DEANA L. WEIBEL
227 Lake Michigan Hall, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI. 49548
telephone: (616) 331-3346, e-mail: weibeld@gvsu.edu
https://www.deanaweibel.space/
227 Lake Michigan Hall, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI. 49548
telephone: (616) 331-3346, e-mail: weibeld@gvsu.edu
https://www.deanaweibel.space/
(EDUCATION:
2001 Ph.D. in Anthropology, University of California, San Diego.
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
1995 M.A. in Anthropology, University of California, San Diego.
Thesis: “‘By Visions of the Night’: Millennialism and Dreams Among Seventeenth
Century English Sectarians.”
Thesis Advisor: Professor David K. Jordan
1991 B.A. in Linguistics, University of California, Irvine.
ADDITIONAL ACADEMIC TRAINING:
July 2017 – Summer School on Wine, Terroir and Tourism, University of Lausanne, Sion Campus, Sion, Switzerland.
CURRENT POSITION:
Fall 2018-Present, Professor in the Departments of Anthropology and IRIS: Integrative, Religious, and Intercultural Studies (joint appointment), Grand Valley State University
July 2012-July 2018, Department Chair, Anthropology, Grand Valley State University
Fall 2009- Summer 2017, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Fall 2003-Summer 2009, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Anthropology Department, GVSU. Courses taught include “Senior Capstone,” “Comparative Religions” (traditional and hybrid formats), “Ethnographic Methods,” “Death, Burial and Culture,” “Language and Culture,” "Advanced Cross-Cultural Linguistics," “Culture and Disease,” and “Introduction to Cultural Anthropology.” Also taught a “Special Topics” course on the Anthropology of Language in Winter 2008, a “Special Topics” course called “The Anthropology of the Sacred” in Winter 2015, and organized and taught the Summer 2005 Cultural Anthropology Field School.
Integrative, Religious and Intercultural Studies Department, GVSU. “Sacred Texts – Global Contexts” – online format
PREVIOUS UNIVERSITY TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
Spring, 2003 Lecturer, Anthropology Department, CSU San Bernardino. Taught "The Anthropology of Magic, Religion and Science," "Religion and Sacred Space," and "The Anthropology of Human Development."
Fall, 2002 & Spring, 2003 Lecturer, Program for the Study of Religion, University of California, San Diego. In 2002, conducted a class called "The Modern Study of Religion: Social and Cultural Theories of Religion." Course served as an introduction to basic strategies of interpretation in the study of religion, including issues of category formation, theory, and method. Also taught “Pilgrimage and Sacred Space.”
Fall, 2002 & Spring, 2003 Lecturer, Anthropology Department, CSU Fullerton. Instruction in 2002 of "Traditional Cultures of the World” that examined human diversity through an analysis of such societies as the Kutchin, the Bedouin and the Amish. Also taught “Introduction to Biological Anthropology.”
Spring, 2002 Lecturer, Linguistics Department, California State University, Long Beach. Instruction of cross-listed Anthropology and Linguistics class called "Language and Culture," which looked at the social and cultural roles played by language in terms of identity formation and group solidarity, as well as changes to language that result from contact between cultures.
Spring, 2002 Lecturer, Human Development Department, CSU Long Beach. Instruction of “Adult Development and Aging,” which focused on the development of human beings from late adolescence until death, with attention to the influence of ethnicity, gender,social class and historical events on the individual life course.
Fall, 2001 & Spring, 2002 Lecturer, Human Development Department, California State University, Long Beach. Instruction of course entitled, “Cultural Influences on Human Development,” which centered on the way aspects of human development, such as childhood, parenthood and aging, vary across cultures.
Spring, 2001 Visiting Guest Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego. Instruction of an upper-division anthropology course, “The New Age Movement and New Religions,” which examined the emergence of new religions, both within and outside of the United States, as well as the related phenomenon of the New Age movement.
1997-1998 Head Teaching Assistant, Earl Warren College, University of California at San Diego. Scholars' Seminar Honors Writing Program. Involved organizing and teaching in a writing program for first-year honors students and leading a team of undergraduate teaching assistants. Directed course topics and brought a new focus on language and linguistics to the curriculum.
