I’m an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University, where I teach undergraduate courses on American Religions. I’m also the Director of the Gonzaga University Core Curriculum.
My teaching approach and philosophy center on bringing students into my field as novice scholars. Whether a student is a Religious Studies major or minor or only enrolled for core credit, my goal is to model critical thinking and scholarship to my students and assign readings and assessments that prompt them to follow me into my field.
Trained in American religious history, my research is interdisciplinary, archive- and narrative-driven, and seeks to unpack complicated moments in America’s past. I’m the author of the award-winning book, A Luminous Brotherhood: Afro-Creole Spiritualism in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans. My contribution and place in the field of American religions is being a storyteller and a critic. I am particularly interested in religious material culture, alternative spiritualities, African American religions, American Catholic history, haunting, and colonialism.
You can follow me on Twitter @clark_ems. You can still check out my old wordpress site, including the blog archive here.