transportable Awe: Sacred Contagion as Enrichment," at the Cognitive Science of Religion, Philosophy and Theology Conference, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
· November, 2013 "To Sink or to Swim: An Ethnographer's Trial by Water" at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, Chicago, Illinois.
· April, 2013 "Syncretism in the Service of Colonialism: The Universalizing Approach of Religious Creativism" at the Society for the Anthropology of Religion meetings, Pasadena, California.
· October, 2012. "Igorots, Anthropologists, and "Igorrote Villages": The Impact of Ethnography as Imperialism” at the 9th International Conference on the Philippines (ICOPHIL), Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.
· November, 2011. “A Savage at the Wedding and the Skeletons in My Closet: My Great-Grandfather, “Igorotte Villages,” and the Ethnological Expositions of the 1900s” at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
· June, 2011. “Performers, Interpreters and the Showman Onstage and Offstage at the AYPE Pay Streak's ‘Igorotte Village'” (co-authored with Patricia Afable) at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Pacific Division's Annual Meeting, San Diego, California.
· April, 2011. “'Up in God's Great Cathedral': An Analysis of an Astronaut's Personal Relationship with Divinity,” the Society for the Anthropology of Religion meetings, Santa Fe, NM.
· November, 2010. ”The Pilgrim/Tourist Loop: When the Movement of Compostela Pilgrims off
· the Camino Leads to Circular Patterns of Identity” at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, New Orleans, Louisiana.
· August, 2010. "Performers, Interpreters and the Showman Onstage and Offstage at the AYPE Pay Streak's ‘Igorotte Village '” (co-authored with Patricia Afable) at the Eighth International Igorot Consultation, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia.
· December, 2009. “Gathering Energy: Pilgrimage, Spaceflight and the Transformation of Objects” (co-authored with Valerie Olson) at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
· September, 2009. “Performers, Interpreters and the Showman: Onstage and Offstage at the Pay Streak's ‘Igorotte Village'” (co-authored with Patricia Afable) at the Alaska- Yukon-Pacific Exposition Centennial: Asian Symposium, Seattle, Washington.
· March, 2009. “'I Have Filled it With Energy!': The Manufacture of Fetishistic Relics by Voyagers to Sacred Space(s)” (co-authored with Valerie Olson), at the Society for the Anthropology of Religion/Psychological Anthropological Association joint meetings, Asilomar, California.
· December, 2007. “Blind in a Land of Visionaries: When a Non-Pilgrim Studies Pilgrimage,” at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, Washington, D.C.
· April, 2007. “The Nuns of Rocamadour: ‘Itinerant Missionaries' at the Border between Religion and Secularism,” at the Society for the Anthropology of Religion Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona.
· November, 2006. “The Secular Saint: Francis Poulenc as an Exemplar of Tourist-to-Pilgrim Transformation,” at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, San Jose, California.
· December, 2004. “Malinowski in Orbit: Magical Thinking in the U.S. and Soviet Manned Space Programs” (co-authored with Glen E. Swanson), at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, Atlanta, GA. (also chaired the panel, “At the Crossroads of Magic and Science”).
· November, 2003 “Whose Shrine is it Anyway?” the American Anthropological Assoc Annual Meetings, Chicago, Illinois.
· November, 2000 “‘The Energy We Call the Goddess': The Religious Creativist Use of a Roman Catholic Shrine,” at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, San Francisco.
· April, 2000 “The New Age and the Old World: The Interpretation and Use of European Shrines by ‘Religious Creatives,'” at the Western Social Science Association Convention, San Diego.
Other presentations:
· March 2024. Participated in an online panel called "Sacred Skies: Integrating Diverse Spiritual Perspectives in Space Policy," for Beyond Earth Institute.
"Bringing Anthropology to Outer Space: Sacred Travel, Destiny, and the Motivating Force of Optimism,” Explorers Club Chicago/Great Lakes Chapter meeting, May 2, 2021.
· “Ablutions Without Water and the Hidden Mezuzah: The Modification of Religious Rituals While Traveling in Outer Space.” A presentation given at the 2020 Roger That! Conference at Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
· “'Whatever you do, do as if for God and not for man': Integration, compartmentalization, and the role of religiosity in space work,” Vatican Observatory, Vatican City, March 2019.
· “Confronting the Martian: Humanity's Changing Concepts about Life on the Red Planet,” GVSU Art Gallery, October 2018.
· “To Make a Man Appreciate the Creation of God: Space Travel and the Sacred” with Glen Swanson (Physics), GVSU Art Gallery, February 2014.
· "Diversity in Religion," a presentation given as part of GVSU's Inclusion and Diversity Seminar, Nov. 2011.
· “Medicine and Miracles: Science and Religion at Lourdes, France”, A Grand Dialogue in Science and Religion Annual Conference 2011, April 2011, GVSU.
· "Sacred Sites and ‘Energy': Using Science to Describe the Spiritual", A Grand Dialogue in Science and Religion Annual Conference 2010, March 2010,
GVSU.
· “The Humanities Connection to Soul Catchers,” a panel discussion at Frederick Meijer Gardens, February 2010.
· “Religion and Space,” a presentation at the Spring Lake District Library, April 2009.
· "Moving Closer to God(s): Why Pilgrims Make Pilgrimages", A Grand Dialogue in Science and Religion Annual Conference 2009, March 2009, GVSU.
· “Richard Schneidewind's Igorot Village: Early Anthropology and the Display of Philippine ‘Savages' in the United States,” with Patricia Afable. Special Presentation of the GVSU Department of Anthropology, March 2008.
· “Religion and the Supernatural in the American Space Program,” with Glen Swanson, A Grand Dialogue in Science and Religion Annual Conference, February 2008, GVSU.
· “Secularism and Religiosity at Rocamadour” The Ways of the Earth's Symposium on Inter-Religious Struggle, February 2005, GVSU.
· “Communion on the Moon: Spirituality and Human Spaceflight,” with Glen E. Swanson, GVSU's Anthropology Club's “Brown Bag” presentation, November, 2004, GVSU.
· “You Make Me Feel Like Dancin': Dance and Other Forms of Movement inspired by the Divine,” Interfaith Dialogue Association Conference, November, 2004, Aquinas College.
· “The Virgin Mary: God's Mother or Mother Goddess?” The Ways of the Earth's Sacred Feminine symposium, March, 2004, GVSU.
· "Judaism and the New Age Movement," San Diego Secular Humanistic Judaism Society, June 2001, San Diego, Ca.
RESEARCH AND FIELDWORK EXPERIENCE:
Ongoing research:
· Continuing research on the topic of human spaceflight, “flown” objects, and religious beliefs for new publications, as well as new research on space tourism in its myriad forms.
Other research:
· 2019: Sabbatical research on the relationships linking religiosity with space exploration, with ethnographic research and interviews at the NASA Human Research Project Investigators Workshop in Galveston, TX., the Kennedy Space Center in Florida; the Mojave Air and Spaceport and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California; and the Vatican Observatory in Italy.
· 2018 Research interviews on space exploration and religiosity with six interlocutors (current astronaut, two retired astronauts, three physicists), reconnaissance visit to Castel Gandolfo Observatory field site (Italy), research visit and interview in Rocamadour, (France).
· 2017 Research interviews on space exploration and religiosity with two interlocutors (Jesuit astronomer in June, unorthodox astronaut in September)
· 2015 Research interview on the topic of religious objects (the “Space Judaica” collection) that were taken into outer space and their resulting religious significance.
· 2014 Research at Rocamadour, Versailles, Carcassonne, Montségur, and Mousaiss-la-Bataille, France with GVSU student Meagan Roche (funded by a Student Summer Scholars grant) for book revision and additional articles and presentations.
· 2010-2011 Transcription of and research on my taped interview with an American astronaut that was initially conducted in 2004 but was only approved as a study (“Religious Practice and Belief in Outer Space: An Astronaut's Experience in Context”) by GVSU's IRB Committee as of July 2010.
· 2007 Research at Rocamadour and Lourdes, France with GVSU student Katie Kujala for book revision and additional articles and presentations.
· 2006 Research at Rocamadour and Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, France for book revision and additional articles and presentations.
· 2005 Consultant (paid), Meijer Gardens' Christmas Around the World and Holiday Traditions
· 2004 Research at the Cross of the Woods Catholic shrine in Indian River, Michigan.
· 2003 Supplementary research in Rocamadour, France for book project.
· 2000-2003 Anthropological Researcher, Context-Based Research Group. Projects included studies on the consumption of wine in the United States, the relationships between Realtors and their clients, and interactions between architects and the industries that employ them.
· 2001 Consultant and Expert Witness, Law Offices of Gerald Blank, San Diego, California. Provided information and advice to a defensive legal team on topics involving witchcraft and occult practices.
· 1998-1999 Dissertation research in Rocamadour, France (Fulbright Grant, October- June).
· 1998 Supplementary dissertation research in Chimayó, New Mexico (April-June).
· 1997 Dissertation feasibility study, Rocamadour, France (April-September).
· 1995 Initial reconnaissance work, Rocamadour, France and Lourdes, France (Soroptimist Grant, July).