1995-1997 Teaching Assistant, Thurgood Marshall College, University of California at San Diego. Dimensions of Culture Writing Program. Included teaching writing and argumentation skills on the topics of “Diversity, Justice, and Imagination” to first-year college students.
PEDAGOGICAL TRAINING:
August 2019- July 2021: Participation in a Faculty Learning Group “Growing Diversity: Exploring Religious Diversity in Place-based Food Justice Education.”
July 2019: Participation in the workshops “Connection is a Choice” and “Building Some Basics” offered at GVSU by the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science.
May 2018 Faculty Teaching and Learning Center “Design Thinking Immersion” two-day course, GVSU campus, Allendale, Michigan.
Jan-Feb 2017 Foundations of Online/Hybrid Course Development training in preparation for hybrid version of ANT 315, GVSU Traverse City campus.
TEACHING INTERESTS:
Introduction to anthropology, religion and culture, religious scripture and its use, anthropology of science and technology, linguistic anthropology, medical anthropology, human development, culture and aging, intro to physical anthropology, ethnographic methods.
AWARDS AND GRANTS:
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).
BOOK:
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:
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.
BOOK REVIEWS:
In preparation:
Weibel, Deana (2020) Review of Space Tourism, edited by Erik Cohen and Sam Spector. Invited submission to the Journal of Tourism and Social Change.
Published:
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.
IN PROGRESS PUBLICATIONS:
Vertigo: The Unsteady Identity of a Marian Shrine. Book manuscript.
“The Overview Effect and the Ultraview Effect: How Extreme Experiences in Outer Space Affect Religious Beliefs in Astronauts” for submission to an anthropology journal like Ethos or Anthropology of Consciousness.
Joint paper on ethical considerations related to space settlement to be co-authored with philosopher James Schwartz, anthropologist John Traphagen, linguist Sheri Wells-Jensen and philosopher Kelly Smith, based on the Sagan Meeting at the 2019 Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop.
Untitled article on conversion experiences in outer space.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS:
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. and 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 REPORT:
“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 forthcoming February 2020) Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger B. Chaffee, a two-day interdisciplinary public event being put on by GVSU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Padnos College of Engineering and Computing 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:
Refereed presentations:
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:
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.
“’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:
Continuing research on the topic of human spaceflight, “flown” objects, and religious beliefs for new publications, as well as continuing research in Rocamadour, France for book revision and additional articles and presentations.
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).
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Anthropology of religion, pilgrimage and sacred space, sacred objects, religion and technology, religion and the exploration of outer space, the cognitive science of religion, religious authority, religion and feminism, medical anthropology, culture and healing, language and culture, religious categories and language use, evangelical Christianity, the New Age movement, secularization, Europe, the American Southwest.
GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY COMMITTEES:
2011-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:
2019-2020 Member, UAS FaCEIn Task Force
2019-present 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” (June)
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:
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
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)
NEWSPAPER/MAGAZINE/ONLINE CONTENT INTERVIEWS
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” https://www.gvsu.edu/gvnext/2020/messages-planned-by-roger-that-speakers-vastness-of-11382.htm?fbclid=IwAR2FYJQ3ALFEf5bg_HiMDzfQWUqY2t4sOUdNsJtJ8sveSbCoINhbwlm5j_w
July 2019. Interview (along with Glen Swanson) on WKTV's "The Whole Picture Podcast," https://www.wktvjournal.org/podcast/the-whole-picture-podcast/?fbclid=IwAR2XSufIbxgA-fJN-80RfTkhBWU5h0xa6Ex3cSotsM0gd9ZuZRyaI4PhfAU
July 2019 . Interviewed by Peg West for an article entitled, "GVSU Professor: Space exploration and religion have a long shared history"
https://www.gvsu.edu/gvnow/2019/gvsu-professor-space-exploration-and-religion-have-a-11129.htm
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 INTERVIEWS
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.
