The board of directors of the association for public religion and intellectual life.

Joy Bostic   Joy R. Bostic, PhD (she/her) is an associate professor in Religious and Africana Studies. She is also an associate dean, a university marshal, a novice djembe player, ordained minister, world traveler, and auntie to six nieces and six nephews. As a Co-Principal Investigator for the Humanities in Learning Leadership Series (HILLS) funded by…

Jonah Boyarin Jonah Boyarin (he/they) is a political-cultural writer, educator, and community organizer. Their writing has appeared in Jewish Currents, In geveb, and elsewhere.  In 2020, Jonah was named one of New York City’s “36 Under 36” by The Jewish Week. Jonah always roots for the underdog, except when it comes to his beloved NY…

João B. Chaves João B. Chaves, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of the History of Religion in the Américas. João is the author of several peer-reviewed articles and four books, including Migrational Religion: Context and Creativity in the Latinx Diaspora (Baylor University Press, 2021) and The Global Mission of the Jim Crow South (Mercer University Press, 2022).…

Björn Krondorfer

Vice-President

Björn Krondorfer  Björn Krondorfer has a wide-ranging interest in applying religious studies to various segments in culture, society, and politics. Initially pursuing a theology degree in Germany, he switched to comparative religious studies at Temple University in Philadelphia (PhD 1990). His extensive scholarship on the intersection of masculinity and religion helped to define the field of…

Pamela D. Winfield

Pamela D. Winfield Pamela D. Winfield is Professor of Buddhist Studies at Elon University, NC. Her award-winning book Icons and Iconoclasm in Japanese Buddhism and her co-edited volume (with Steven Heine) entitled Zen and Material Culture were both published by Oxford University Press. She has edited several themed issues of CrossCurrents Journal and published extensively…

Executive Director

S. Brent Rodríguez-Plate Born in the year of the Fire Horse, Professor Rodríguez-Plate has traveled the world seeking ways that people practice and/or fight against religious traditions, whether ancient or modern. Convinced that religion has less to do with beliefs than with bodies, Rodríguez-Plate queries the ways people connect with physical objects through sense perception:…

Randall Styers

Randall Styers  Randall Styers has been member of the board since 2003.  He has worked as a corporate lawyer in New York and Los Angeles, a delivery driver, an academic dean, and a musician.  Styers now teaches at UNC Chapel Hill, where his research and teaching focus on the place of religion in modern American…