Activities and Honors:
AWARDS AND GRANTS:
· 2022 Michigan Space Grant from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (Co-Principal Investigator with Karen Gipson, Samhita Rhodes and Glen Swanson) for funding the 2023 event “Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger. B. Chaffee.”
· 2021 Michigan Space Grant from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (Co-Principal Investigator with Karen Gipson, Samhita Rhodes and Glen Swanson) for funding the 2022 event “Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger. B. Chaffee.”
· 2020 Michigan Space Grant from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (Co-Principal Investigator with Karen Gipson, Samhita Rhodes and Glen Swanson) for funding the 2021 event “Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger. B. Chaffee.”
· 2019 Michigan Space Grant from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (Co-Principal Investigator with Karen Gipson, Samhita Rhodes and Glen Swanson) for funding the 2020 event “Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger. B. Chaffee.”
· 2018 GVSU's Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence Catalyst Grant for Research and Creativity for funding the research project “Lift Up Your Eyes and Look to the Heavens: The Relationship between Scientific Understandings and Religious Beliefs in the Exploration of Outer Space.”
· 2018 Michigan Space Grant from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (Co-Principal Investigator with Karen Gipson, Samhita Rhodes and Glen Swanson) for funding the 2019 event “Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger. B. Chaffee.”
· 2017 Michigan Space Grant from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (Co-Principal Investigator with Karen Gipson, Samhita Rhodes and Glen Swanson) for funding the 2018 event “Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger. B. Chaffee.”
· 2014 Student Summer Scholars (S3) Grant from the Office of Undergraduate Research at GVSU for research with student Meagan Roche in France, May and June 2014.
· 2007 Special research grant from GVSU's Dean of Graduate Studies and Grants Administration for student-accompanied research in May and June, 2006, in Rocamadour and Lourdes, France.
· 2006 Grant-in-Aid from Grand Valley State University's Research and Development Committee for research in May and June, 2006, in Rocamadour and Saintes-Maries-de- la-Mer, France.
· 1998-1999 Fulbright Award for Research in France distributed by the Franco-American Commission for Educational Exchange
· 1995 Soroptimist Society of La Jolla Research Award for the Study of Issues in Women's Health (Grant name changed in 1996 to the Doris A. Howell Foundation Grant for Women's Health Research).
PROFESSIONAL COMMITTEES:
· 2022-present Chair of the Chicago/Great Lakes Chapter of the Explorers Club
· 2020-present Member of the Lectures and Events Committee for the Explorers Club
· 2020-2022 Leadership Team for the Chicago/Great Lakes chapter of the Explorers Club
GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY COMMITTEES:
· 2011- 2020, 2023-present Executive Committee of the University Academic Senate.
· 2006-present University Academic Senate
· 2006-2007 Fall Arts and Humanities Celebration Advisory Committee
· 2005-2006 Learning Space Task Force
· 2004-2010 Research and Development Committee/Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence
· 2004-2006 University Assessment Committee
OTHER UNIVERSITY AND UNIT SERVICE:
· 2023-present Brooks College School of Interdisciplinary Studies Bylaws Committee
· 2021-present Anthropology Department Student Relations and Alumni Committee
· 2021-2022 Interim Chair, Integrative, Religious, and Intercultural Studies Department, GVSU
· 2021-2022 GVSU Provost Search Committee
· 2021 GVSU Program Review Committee
· 2019-2020 Member, UAS FaCEIn Task Force
· 2019-2021 Advisor, GVSU Anthropology Club
· 2019-present Member of Anthropology Student Relations Subcommittee
· 2016 Chair of Unit Department Coordinator Hiring Subcommittee
· 2011-present Advising Faculty, Religious Studies Department
· 2015 Affiliate Faculty Task Force
· 2015 Co-organizer of Community Service Reception (September)
· 2015 G3 Session Organizer – “From the Equator to the Poles: How People Live with Light”
· 2015 Engaged Department Institute participant (May)
· 2015 Faculty Advisor (with Wroblewski, Arnold and Van Wormer) for Community Engagement interns
· 2015 Super Science Saturday Session Co-Organizer (with Chris Shaffer) – “From the Equator to the Poles: How People Live with Light” (February)
· 2014 ECS Subcommittee on Service
· 2013 G3 Session Organizer – “Games on the Playground - A Cultural Exchange”
· 2011-2012 Chair of Unit Assistant Professor Hiring Subcommittee
· 2011 Participation in GVSU's Interfaith Committee for Kaufman Interfaith Institute
· 2011 Participation in Unit Visiting Professor Hiring Subcommittee
· 2010 Participation as a panelist on one of the Personnel Policy Faculty Forums re: The Personnel Policy Referendum
· 2009 Self-Study Subcommittees on Faculty Vitae Review and FARs and Overall Departmental Collection in Anthropology unit
· 2008 North Central Accreditation Forum participation
· 2008 GVSU's Student Visitation Day (creation of PowerPoint describing unit for event)
· 2008 Banner Prerequisite Override Training
· 2008 Grand Valley State University's 2008 Major Fair
· 2007 Benchmarking Subcommittee in Anthropology unit
· 2007 Assessment Subcommittee in Anthropology unit
· 2007 General Education cluster service for Religion and Death and Dying themes
· 2007 General Education workshop
· 2006-2007 Helped organize and plan an anthropological activity for the 2007 Science Olympiad
· 2006 Participant in GVSU's Liberal Arts Initiative
· 2005-present Participant in GVSU's Advocates and Allies group
· 2004-2008 Faculty advisor, GVSU Anthropology Club
· 2004-2007 Assisting in the evaluation of writing samples for CUII
· 2003 Presentations with Dr. Bruce Hardy on careers and grad school, GVSU Anthropology Club
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE:
· 2024 Provided External Full Professor Review for Religious Studies Department, University of Miami.
· 2023-present Advisory Board Member and Space Anthropologist for Cosmic Girls Foundation, https://www.cosmicgirls.org
· 2023 External review of the Archaeology and Anthropology Department at the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse.
· 2021 Peer review of submitted articles for journals Zygon: The Journal of Religion and Science and Religions.
· 2018 Peer review of submitted articles for journals Anthropology and Humanism, Tourism Geographies, and Religions.
· 2015 Provided External Tenure Review for Anthropology Department, Queens College, CUNY.
· 2008 Nominated to run as a candidate for Board Member, the Society for the Anthropology of Religion.
RELEVANT COMMUNITY SERVICE
· October 2024 Presentation on the discipline of anthropology in Ms. Ahmicasaube's sociology class, Forest Hills Eastern High School, Forest Hills, Michigan.
· October 2022 Presentation on the discipline of anthropology in Ms. Ahmicasaube's sociology class, Forest Hills Eastern High School, Forest Hills, Michigan.
· February 2020 Presentation on the discipline of anthropology in Ms. Ahmicasaube's sociology class, Forest Hills Eastern High School, Forest Hills, Michigan.
· February 2020 Anthropology Day activities with GVSU's Anthropology Club, Grand Rapids Montessori School, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
· November 2019, "Religion in Time and Space," a SkypeAScientist presentation for Ms. Willis' class at Vermilion Forks Elementary in Princeton, British Columbia.
· October 2018 “What is a Martian? Our Changing Ideas about Life on the Red Planet,” Anthropology Presentation, Grand Rapids Montessori School, Grand Rapids, Michigan
· February 2017 Anthropology Day presentation, Grand Rapids Montessori School, Grand Rapids, Michigan
· 2006 Consultant, Network 180's Diversity Council.
· 2003-present Member of the Board of Directors and Vice President of the Interfaith Dialogue Association of West Michigan (housed under the Kaufman Interfaith Institute since 2015)
Additional Information:
NEWSPAPER/MAGAZINE/ONLINE CONTENT INTERVIEWS
· June 2024. Interviewed by Larry Bleiberg for an article entitled, “Why humans are drawn to the ends of the Earth,” BBC.com
· January 2024. Interviewed by Kelsey Ables for an article entitled, "Human remains set for moon memorial to instead burn in earth's atmosphere," Washington Post.
· March 2023 Interviewed by Luis Henao for an internationally distributed article entitled “Why the religious fast for Ramadan, Lent and other holy days,” Associated Press.
· February 2023. Interviewed by Elizabeth Fernandez for a Big Think article titled, "Space travel will radically change human psychology and spirituality" about the "overview effect" and the "ultraview effect" and their impact on astronauts.
· AugustJanuary/February 2023. Interviewed by Marina Koren for an article in The Atlantic, “Seeing Earth From Space Will Change You.
The question is how.” about Christian influences on and aspects of space exploration.
· March 2023 Interviewed by Veruska De Vita for an article entitled “What astronauts and astronomers say about living in space,” South African Sunday Times.
· October 2022. Interviewed by Jessica Camille Aguirre for an article entitled “The Promise and Peril of Space Tourism,” AFAR Magazine.
· August 2022. Interviewed by Melissa Truth Miller for an article entitled “Ewoks: Stewards of the Forest Moon,” Star Wars Insider Magazine, Issue 212.