TELEVISION APPEARANCES
February 2020. Appeared on WOODtv’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
The Explorers Club - Chicago/Great Lakes MN'20
Central States Anthropological Society
2001 Ph.D. in Anthropology, University of California, San Diego.
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
1995 M.A. in Anthropology, University of California, San Diego.
Thesis: “‘By Visions of the Night’: Millennialism and Dreams Among Seventeenth
Century English Sectarians.”
Thesis Advisor: Professor David K. Jordan
1991 B.A. in Linguistics, University of California, Irvine.
ADDITIONAL ACADEMIC TRAINING:
July 2017 – Summer School on Wine, Terroir and Tourism, University of Lausanne, Sion Campus, Sion, Switzerland.
CURRENT POSITION:
Fall 2018-Present, Professor in the Departments of Anthropology and IRIS: Integrative, Religious, and Intercultural Studies (joint appointment), Grand Valley State University
July 2012-July 2018, Department Chair, Anthropology, Grand Valley State University
Fall 2009- Summer 2017, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Fall 2003-Summer 2009, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Anthropology Department, GVSU. Courses taught include “Senior Capstone,” “Comparative Religions” (traditional and hybrid formats), “Ethnographic Methods,” “Death, Burial and Culture,” “Language and Culture,” "Advanced Cross-Cultural Linguistics," “Culture and Disease,” and “Introduction to Cultural Anthropology.” Also taught a “Special Topics” course on the Anthropology of Language in Winter 2008, a “Special Topics” course called “The Anthropology of the Sacred” in Winter 2015, and organized and taught the Summer 2005 Cultural Anthropology Field School.
Integrative, Religious and Intercultural Studies Department, GVSU. “Sacred Texts – Global Contexts” – online format
PREVIOUS UNIVERSITY TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
Spring, 2003 Lecturer, Anthropology Department, CSU San Bernardino. Taught "The Anthropology of Magic, Religion and Science," "Religion and Sacred Space," and "The Anthropology of Human Development."
Fall, 2002 & Spring, 2003 Lecturer, Program for the Study of Religion, University of California, San Diego. In 2002, conducted a class called "The Modern Study of Religion: Social and Cultural Theories of Religion." Course served as an introduction to basic strategies of interpretation in the study of religion, including issues of category formation, theory, and method. Also taught “Pilgrimage and Sacred Space.”
Fall, 2002 & Spring, 2003 Lecturer, Anthropology Department, CSU Fullerton. Instruction in 2002 of "Traditional Cultures of the World” that examined human diversity through an analysis of such societies as the Kutchin, the Bedouin and the Amish. Also taught “Introduction to Biological Anthropology.”
Spring, 2002 Lecturer, Linguistics Department, California State University, Long Beach. Instruction of cross-listed Anthropology and Linguistics class called "Language and Culture," which looked at the social and cultural roles played by language in terms of identity formation and group solidarity, as well as changes to language that result from contact between cultures.
Spring, 2002 Lecturer, Human Development Department, CSU Long Beach. Instruction of “Adult Development and Aging,” which focused on the development of human beings from late adolescence until death, with attention to the influence of ethnicity, gender,social class and historical events on the individual life course.
Fall, 2001 & Spring, 2002 Lecturer, Human Development Department, California State University, Long Beach. Instruction of course entitled, “Cultural Influences on Human Development,” which centered on the way aspects of human development, such as childhood, parenthood and aging, vary across cultures.
Spring, 2001 Visiting Guest Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego. Instruction of an upper-division anthropology course, “The New Age Movement and New Religions,” which examined the emergence of new religions, both within and outside of the United States, as well as the related phenomenon of the New Age movement.
1997-1998 Head Teaching Assistant, Earl Warren College, University of California at San Diego. Scholars' Seminar Honors Writing Program. Involved organizing and teaching in a writing program for first-year honors students and leading a team of undergraduate teaching assistants. Directed course topics and brought a new focus on language and linguistics to the curriculum.
