Presentations
Selected invited lectures, conference papers, workshops, public talks, and panels. This page highlights recent presentations and selected earlier appearances that reflect the range of my work in anthropology, religion, space exploration, and awe.
At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Featured & Forthcoming
Forthcoming, November 2026. “Vastly, Hugely, Mind-Bogglingly Big: Astronaut Culture, the Ultraview Effect, and the Problem of Celestial Immensity.” Paper to be presented as part of the panel “Extraterrestrial Anthropologies; or, On the Verge of Outer Space,” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, St. Louis, Missouri.
October 22, 2026. “The Ultraview Effect: Awe, Humility, and Exploring the Unknown.” Great Lakes Planetarium Association Annual Conference, Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
October 6, 2026. “What Happens to Humans in Space? Awe, Culture, and the View from Beyond Earth.” Grand Forum, Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
September 24, 2026. “The Ultraview Effect and the Universe Beyond Our Solar System.” Ford Amateur Astronomy Club, Henry Ford College, Dearborn, Michigan.
March 2026. “The Ultraview Effect: Awe, Humility, and Exploring the Unknown.” Refereed public lecture at The Explorers Club Headquarters, New York, New York.
January 2025. “The Sight of the Stars Makes Me Dream: Cosmic Vistas and Spacefaring Culture.” Poster presentation at the NASA Human Research Program Investigators Workshop, Galveston, Texas.
April 2025. “'I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream': Potential Impacts of Cosmic Vistas on Spacefaring Culture.” Society for Psychological Anthropology Biennial Meeting, Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico.
May 14, 2024. “The Space Flown Body: How Medical Spaceflight Researchers Manifest the Destiny of Human Biology.” Space Intersections Symposium, ASU Barrett and O’Connor Washington Center, Washington, DC.
August 2, 2023. “Reflections of Humans in Space.” Workshop for the International Space University Space Studies Program at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, São José dos Campos, Brazil.
April 26, 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 working group and the Department of Anthropology.
March 2019. “'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.
Selected Invited Presentations
November 20, 2025. “An Unregulated Regolith: Some Cultural, Spiritual, and Ethical Considerations for Emerging Space Law.” Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago, Intellectual Formation Series.
November 13, 2025. “The Once-Distant Moon: From a Sacred Light to a Human Domain.” Moon Village Association, Cultural Considerations Working Group webinar on Religion and the Moon.
May 5, 2025. “'I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream': Potential Impacts of Cosmic Vistas on Spacefaring Culture.” Warren Astronomical Society, Cranbrook Institute of Science, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
June 6, 2023. “An Outrageous View of the Heavens: The Ultraview Effect as a Cognitive and Cultural Response to the Panorama of Deep Space.” Moon Village Association Cultural Working Group.
March 26, 2021. “'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.
November 2019. Panel member for the Sagan Meetings on ethics and space settlement at the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop, Wichita, Kansas.
Selected Refereed Presentations
November 2024. “Defining the Role of Anthropology in the Future of Space Tourism.” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Tampa, Florida.
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, Texas.
May 2019. “Something Beyond What We Understand: Shifting between Scientific and Religious Models of the Universe in Space Professionals' Conceptualizations of Outer Space.” Society for the Anthropology of Religion, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
November 2018. “The Overview Effect and the Ultraview Effect: How Extreme Experiences in Outer Space Affect Religious Beliefs in Astronauts.” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Jose, California.
May 2014. “Transportable Awe: Sacred Contagion as Enrichment.” Cognitive Science of Religion, Philosophy and Theology Conference, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
December 2009. “Gathering Energy: Pilgrimage, Spaceflight and the Transformation of Objects.” Co-authored with Valerie Olson. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
December 2004. “Malinowski in Orbit: Magical Thinking in the U.S. and Soviet Manned Space Programs.” Co-authored with Glen E. Swanson. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia.
Selected Public Talks & Panels
July 2026. “The Ultraview Effect: What We Can Learn from Astronauts About Awe, Humility, and Exploring the Unknown.” Schuler Books and Music, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
July 2026. “Who Gets to Build the Future in Space?” Cosmic Girls Speaker Series webinar.
May 2026. “The Ultraview Effect: Awe, Humility, and Exploring the Unknown.” C3 Spiritual Community, Grand Haven, Michigan.
March 2024. Panelist, “Sacred Skies: Integrating Diverse Spiritual Perspectives in Space Policy.” Beyond Earth Institute.
May 2, 2021. “Bringing Anthropology to Outer Space: Sacred Travel, Destiny, and the Motivating Force of Optimism.” Explorers Club Chicago/Great Lakes Chapter.
2020. “Ablutions Without Water and the Hidden Mezuzah: The Modification of Religious Rituals While Traveling in Outer Space.” Roger That! Conference, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
October 2018. “Confronting the Martian: Humanity's Changing Concepts about Life on the Red Planet.” GVSU Art Gallery.
This is a selected list. For a fuller record of presentations and professional activity, see my complete CV.