· July 2022. Interviewed by Peg West for an article entitled, "NASA Webb telescope photos showing the sometimes emotionally overwhelming vastness of space: GVSU anthropologist."
· October 2021. Interviewed by Peg West for an article entitled, "Shatner's Unfiltered, Emotional Reaction to Space Flight Offers Fresh Perspective on How Humans React, According to GVSU Researcher."
· February 2021. Interviewed by Peg West for an article entitled, “Roger That! conference this year offers a virtual conference with a vast slate of experts” https://www.gvsu.edu/gvnext/2021/roger-that-conference-this-year-offers-a-virtual-conference-with-a-vast-slate-of-experts.htm
· November 2020. Interviewed by Paul Berger for a Wall Street Journal article entitled, “World's Explorers, Hemmed in by Pandemic, Offer Tips for Coping With Lockdown” https://www.wsj.com/articles/worlds-explorers-hemmed-in-by-pandemic-discover-ways-to-cope-with-lockdown-11605199630
· May 2020. Interviewed by Gregg Krupa for a Detroit Press article entitled, “Struggling with isolation? Astronauts have been there, done that.”
· May 2020: "Minute at the Mic" appearance as a member of The Explorers Club on their social media pages:
https://www.facebook.com/TheExplorersClubNYC/videos/1367861433419294/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CAN7wPhBwQ0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
https://twitter.com/ExplorersClub/status/1261355890164338698?s=20
· February 2020. Interviewed by Peg West for an article entitled, “Messages planned by Roger That! speakers: vastness of space, elements of life, joy of discovery”
· July 2019. Interview (along with Glen Swanson) on WKTV's "The Whole Picture Podcast."
· July 2019 . Interviewed by Peg West for an article entitled, "GVSU Professor: Space exploration and religion have a long shared history."
· August 2018. Interviewed by Marina Koren for an article in the online version of The Atlantic, “Mike Pence's Outer-Space Gospel” about the use of religious language by Vice President Pence and others when discussing the proposed “Space Force” and the American presence in space as well as religiosity in the American space program overall.
· February 2017. Interviewed by James Kilborn for an article in the Grand Valley State University newspaper The Lanthorn, “GVSU partnering with GRPM to celebrate space exploration” about Roger That! 2018.
· January 2017. Interviewed by Teresa Guerrero Fernández for an article in the Madrid, Spain-based newspaper El Mundo, “Las Mujeres Que Ayudaron A Pisar La Luna,” about the experiences of female NASA astronauts and other employees, astronauts' wives, and the movie “Hidden Figures.”
· October 2009. Interviewed by Jim Hayden for an article in the Holland Sentinal, “Spooked: Local Haunts for a chilly thrill” about ghosts in cross-cultural belief systems.
· October 2007. Interviewed by Angel Diaz for an article in the Madrid, Spain-based newspaper El Mundo, “Todo listo para el Ramadán cósmico,” about religious beliefs held by and rituals performed by astronauts and cosmonauts.
· June 2007. Various interviews in Grand Rapids Press, Grand Haven Tribune, GVNow, and the GVSU Lanthorn about appearance on Jeopardy! game show.
· November 2004. Interviewed by John Flesher for internationally distributed Associated Press article, “Outdoor Shrine Inspires Worshippers” about pilgrimage to the Cross in the Woods shrine, Indian River, Michigan
RADIO APPEARANCES
· July 2024. Interviewed for the BBC Radio 4 show Sideways, for two episodes, “Life on Mars,” and “With the Gods.
· February 2024. Interviewed by Shelley Irwin for The Shelley Irwin Show about Roger That! 2024
· August 2022. Participated in a panel called "Returning to the Moon" for the BBC Radio Ulster program Sunday Sequence. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bgxf
· October 2020. Interviewed by David Livingston of The Space Show on the topic of space tourism. https://www.thespaceshow.com/show/19-jan-2021/broadcast-3631-dr.-deana-weibel
· October 2020. Interviewed for a segment on “Awe and Wonder” for the British radio program
· Voice of Islam. https://soundcloud.com/voislam/drive-time-show-podcast-15-10
· October 2020. Interviewed by David Livingston of The Space Show on the topic of the Overview Effect and the Ultraview Effect https://www.thespaceshow.com/show/16-oct-2020/broadcast-3590-dr.-deana-weibel
· April 2020. Interviewed by David Livingston of The Space Show on the topic of space tourism. https://www.thespaceshow.com/show/24-apr-2020/broadcast-3499-dr.-deana-weibel
· July 2019. Interviewed by Patrick Center of WGVU News for a news story entitled, "GVSU professor studies space travel's impact on spirituality".
· https://www.wgvunews.org/post/gvsu-professor-studies-space-travels-impact-spirituality
· July 2019. Interviewed by Shelley Irwin on the topics of space, religion and the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing for the WGVU Morning Show. https://www.wgvunews.org/post/deana-weibel
· July, 2019. “Spirituality and Space Travel”: Two-part interview about religion and NASA's Apollo program by Fred Stella, “Common Threads,” WGVU. https://www.wgvunews.org/post/spirituality-and-space-travel
· February 8, 2018. Interview about the Roger That! event by Jennifer Moss, WGVU. http://www.wgvunews.org/post/conference-features-first-african-american-astronaut-travel-space
· January 20, 2017. Interview about the Roger That! event (along with Samhita Rhodes and Kate Moore) by Shelly Irwin, WGVU. http://wgvunews.org/post/roger.
· January 20, 2017. Interview about the Roger That! event (along with Kate Moore) by Jennifer Moss, WGVU, http://wgvunews.org/post/upcoming-symposium-honor-roger-b-chaffee.
· January 20, 2017. Interview about the Roger That! event by James Gemmell, WJRW, https://clyp.it/u4m3frag.
· May 2005. Interviewed (along with Mark Schwartz) for “The Morning Show,” hosted by Shelley Irwin, WGVU.
· October 2004. Interviewed for “Common Threads,” hosted by Fred Stella, WGVU.
PODCAST APPEARANCES
· June 2024. Interviewed for the podcast Space Midrash by Jacob Sager.
· March 2024. Interviewed for the podcast Chai on the Moon by Salman Hameed.
· April 2023. Interviewed for the podcast Meaningful Journeys by Heather Warfield.
· March 2023. Interviewed for the Rocamadour episode of the podcast The Camino Podcast by Dave Whitson.
· January 2023. Interviewed about space and religion for the podcast What People Do by Brendan Howard.
· November 2022. Interviewed for the podcast Humans of Space by journalist Niamh Shaw.
TELEVISION APPEARANCES
· June 2023. Interviewed by Mark Rivera for ABC 7 Chicago's 5pm News' coverage of the Explorers Club's connections to the loss of the Titan submersible.
· January 2022. Appeared on WOOD-TV's News 8 @ 5:30pm to promote Roger That! 2023.
· July 2022. Spoke for a segment on the personal impact of the Overview Effect for the PBS television series Behind the Wings, Season 4, episode 1, "Early Space Exploration."
· January 2021. Appeared on WXMI's Morning Mix program to promote Roger That! 2021
· February 2020. Appeared on WOOD-TV's eightWest program to promote Roger That! 2020.
· February 2019. Appeared on WXMI's Morning Mix program to promote Roger That! 2019.
· February 2018. Appeared on WXMI's Morning Mix program to promote Roger That! 2018.
· June 2007. Appeared on WMMT, Channel 3 and nationally as contestant on Jeopardy! game show (One appearance, 2nd place finish).
· June 2007. Interviewed on WZZM, Channel 13 about appearance on Jeopardy! game show.
JOURNAL INTERVIEWS
· Fall 2013. Interviewed about pedagogy for the article "Designing and Implementing an Integrative, Collaborate, Problem-Solving-Based General Education Capstone" by C. B. Griffin and Wendy Burns-Ardolino for the Capstones and Integrative Learning issue of PeerReview, Fall 2013, Vol. 15, No. 4.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:
· American Anthropological Association
· Society for the Anthropology of Religion
· Society for Psychological Anthropology
· The Explorers Club – Chicago/Great Lakes Chapter, Fellow National 2020
Academic anthropologist with over 25 years of experience in ethnographic research and university teaching. Expertise in the anthropology of religion and religious studies conducting innovative research into the religious aspects of space exploration, including the research into the phenomenon known as the "ultraview effect." Field experience at the Vatican Observatory and multiple NASA research centers throughout the U.S. as well as at pilgrimage shrines worldwide, particularly in France (Rocamadour, Lourdes, Les-Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer) and the United States (Chimayó, New Mexico). Academic courses taught focus on comparative religions, religion and health, language and culture, ethnographic methods and advanced anthropological theory.
http://www.deanaweibel.space
Contact:
Address: 123 32nd. St. SE, Wyoming, Michigan 49509
Phone: 616-856-0200
Email: [email protected]
Skills:
· Inspiring lectures
· Curriculum creation
· Research and analysis
· Research writing
· Academic advisement
· Academic publication
· Administrative leadership
· Chaired two departments
· Executive Committee of the Academic Senate
Experience:
Professor of Anthropology, 08/2018 - Current
Grand Valley State University - Allendale, Michigan
· Delivered course lectures using modern technology to enhance student comprehension.