1995-1997 Teaching Assistant, Thurgood Marshall College, University of California at San Diego. Dimensions of Culture Writing Program. Included teaching writing and argumentation skills on the topics of “Diversity, Justice, and Imagination” to first-year college students.
PEDAGOGICAL TRAINING:
August 2019- July 2021: Participation in a Faculty Learning Group “Growing Diversity: Exploring Religious Diversity in Place-based Food Justice Education.”
July 2019: Participation in the workshops “Connection is a Choice” and “Building Some Basics” offered at GVSU by the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science.
May 2018 Faculty Teaching and Learning Center “Design Thinking Immersion” two-day course, GVSU campus, Allendale, Michigan.
Jan-Feb 2017 Foundations of Online/Hybrid Course Development training in preparation for hybrid version of ANT 315, GVSU Traverse City campus.
TEACHING INTERESTS:
Introduction to anthropology, religion and culture, religious scripture and its use, anthropology of science and technology, linguistic anthropology, medical anthropology, human development, culture and aging, intro to physical anthropology, ethnographic methods.
AWARDS AND GRANTS:
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).
BOOK:
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:
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.
BOOK REVIEWS:
In preparation:
Weibel, Deana (2020) Review of Space Tourism, edited by Erik Cohen and Sam Spector. Invited submission to the Journal of Tourism and Social Change.
Published:
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.
IN PROGRESS PUBLICATIONS:
Vertigo: The Unsteady Identity of a Marian Shrine. Book manuscript.
“The Overview Effect and the Ultraview Effect: How Extreme Experiences in Outer Space Affect Religious Beliefs in Astronauts” for submission to an anthropology journal like Ethos or Anthropology of Consciousness.
Joint paper on ethical considerations related to space settlement to be co-authored with philosopher James Schwartz, anthropologist John Traphagen, linguist Sheri Wells-Jensen and philosopher Kelly Smith, based on the Sagan Meeting at the 2019 Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop.
Untitled article on conversion experiences in outer space.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS:
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. and 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 REPORT:
“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 forthcoming February 2020) Roger That!: A Celebration of Space Exploration in Honor of Roger B. Chaffee, a two-day interdisciplinary public event being put on by GVSU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Padnos College of Engineering and Computing 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:
Refereed presentations:
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:
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.
“’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:
Continuing research on the topic of human spaceflight, “flown” objects, and religious beliefs for new publications, as well as continuing research in Rocamadour, France for book revision and additional articles and presentations.
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).
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Anthropology of religion, pilgrimage and sacred space, sacred objects, religion and technology, religion and the exploration of outer space, the cognitive science of religion, religious authority, religion and feminism, medical anthropology, culture and healing, language and culture, religious categories and language use, evangelical Christianity, the New Age movement, secularization, Europe, the American Southwest.
GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY COMMITTEES:
2011-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:
2019-2020 Member, UAS FaCEIn Task Force
2019-present 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” (June)
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:
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
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)
NEWSPAPER/MAGAZINE/ONLINE CONTENT INTERVIEWS
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” https://www.gvsu.edu/gvnext/2020/messages-planned-by-roger-that-speakers-vastness-of-11382.htm?fbclid=IwAR2FYJQ3ALFEf5bg_HiMDzfQWUqY2t4sOUdNsJtJ8sveSbCoINhbwlm5j_w
July 2019. Interview (along with Glen Swanson) on WKTV's "The Whole Picture Podcast," https://www.wktvjournal.org/podcast/the-whole-picture-podcast/?fbclid=IwAR2XSufIbxgA-fJN-80RfTkhBWU5h0xa6Ex3cSotsM0gd9ZuZRyaI4PhfAU
July 2019 . Interviewed by Peg West for an article entitled, "GVSU Professor: Space exploration and religion have a long shared history"
https://www.gvsu.edu/gvnow/2019/gvsu-professor-space-exploration-and-religion-have-a-11129.htm
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 INTERVIEWS
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.
TELEVISION APPEARANCES
February 2020. Appeared on WOODtv’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
The Explorers Club - Chicago/Great Lakes MN'20
Central States Anthropological Society