· Mentored and motivated students to increase class participation.
· Maintained student engagement through creative subject delivery and learning activities.
· Formulated well-structured syllabus of course content to detail learning goals and expected outcomes.
· Built strong student rapport by driving classroom and online discussions and providing academic advisement.
· Used exams, quizzes and projects to assess how well students grasped learning material and concepts.
· Collaborated with fellow staff members to promote positive and welcoming learning environment.
· Developed syllabus of lectures, classwork and assignments and distributed to students on first day of class.
Joint Appointment in Religious Studies, 08/2018 - Current
Grand Valley State University - Allendale, Michigan
· Created classroom syllabi based upon main semester topics and instructional targets.
· Cultivated collaborative and innovative learning environment to meet each student's unique educational needs.
· Maintained student engagement through creative subject delivery and learning activities.
Interim Department Chair, 08/2021 - 04/2022
GVSU's IRIS Department - Allendale, Michigan
· Liaised with university administration to facilitate daily operations and program management.
· Prepared reports using academic or institutional data and information.
· Directed or coordinated engaging support staff in administering department
Department Chair, 08/2012 - 08/2018
GVSU Anthropology - Allendale, Michigan
· Provided organizational leadership and collaborated with faculty to establish long-term goals, strategies and department policies.
· Fostered collaboration and development of new practices among faculty.
· Assisted faculty with developing and revising lessons to more productively reach students of varying skill levels.
· Assisted teachers with developing and revising lessons to more productively reach students of varying skill levels.
· Monitored administrative tasks and personnel and supervised budget development and adherence.
· Hired, trained and developed team members and faculty.
· Prepared reports using academic or institutional data and information.
· Advised students on course selection, progress toward graduation and career decisions.
· Recruited, hired and oriented departmental staff.
Associate Professor of Anthropology, 08/2009 - 07/2017
Grand Valley State University - Allendale, MI
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, 08/2003 - 07/2009
Grand Valley State University - Allendale, Michigan
Lecturer in Anthropology, 01/2003 - 06/2003
California State University San Bernardino - San Bernardino, CA
Lecturer in the Study of Religion, 09/2002 - 06/2003
University Of California San Diego - La Jolla, CA
Lecturer in Anthropology, 09/2002 - 06/2003
California State University, Fullerton - Fullerton, CA
Lecturer in Linguistics, 01/2002 - 06/2002
California State University, Long Beach - Long Beach, CA
Lecturer in Human Development, 09/2001 - 06/2002
California State University, Long Beach - Long Beach, CA
Visiting Guest Lecturer in Anthropology, 01/2001 - 06/2001
University Of California San Diego - La Jolla, CA
Education and Training:
Ph.D., Anthropology, 03/2001
University of California - San Diego - La Jolla, CA
· Dissertation: “Kidnapping the Virgin: The Reinterpretation of a Roman Catholic Shrine by Religious Creatives”
· Dissertation Defense Date: March 16, 2001
· Dissertation Advisor: Professor David K. Jordan
· Fulbright Scholarship Recipient, France
Master of Arts, Anthropology, 06/1995
University of California - San Diego - La Jolla, CA
· Thesis: “‘By Visions of the Night': Millennialism and Dreams Among Seventeenth Century English Sectarians.”
· Thesis Advisor: Professor David K. Jordan
Bachelor of Arts, Linguistics, 06/1991
University of California, Irvine - Irvine, CA
· 3.58 GPA
Languages:
English: Native
French: Full Professional
Spanish: Limited
Accomplishments :
BOOKS:
Under Contract (Undergoing revisions):
· Weibel, Deana L. The Ultraview Effect: What we can Learn from Astronauts about Awe, Humility, and Exploring the Unknown (working title)
Published:
· Weibel, Deana L. (February 2022) A Sacred Vertigo: Pilgrimage and Tourism in Rocamadour, France. Lexington Books.
· Crane, Hillary and Deana Weibel (eds.) (December 2012) Missionary Impositions: Conversion, Resistance, and Other Challenges to Objectivity in Religious Ethnography, edited volume on the topic of the ethical complications of fieldwork among proselytizing informants. Lexington Books.
PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS:
Published:
· Co-authored with Michael Di Giovine, “Anthropological Perspectives on Pilgrimage” for the edited volume Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Pilgrimage: Historical, Current, and Future Directions, edited by Heather Warfield, for publication by Peter Lang Publishing.
· “Astronauts as Chosen People: Religious Ways of Understanding the Astronaut Experience and Life After Space,” a chapter for the edited volume Religion & Outer Space, edited by Eric Mazur and Sarah McFarland Taylor, in press at Taylor and Francis.
· “Sherpas on the Moon: The Case for Including ‘Native Guides' in Space Exploration,” for the edited volume, Reclaiming Space: Progressive and Multicultural Visions of Space Exploration, edited by James Schwartz, Linda Billings and Erika Nesvold, Oxford University Press.
· Schwartz, James SJ, Sheri Wells-Jensen, John W. Traphagan, Deana Weibel, and Kelly C. Smith. "What do we need to ask before settling space?" Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 74:4 (2021).
· Weibel, Deana L. 2020 “The Overview Effect and the Ultraview Effect: How Extreme Experiences in/of Outer Space Influence Religious Beliefs in Astronauts” for a special issue of the journal Religions, edited by Deana L. Weibel and Glen E. Swanson
· Weibel, Deana L. 2020 “Following the Path that Heroes Carved into History: Space Tourism, Heritage, and Faith in the Future” for a special issue of the journal Religions, edited by Mohammad Sharifi and Michael di Giovine.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2019 “Medieval 'Miracle of Equilibrium' or Contemporary ‘Sanctuary of Rock-Hard Faith'?: How Digital Media Guides Visitors' Experiences at the Shrine of Rocamadour, France,” a chapter in an edited volume on “Religion and Mobile Apps” for Palgrave Macmillan's Contemporary Anthropology of Religion series, edited by Jacqueline Fewkes.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2019 “Mock Rituals, Sham Battles, and Real Research: Anthropologists and the Ethnographic Study of the Bontoc Igorot in 1900s ‘Igorrote Villages,'” in Histories of Anthropology Annual. Volume 13, University of Nebraska Press. Edited by Regna Darnell and Frederic W. Gleach.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2016 “Rocamadour Pilgrimage” in The Oxford Companion to Cheese by Catherine Donnelly (ed.). Oxford University Press
· Weibel, Deana L. 2015 'Up in God's Great Cathedral': Evangelism, Astronauts, and the Seductiveness of Outer Space” in The Seductions of Pilgrimage: Afar and Astray in the Western Religious Tradition, by Michael Di Giovine and David Picard (eds). Ashgate Studies in Pilgrimage, Ashgate Publishing, pp. 233-256.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2014 “A Savage at the Wedding and the Skeletons in My Closet: My Great-Grandfather, “Igorotte Villages,” in Mutuality: Anthropology's Changing Terms of Engagement, by Roger Sanjek (ed). University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 99-117.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2012 “Blind in a Land of Visionaries: When a Non-Pilgrim Studies Pilgrimage” in Missionary Impositions: Conversion, Resistance, and Other Challenges to Objectivity in Religious Ethnography, Hillary K. Crane and Deana L. Weibel (eds). Lexington Books, pp. 92-109 .
· Weibel, Deana L. 2012 “Magnetism and Microwaves: Religion as Radiation” In The Body and Religion: Modern Science and the Construction of Meaning, David Cave and Rebecca Sachs Norris (eds). Brill Academic Publishing. pp. 171-198.
· Weibel, Deana L. and Glen E. Swanson. 2006. Malinowski in Orbit: ‘Magical Thinking' in Human Spaceflight. Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 13 (3): 53-61.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2005a. “The Virgin Mary Versus the Monkeys” In Religious Innovation in a Global Age, George N. Lundskow (ed.). McFarland. pp. 247-257.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2005b. “Of Consciousness Changes and Fortified Faith: Creativist and Catholic Pilgrimage at French Catholic Shrines” In Pilgrimage and Healing, Jill Dubisch and Michael Winkelman (eds.). University of Arizona Press.. pp. 111-134.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2003. Controlling Chance, Creating Chance: Magical Thinking in Religious Pilgrimage. The Journal for the Academic Study of Magic 1: 161-178.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2002a. The New Age and the Old World: the Interpretation and Use of European Shrines by Religious Creatives. Maria: A Journal of Marian Studies 2.(2): 81-87.
· Weibel, Deana L. 2002b. 'The Energy We Call the Goddess': the Religious Creativist Use of a Roman Catholic Shrine. Maria: A Journal of Marian Studies 2.(2): 88-94.
GUEST EDITING:
· Guest editor (with space historian Glen E. Swanson) of a special issue of the journal Religions called “The Mutual Influence of Religion and Science in the Human Understanding and Exploration of Outer Space” (2020) (to be published in book format, 2021).
BOOK REVIEWS:
· Weibel, Deana (2020) Review of Space Tourism, edited by Erik Cohen and Sam Spector. Invited submission to the Journal of Tourism and Social Change.
· Weibel, Deana (2014) Review of Tourism and the Power of Otherness: Seductions of Difference, edited by Michael DiGiovine and David Picard. Invited submission to the International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS:
· Weibel, Deana L. (2024) “’Not quite the plan, but here we are’: NASA ritual and the reintegration of the Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts. The Space Review, September 30, 2024. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4865/
· Weibel, Deana L. (2024) "The sacred Moon: Navigating diverse cultural beliefs in lunar missions" The Space Review, January 29, 2024. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4733/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2024) "The sacred Moon: Navigating diverse cultural beliefs in lunar missions" The Space Review, January 29, 2024. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4733/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2023) "Honoring and dishonoring the dead in outer space: How a Virgin Galactic spaceflight sparked a scandal in anthropology" The Space Review, September 25, 2023. https://thespacereview.com/article/4657/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2023) "The highs and lows of extreme tourism: The Titan accident and commercial expeditions to space and the deep sea" The Space Review. July 31, 2023. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4630/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2023) “Astronauts as Chosen People: Religious Ways of Understanding the Astronaut Experience and Life After Space,” a chapter for the edited volume Religion & Outer Space, edited by Eric Mazur and Sarah McFarland Taylor, for publication by Taylor and Francis.
· Weibel, Deana L. (2023) "Cultural considerations in space exploration: Insights for NASA’s Artemis 2 mission" The Space Review. June 5, 2023. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4596/1 Weibel, Deana L. (2022) "Boozy Chimps in Orbit and Intoxicating Saturns: Where Space Pop Meets Tiki Culture" The Space Review. July 5, 2022.https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4414/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2021) "Black ugliness and the covering of blue: William Shatner's suborbital flight to 'death,'" The Space Review. October 18, 2021. https://thespacereview.com/article/4265/1
· Weibel, Deana L., and Glen E. Swanson. "Introduction to Special Issue: The Mutual Influence of Religion and Science in the Human Understanding and Exploration of Outer Space." (2021): 444.
· Weibel, Deana L. (2020) “‘Maybe You Were Put Here to be the Answer': Religious Overtones in the New Space Force Recruitment Video” The Space Review. May 11, 2020. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3942/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2020) “Magnificent Isolation: What We Can Learn from Astronauts about Social Distancing and Sheltering in Space.” The Space Review. March 23, 2020. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3903/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2019) “Destiny in Space.” Anthropology News 60 (4): 26-27.
· Weibel, Deana L. (2019) “Astronauts vs. mortals: space workers, Jain ascetics, and NASA's transcendent few.” The Space Review. April 18, 2019. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3690/1
· Weibel, Deana L. (2017) “Space exploration as religious experience: Evangelical astronauts and the perception of God's worldview.” The Space Review. August 21, 2017. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3310/1#idc-cover
· Weibel, Deana L. (2015 Kindle edition, 2016 Print edition) “Pennies from Heaven: Objects in the Use of Outer Space as Sacred Space” in Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Intersection of Space Travel and Religion, Paul Levinson and Michael Waltemathe (eds.), Connected Editions (Kindle version) and Fordham University Press (print edition).
· Weibel, Deana (2015) “Lessons from GVSU's Ethnographic Field School,” (blog post) Engaged GVSU: Reflections from the GVSU Office of Community Engagement, https://gvsucommunity.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/lessons-from-gvsus-ethnographic-field-school/.
· Weibel, Deana L. and Katie L. Kujala, (2014) "Blessed Goats: On the Melding of Church and Cheese in Rocamadour, France," in the "Research Notes" section of the Spring 2014 issue of Digest: A Journal of Foodways and Culture.
· Weibel, Deana L. & Patricia O. Afable. (2012) “'The Igorrote Village' at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, 1909: Bontoc Performers and their American Showman" In Igorot by Heart: Keynotes and Selections of a Generation, John Dyte et al (eds.) Igorot Global Organization, pp. 213-243.
· Weibel, Deana L. (2007a) Society for the Anthropology of Religion monthly column in Anthropology News, “Magic, Science and Religion in Space?” Volume 48, Number 2.
· Weibel, Deana L. (2007b) “A New Take on Kinship Studies” in the Grand Valley State University Anthropology Club's Winter 2007 Anthropology Advocate.
EDITED REPORTS:
· An Ethnographic Study of Volunteering at Festival of the Arts, Grand Rapids, edited with Michael Wroblewski, submitted to Mark Azkoul and Baird Hawkins of the Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts Board of Directors on July 18, 2022.
· “Stories” for Bethany: A Collection of Refugee Stories Based on Interviews Conducted by the Students of ANT 400, Ethnographic Methods, Fall Semester 2016, submitted to Alyssa Hall of Bethany Refugee and Immigrant Services on December 14, 2016.
CONFERENCES ORGANIZED:
· Co-Organizer/Founder (February 2017, February 2018, February 2019, February 2020, February 2021, February 2022, February 2023, February 2024, Forthcoming February 2025) Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger B. Chaffee, a two-day interdisciplinary public event being put on by GVSU and the Grand Rapids Public Museum to recognize the contributions of Grand Rapids native, astronaut Roger B. Chaffee to the exploration of space, and to emphasize that the study of space involves science, society and the arts.
PAPERS PRESENTED:
Invited presentations:
· “The Space Flown Body: How Medical Spaceflight Researchers Manifest the Destiny of Human Biology,” for the Space Intersections Symposium, ASU Barrett and O’Connor Washington Center, Washington, DC. May 14, 2024.
· August 2023. "Reflections of Humans in Space," a workshop for the International Space University's 2023 Space Studies Program at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica in São José dos Campos, Brazil.
· “An Outrageous View of the Heavens: The Ultraview Effect as a Cognitive and Cultural Response to the Panorama of Deep Space,” hosted by the Moon Village Association as part of a series by their Cultural Working Group, online, June 6, 2023.
· “Avoiding Annihilation: Human Salvation through Planet B and Other Spiritual Missions of the Private Space Industry,” University of Southern California, hosted by the Confronting the Second Space Age: From Cosmic Speculation to Astro-Capitalism Working Group and the Department of Anthropology,
· “Outer Space as Sacred Space: On the Religious Lives of Space Professionals,” Fyrecon Education Conference for Writers and Artists, Salt Lake City, Utah (presented online), November 12, 2022.
· April 2022. "A Conversation with Deana Weibel, Author of A Sacred Vertigo," online, hosted by Michael Di Giovine, editor of the Lexington Books series The Anthropology of Pilgrimage: Heritage, Mobility, and Society.
· “‘How Can You Steward What You Don't Know?': Religious and Spiritual Motivations for and the Understanding from Robotic Space Exploration,” Explorers Club Northern California Chapter meeting, online, March 26, 2021.
· November 2019, Panel member for the Sagan Meetings on the topic of ethnics and space settlement at the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop meetings, Wichita, Kansas.
Refereed presentations:
· Forthcoming, November 2024. “Defining the Role of Anthropology in the Future of Space Tourism.” At the American Anthropological Association meetings, Tampa, Florida.
· November 2021. “A Sacred Vertigo” for the Sacred Journeys session of the Explorers Club Pathfinders Symposium. (Virtual conference)
· July 2021, “Through the Courtesy of Mr. R. Schneidewind”: “Igorrote Villages” as Anthropological Projects and Research Sites in the Early Twentieth Century” at the joint Virtual Conference of EASA's Europeanist Network (EuroNet) and History of Anthropology Network (HOAN) (Virtual conference)
· January 2020, “One Giant Leap (of Faith): Astronaut Religiosity and the Experience of Being in Outer Space” (poster presentation) at the NASA Human Research Program Investigators Workshop, Galveston, TX.
· November 2019, “Inevitability, Adaptability, Destiny: Religious and Non-Religious Arguments for a Human Future in Outer Space” at the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop, Wichita, KS.
· May 2019, “Something Beyond What We Understand”: Shifting between Scientific and Religious Models of the Universe in Space Professionals' Conceptualizations of Outer Space” at the Society for the Anthropology of Religion meetings, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
· November 2018, “The Overview Effect and the Ultraview Effect: How Extreme Experiences in Outer Space Affect Religious Beliefs in Astronauts” at the American Anthropological Association meetings, San Jose, California.
· May 2017 “'Time from Eternity to Eternity': Space Exploration and the Astronaut experience of God's Worldview” (co-authored with Joshua Ambrosius) at the Society for the Anthropology of Religion Meetings, New Orleans, Louisiana.
· February 2017 “Witnesses to the Heavens: Space Exploration in a Religious Context" at the Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger B. Chaffee conference, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
· November 2016, “Medieval 'Miracle of Equilibrium' or Contemporary ‘Sanctuary of Rock-Hard Faith'?: How Digital Media Guides Visitors' Experiences at the Shrine of Rocamadour, France” at the American Anthropological Association meetings, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
· June 2016, “Academics at the Fairs: Linguistic and Cultural Research with Exhibited Igorots in the Early 20th Century” at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Pacific Division's Annual Meeting, San Diego, California.
· November 2015, Discussant, panel on “The Seductions of Pilgrimage: Sacred Journeys Afar and Astray in the Western Religious Tradition,” at the American Anthropological Association meetings, Denver, Colorado.
· November 2015, “Mock Rituals, Sham Battles, and Real Research: Anthropologists and the Ethnographic Study of the Bontoc Igorot in 1900s ‘Igorrote Villages'” at the American Anthropological Association meetings, Denver, Colorado.
· April 2015, “Communitas, Morality, Sorrow and Truth: Supernatural Means of Ascertaining Unorthodox Histories of Religiously Significant Sites,” at the Society for the Anthropology of Religion Meetings, San Diego, California.
· March 2015, “Teaching Anthropology Is Not a ‘Sin': Emphasizing the Practical Aspects of the Anthropology Major” (co-authored with Tara Hefferan and Elizabeth Arnold) at the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meetings, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
· December 2014, “Religious Creatives, Sacredness and the Anthropologist,” at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, Washington, D.C.
· December 2014, “A Guide to Conquest: What Crusades Tourism Reveals about the Construction of French National Identity” (co-authored with Meagan Roche) at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, Washington, D.C.
· May, 2014 "Transportable Awe: Sacred Contagion as Enrichment," at the Cognitive Science of Religion, Philosophy and Theology Conference, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
· November, 2013 "To Sink or to Swim: An Ethnographer's Trial by Water" at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, Chicago, Illinois.
· April, 2013 "Syncretism in the Service of Colonialism: The Universalizing Approach of Religious Creativism" at the Society for the Anthropology of Religion meetings, Pasadena, California.
· October, 2012. "Igorots, Anthropologists, and "Igorrote Villages": The Impact of Ethnography as Imperialism” at the 9th International Conference on the Philippines (ICOPHIL), Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.
· November, 2011. “A Savage at the Wedding and the Skeletons in My Closet: My Great-Grandfather, “Igorotte Villages,” and the Ethnological Expositions of the 1900s” at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
· June, 2011. “Performers, Interpreters and the Showman Onstage and Offstage at the AYPE Pay Streak's ‘Igorotte Village'” (co-authored with Patricia Afable) at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Pacific Division's Annual Meeting, San Diego, California.
· April, 2011. “'Up in God's Great Cathedral': An Analysis of an Astronaut's Personal Relationship with Divinity,” the Society for the Anthropology of Religion meetings, Santa Fe, NM.
· November, 2010. ”The Pilgrim/Tourist Loop: When the Movement of Compostela Pilgrims off
· the Camino Leads to Circular Patterns of Identity” at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, New Orleans, Louisiana.
· August, 2010. "Performers, Interpreters and the Showman Onstage and Offstage at the AYPE Pay Streak's ‘Igorotte Village '” (co-authored with Patricia Afable) at the Eighth International Igorot Consultation, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia.
· December, 2009. “Gathering Energy: Pilgrimage, Spaceflight and the Transformation of Objects” (co-authored with Valerie Olson) at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
· September, 2009. “Performers, Interpreters and the Showman: Onstage and Offstage at the Pay Streak's ‘Igorotte Village'” (co-authored with Patricia Afable) at the Alaska- Yukon-Pacific Exposition Centennial: Asian Symposium, Seattle, Washington.
· March, 2009. “'I Have Filled it With Energy!': The Manufacture of Fetishistic Relics by Voyagers to Sacred Space(s)” (co-authored with Valerie Olson), at the Society for the Anthropology of Religion/Psychological Anthropological Association joint meetings, Asilomar, California.
· December, 2007. “Blind in a Land of Visionaries: When a Non-Pilgrim Studies Pilgrimage,” at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, Washington, D.C.
· April, 2007. “The Nuns of Rocamadour: ‘Itinerant Missionaries' at the Border between Religion and Secularism,” at the Society for the Anthropology of Religion Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona.
· November, 2006. “The Secular Saint: Francis Poulenc as an Exemplar of Tourist-to-Pilgrim Transformation,” at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, San Jose, California.
· December, 2004. “Malinowski in Orbit: Magical Thinking in the U.S. and Soviet Manned Space Programs” (co-authored with Glen E. Swanson), at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, Atlanta, GA. (also chaired the panel, “At the Crossroads of Magic and Science”).
· November, 2003 “Whose Shrine is it Anyway?” the American Anthropological Assoc Annual Meetings, Chicago, Illinois.
· November, 2000 “‘The Energy We Call the Goddess': The Religious Creativist Use of a Roman Catholic Shrine,” at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, San Francisco.
· April, 2000 “The New Age and the Old World: The Interpretation and Use of European Shrines by ‘Religious Creatives,'” at the Western Social Science Association Convention, San Diego.
Other presentations:
· March 2024. Participated in an online panel called "Sacred Skies: Integrating Diverse Spiritual Perspectives in Space Policy," for Beyond Earth Institute.
"Bringing Anthropology to Outer Space: Sacred Travel, Destiny, and the Motivating Force of Optimism,” Explorers Club Chicago/Great Lakes Chapter meeting, May 2, 2021.
· “Ablutions Without Water and the Hidden Mezuzah: The Modification of Religious Rituals While Traveling in Outer Space.” A presentation given at the 2020 Roger That! Conference at Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
· “'Whatever you do, do as if for God and not for man': Integration, compartmentalization, and the role of religiosity in space work,” Vatican Observatory, Vatican City, March 2019.
· “Confronting the Martian: Humanity's Changing Concepts about Life on the Red Planet,” GVSU Art Gallery, October 2018.
· “To Make a Man Appreciate the Creation of God: Space Travel and the Sacred” with Glen Swanson (Physics), GVSU Art Gallery, February 2014.
· "Diversity in Religion," a presentation given as part of GVSU's Inclusion and Diversity Seminar, Nov. 2011.
· “Medicine and Miracles: Science and Religion at Lourdes, France”, A Grand Dialogue in Science and Religion Annual Conference 2011, April 2011, GVSU.
· "Sacred Sites and ‘Energy': Using Science to Describe the Spiritual", A Grand Dialogue in Science and Religion Annual Conference 2010, March 2010,
GVSU.
· “The Humanities Connection to Soul Catchers,” a panel discussion at Frederick Meijer Gardens, February 2010.
· “Religion and Space,” a presentation at the Spring Lake District Library, April 2009.
· "Moving Closer to God(s): Why Pilgrims Make Pilgrimages", A Grand Dialogue in Science and Religion Annual Conference 2009, March 2009, GVSU.
· “Richard Schneidewind's Igorot Village: Early Anthropology and the Display of Philippine ‘Savages' in the United States,” with Patricia Afable. Special Presentation of the GVSU Department of Anthropology, March 2008.
· “Religion and the Supernatural in the American Space Program,” with Glen Swanson, A Grand Dialogue in Science and Religion Annual Conference, February 2008, GVSU.
· “Secularism and Religiosity at Rocamadour” The Ways of the Earth's Symposium on Inter-Religious Struggle, February 2005, GVSU.
· “Communion on the Moon: Spirituality and Human Spaceflight,” with Glen E. Swanson, GVSU's Anthropology Club's “Brown Bag” presentation, November, 2004, GVSU.
· “You Make Me Feel Like Dancin': Dance and Other Forms of Movement inspired by the Divine,” Interfaith Dialogue Association Conference, November, 2004, Aquinas College.
· “The Virgin Mary: God's Mother or Mother Goddess?” The Ways of the Earth's Sacred Feminine symposium, March, 2004, GVSU.
· "Judaism and the New Age Movement," San Diego Secular Humanistic Judaism Society, June 2001, San Diego, Ca.
RESEARCH AND FIELDWORK EXPERIENCE:
Ongoing research:
· Continuing research on the topic of human spaceflight, “flown” objects, and religious beliefs for new publications, as well as new research on space tourism in its myriad forms.
Other research:
· 2019: Sabbatical research on the relationships linking religiosity with space exploration, with ethnographic research and interviews at the NASA Human Research Project Investigators Workshop in Galveston, TX., the Kennedy Space Center in Florida; the Mojave Air and Spaceport and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California; and the Vatican Observatory in Italy.
· 2018 Research interviews on space exploration and religiosity with six interlocutors (current astronaut, two retired astronauts, three physicists), reconnaissance visit to Castel Gandolfo Observatory field site (Italy), research visit and interview in Rocamadour, (France).
· 2017 Research interviews on space exploration and religiosity with two interlocutors (Jesuit astronomer in June, unorthodox astronaut in September)
· 2015 Research interview on the topic of religious objects (the “Space Judaica” collection) that were taken into outer space and their resulting religious significance.
· 2014 Research at Rocamadour, Versailles, Carcassonne, Montségur, and Mousaiss-la-Bataille, France with GVSU student Meagan Roche (funded by a Student Summer Scholars grant) for book revision and additional articles and presentations.
· 2010-2011 Transcription of and research on my taped interview with an American astronaut that was initially conducted in 2004 but was only approved as a study (“Religious Practice and Belief in Outer Space: An Astronaut's Experience in Context”) by GVSU's IRB Committee as of July 2010.
· 2007 Research at Rocamadour and Lourdes, France with GVSU student Katie Kujala for book revision and additional articles and presentations.
· 2006 Research at Rocamadour and Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, France for book revision and additional articles and presentations.
· 2005 Consultant (paid), Meijer Gardens' Christmas Around the World and Holiday Traditions
· 2004 Research at the Cross of the Woods Catholic shrine in Indian River, Michigan.
· 2003 Supplementary research in Rocamadour, France for book project.
· 2000-2003 Anthropological Researcher, Context-Based Research Group. Projects included studies on the consumption of wine in the United States, the relationships between Realtors and their clients, and interactions between architects and the industries that employ them.
· 2001 Consultant and Expert Witness, Law Offices of Gerald Blank, San Diego, California. Provided information and advice to a defensive legal team on topics involving witchcraft and occult practices.
· 1998-1999 Dissertation research in Rocamadour, France (Fulbright Grant, October- June).
· 1998 Supplementary dissertation research in Chimayó, New Mexico (April-June).
· 1997 Dissertation feasibility study, Rocamadour, France (April-September).
· 1995 Initial reconnaissance work, Rocamadour, France and Lourdes, France (Soroptimist Grant, July).
Activities and Honors:
AWARDS AND GRANTS:
· 2022 Michigan Space Grant from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (Co-Principal Investigator with Karen Gipson, Samhita Rhodes and Glen Swanson) for funding the 2023 event “Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger. B. Chaffee.”
· 2021 Michigan Space Grant from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (Co-Principal Investigator with Karen Gipson, Samhita Rhodes and Glen Swanson) for funding the 2022 event “Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger. B. Chaffee.”
· 2020 Michigan Space Grant from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (Co-Principal Investigator with Karen Gipson, Samhita Rhodes and Glen Swanson) for funding the 2021 event “Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger. B. Chaffee.”
· 2019 Michigan Space Grant from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (Co-Principal Investigator with Karen Gipson, Samhita Rhodes and Glen Swanson) for funding the 2020 event “Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger. B. Chaffee.”
· 2018 GVSU's Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence Catalyst Grant for Research and Creativity for funding the research project “Lift Up Your Eyes and Look to the Heavens: The Relationship between Scientific Understandings and Religious Beliefs in the Exploration of Outer Space.”
· 2018 Michigan Space Grant from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (Co-Principal Investigator with Karen Gipson, Samhita Rhodes and Glen Swanson) for funding the 2019 event “Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger. B. Chaffee.”
· 2017 Michigan Space Grant from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (Co-Principal Investigator with Karen Gipson, Samhita Rhodes and Glen Swanson) for funding the 2018 event “Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger. B. Chaffee.”
· 2014 Student Summer Scholars (S3) Grant from the Office of Undergraduate Research at GVSU for research with student Meagan Roche in France, May and June 2014.
· 2007 Special research grant from GVSU's Dean of Graduate Studies and Grants Administration for student-accompanied research in May and June, 2006, in Rocamadour and Lourdes, France.
· 2006 Grant-in-Aid from Grand Valley State University's Research and Development Committee for research in May and June, 2006, in Rocamadour and Saintes-Maries-de- la-Mer, France.
· 1998-1999 Fulbright Award for Research in France distributed by the Franco-American Commission for Educational Exchange
· 1995 Soroptimist Society of La Jolla Research Award for the Study of Issues in Women's Health (Grant name changed in 1996 to the Doris A. Howell Foundation Grant for Women's Health Research).
PROFESSIONAL COMMITTEES:
· 2022-present Chair of the Chicago/Great Lakes Chapter of the Explorers Club
· 2020-present Member of the Lectures and Events Committee for the Explorers Club
· 2020-2022 Leadership Team for the Chicago/Great Lakes chapter of the Explorers Club
GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY COMMITTEES:
· 2011- 2020, 2023-present Executive Committee of the University Academic Senate.
· 2006-present University Academic Senate
· 2006-2007 Fall Arts and Humanities Celebration Advisory Committee
· 2005-2006 Learning Space Task Force
· 2004-2010 Research and Development Committee/Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence
· 2004-2006 University Assessment Committee
OTHER UNIVERSITY AND UNIT SERVICE:
· 2023-present Brooks College School of Interdisciplinary Studies Bylaws Committee
· 2021-present Anthropology Department Student Relations and Alumni Committee
· 2021-2022 Interim Chair, Integrative, Religious, and Intercultural Studies Department, GVSU
· 2021-2022 GVSU Provost Search Committee
· 2021 GVSU Program Review Committee
· 2019-2020 Member, UAS FaCEIn Task Force
· 2019-2021 Advisor, GVSU Anthropology Club
· 2019-present Member of Anthropology Student Relations Subcommittee
· 2016 Chair of Unit Department Coordinator Hiring Subcommittee
· 2011-present Advising Faculty, Religious Studies Department
· 2015 Affiliate Faculty Task Force
· 2015 Co-organizer of Community Service Reception (September)
· 2015 G3 Session Organizer – “From the Equator to the Poles: How People Live with Light”
· 2015 Engaged Department Institute participant (May)
· 2015 Faculty Advisor (with Wroblewski, Arnold and Van Wormer) for Community Engagement interns
· 2015 Super Science Saturday Session Co-Organizer (with Chris Shaffer) – “From the Equator to the Poles: How People Live with Light” (February)
· 2014 ECS Subcommittee on Service
· 2013 G3 Session Organizer – “Games on the Playground - A Cultural Exchange”
· 2011-2012 Chair of Unit Assistant Professor Hiring Subcommittee
· 2011 Participation in GVSU's Interfaith Committee for Kaufman Interfaith Institute
· 2011 Participation in Unit Visiting Professor Hiring Subcommittee
· 2010 Participation as a panelist on one of the Personnel Policy Faculty Forums re: The Personnel Policy Referendum
· 2009 Self-Study Subcommittees on Faculty Vitae Review and FARs and Overall Departmental Collection in Anthropology unit
· 2008 North Central Accreditation Forum participation
· 2008 GVSU's Student Visitation Day (creation of PowerPoint describing unit for event)
· 2008 Banner Prerequisite Override Training
· 2008 Grand Valley State University's 2008 Major Fair
· 2007 Benchmarking Subcommittee in Anthropology unit
· 2007 Assessment Subcommittee in Anthropology unit
· 2007 General Education cluster service for Religion and Death and Dying themes
· 2007 General Education workshop
· 2006-2007 Helped organize and plan an anthropological activity for the 2007 Science Olympiad
· 2006 Participant in GVSU's Liberal Arts Initiative
· 2005-present Participant in GVSU's Advocates and Allies group
· 2004-2008 Faculty advisor, GVSU Anthropology Club
· 2004-2007 Assisting in the evaluation of writing samples for CUII
· 2003 Presentations with Dr. Bruce Hardy on careers and grad school, GVSU Anthropology Club
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE:
· 2024 Provided External Full Professor Review for Religious Studies Department, University of Miami.
· 2023-present Advisory Board Member and Space Anthropologist for Cosmic Girls Foundation, https://www.cosmicgirls.org
· 2023 External review of the Archaeology and Anthropology Department at the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse.
· 2021 Peer review of submitted articles for journals Zygon: The Journal of Religion and Science and Religions.
· 2018 Peer review of submitted articles for journals Anthropology and Humanism, Tourism Geographies, and Religions.
· 2015 Provided External Tenure Review for Anthropology Department, Queens College, CUNY.
· 2008 Nominated to run as a candidate for Board Member, the Society for the Anthropology of Religion.
RELEVANT COMMUNITY SERVICE
· October 2024 Presentation on the discipline of anthropology in Ms. Ahmicasaube's sociology class, Forest Hills Eastern High School, Forest Hills, Michigan.
· October 2022 Presentation on the discipline of anthropology in Ms. Ahmicasaube's sociology class, Forest Hills Eastern High School, Forest Hills, Michigan.
· February 2020 Presentation on the discipline of anthropology in Ms. Ahmicasaube's sociology class, Forest Hills Eastern High School, Forest Hills, Michigan.
· February 2020 Anthropology Day activities with GVSU's Anthropology Club, Grand Rapids Montessori School, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
· November 2019, "Religion in Time and Space," a SkypeAScientist presentation for Ms. Willis' class at Vermilion Forks Elementary in Princeton, British Columbia.
· October 2018 “What is a Martian? Our Changing Ideas about Life on the Red Planet,” Anthropology Presentation, Grand Rapids Montessori School, Grand Rapids, Michigan
· February 2017 Anthropology Day presentation, Grand Rapids Montessori School, Grand Rapids, Michigan
· 2006 Consultant, Network 180's Diversity Council.
· 2003-present Member of the Board of Directors and Vice President of the Interfaith Dialogue Association of West Michigan (housed under the Kaufman Interfaith Institute since 2015)
Additional Information:
NEWSPAPER/MAGAZINE/ONLINE CONTENT INTERVIEWS
· June 2024. Interviewed by Larry Bleiberg for an article entitled, “Why humans are drawn to the ends of the Earth,” BBC.com
· January 2024. Interviewed by Kelsey Ables for an article entitled, "Human remains set for moon memorial to instead burn in earth's atmosphere," Washington Post.
· March 2023 Interviewed by Luis Henao for an internationally distributed article entitled “Why the religious fast for Ramadan, Lent and other holy days,” Associated Press.
· February 2023. Interviewed by Elizabeth Fernandez for a Big Think article titled, "Space travel will radically change human psychology and spirituality" about the "overview effect" and the "ultraview effect" and their impact on astronauts.
· AugustJanuary/February 2023. Interviewed by Marina Koren for an article in The Atlantic, “Seeing Earth From Space Will Change You.
The question is how.” about Christian influences on and aspects of space exploration.
· March 2023 Interviewed by Veruska De Vita for an article entitled “What astronauts and astronomers say about living in space,” South African Sunday Times.
· October 2022. Interviewed by Jessica Camille Aguirre for an article entitled “The Promise and Peril of Space Tourism,” AFAR Magazine.
· August 2022. Interviewed by Melissa Truth Miller for an article entitled “Ewoks: Stewards of the Forest Moon,” Star Wars Insider Magazine, Issue 212.
· July 2022. Interviewed by Peg West for an article entitled, "NASA Webb telescope photos showing the sometimes emotionally overwhelming vastness of space: GVSU anthropologist."
· October 2021. Interviewed by Peg West for an article entitled, "Shatner's Unfiltered, Emotional Reaction to Space Flight Offers Fresh Perspective on How Humans React, According to GVSU Researcher."
· February 2021. Interviewed by Peg West for an article entitled, “Roger That! conference this year offers a virtual conference with a vast slate of experts” https://www.gvsu.edu/gvnext/2021/roger-that-conference-this-year-offers-a-virtual-conference-with-a-vast-slate-of-experts.htm
· November 2020. Interviewed by Paul Berger for a Wall Street Journal article entitled, “World's Explorers, Hemmed in by Pandemic, Offer Tips for Coping With Lockdown” https://www.wsj.com/articles/worlds-explorers-hemmed-in-by-pandemic-discover-ways-to-cope-with-lockdown-11605199630
· May 2020. Interviewed by Gregg Krupa for a Detroit Press article entitled, “Struggling with isolation? Astronauts have been there, done that.”
· May 2020: "Minute at the Mic" appearance as a member of The Explorers Club on their social media pages:
https://www.facebook.com/TheExplorersClubNYC/videos/1367861433419294/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CAN7wPhBwQ0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
https://twitter.com/ExplorersClub/status/1261355890164338698?s=20
· February 2020. Interviewed by Peg West for an article entitled, “Messages planned by Roger That! speakers: vastness of space, elements of life, joy of discovery”
· July 2019. Interview (along with Glen Swanson) on WKTV's "The Whole Picture Podcast."
· July 2019 . Interviewed by Peg West for an article entitled, "GVSU Professor: Space exploration and religion have a long shared history."
· August 2018. Interviewed by Marina Koren for an article in the online version of The Atlantic, “Mike Pence's Outer-Space Gospel” about the use of religious language by Vice President Pence and others when discussing the proposed “Space Force” and the American presence in space as well as religiosity in the American space program overall.
· February 2017. Interviewed by James Kilborn for an article in the Grand Valley State University newspaper The Lanthorn, “GVSU partnering with GRPM to celebrate space exploration” about Roger That! 2018.
· January 2017. Interviewed by Teresa Guerrero Fernández for an article in the Madrid, Spain-based newspaper El Mundo, “Las Mujeres Que Ayudaron A Pisar La Luna,” about the experiences of female NASA astronauts and other employees, astronauts' wives, and the movie “Hidden Figures.”
· October 2009. Interviewed by Jim Hayden for an article in the Holland Sentinal, “Spooked: Local Haunts for a chilly thrill” about ghosts in cross-cultural belief systems.
· October 2007. Interviewed by Angel Diaz for an article in the Madrid, Spain-based newspaper El Mundo, “Todo listo para el Ramadán cósmico,” about religious beliefs held by and rituals performed by astronauts and cosmonauts.
· June 2007. Various interviews in Grand Rapids Press, Grand Haven Tribune, GVNow, and the GVSU Lanthorn about appearance on Jeopardy! game show.
· November 2004. Interviewed by John Flesher for internationally distributed Associated Press article, “Outdoor Shrine Inspires Worshippers” about pilgrimage to the Cross in the Woods shrine, Indian River, Michigan
RADIO APPEARANCES
· July 2024. Interviewed for the BBC Radio 4 show Sideways, for two episodes, “Life on Mars,” and “With the Gods.
· February 2024. Interviewed by Shelley Irwin for The Shelley Irwin Show about Roger That! 2024
· August 2022. Participated in a panel called "Returning to the Moon" for the BBC Radio Ulster program Sunday Sequence. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001bgxf
· October 2020. Interviewed by David Livingston of The Space Show on the topic of space tourism. https://www.thespaceshow.com/show/19-jan-2021/broadcast-3631-dr.-deana-weibel
· October 2020. Interviewed for a segment on “Awe and Wonder” for the British radio program
· Voice of Islam. https://soundcloud.com/voislam/drive-time-show-podcast-15-10
· October 2020. Interviewed by David Livingston of The Space Show on the topic of the Overview Effect and the Ultraview Effect https://www.thespaceshow.com/show/16-oct-2020/broadcast-3590-dr.-deana-weibel
· April 2020. Interviewed by David Livingston of The Space Show on the topic of space tourism. https://www.thespaceshow.com/show/24-apr-2020/broadcast-3499-dr.-deana-weibel
· July 2019. Interviewed by Patrick Center of WGVU News for a news story entitled, "GVSU professor studies space travel's impact on spirituality".
· https://www.wgvunews.org/post/gvsu-professor-studies-space-travels-impact-spirituality
· July 2019. Interviewed by Shelley Irwin on the topics of space, religion and the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing for the WGVU Morning Show. https://www.wgvunews.org/post/deana-weibel
· July, 2019. “Spirituality and Space Travel”: Two-part interview about religion and NASA's Apollo program by Fred Stella, “Common Threads,” WGVU. https://www.wgvunews.org/post/spirituality-and-space-travel
· February 8, 2018. Interview about the Roger That! event by Jennifer Moss, WGVU. http://www.wgvunews.org/post/conference-features-first-african-american-astronaut-travel-space
· January 20, 2017. Interview about the Roger That! event (along with Samhita Rhodes and Kate Moore) by Shelly Irwin, WGVU. http://wgvunews.org/post/roger.
· January 20, 2017. Interview about the Roger That! event (along with Kate Moore) by Jennifer Moss, WGVU, http://wgvunews.org/post/upcoming-symposium-honor-roger-b-chaffee.
· January 20, 2017. Interview about the Roger That! event by James Gemmell, WJRW, https://clyp.it/u4m3frag.
· May 2005. Interviewed (along with Mark Schwartz) for “The Morning Show,” hosted by Shelley Irwin, WGVU.
· October 2004. Interviewed for “Common Threads,” hosted by Fred Stella, WGVU.
PODCAST APPEARANCES
· June 2024. Interviewed for the podcast Space Midrash by Jacob Sager.
· March 2024. Interviewed for the podcast Chai on the Moon by Salman Hameed.
· April 2023. Interviewed for the podcast Meaningful Journeys by Heather Warfield.
· March 2023. Interviewed for the Rocamadour episode of the podcast The Camino Podcast by Dave Whitson.
· January 2023. Interviewed about space and religion for the podcast What People Do by Brendan Howard.
· November 2022. Interviewed for the podcast Humans of Space by journalist Niamh Shaw.
TELEVISION APPEARANCES
· June 2023. Interviewed by Mark Rivera for ABC 7 Chicago's 5pm News' coverage of the Explorers Club's connections to the loss of the Titan submersible.
· January 2022. Appeared on WOOD-TV's News 8 @ 5:30pm to promote Roger That! 2023.
· July 2022. Spoke for a segment on the personal impact of the Overview Effect for the PBS television series Behind the Wings, Season 4, episode 1, "Early Space Exploration."
· January 2021. Appeared on WXMI's Morning Mix program to promote Roger That! 2021
· February 2020. Appeared on WOOD-TV's eightWest program to promote Roger That! 2020.
· February 2019. Appeared on WXMI's Morning Mix program to promote Roger That! 2019.
· February 2018. Appeared on WXMI's Morning Mix program to promote Roger That! 2018.
· June 2007. Appeared on WMMT, Channel 3 and nationally as contestant on Jeopardy! game show (One appearance, 2nd place finish).
· June 2007. Interviewed on WZZM, Channel 13 about appearance on Jeopardy! game show.
JOURNAL INTERVIEWS
· Fall 2013. Interviewed about pedagogy for the article "Designing and Implementing an Integrative, Collaborate, Problem-Solving-Based General Education Capstone" by C. B. Griffin and Wendy Burns-Ardolino for the Capstones and Integrative Learning issue of PeerReview, Fall 2013, Vol. 15, No. 4.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:
· American Anthropological Association
· Society for the Anthropology of Religion
· Society for Psychological Anthropology
· The Explorers Club – Chicago/Great Lakes Chapter, Fellow National 2020