travis warren cooper, phd (he/his)
cooper4521@gmail.com ǀ traviswarrencooper.net
curriculum vitae
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Anthropology, Indiana University – Bloomington (September 2018)
Ph.D. Religious Studies, Indiana University – Bloomington (September 2018)
M.A. Religious Studies, Missouri State University (May 2011)
BOOKS
The Digital Evangelicals: Contesting Authority and Authenticity after the New Media Turn. Indianapolis and Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2022.
PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES
"Kogonada's Urban Neorealism." Film Criticism 44:1 (2020).
“Objectivity Discourse, the Protestant Secular, and the Decolonization of Religious Studies.” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion (2019). doi:10.1163/15700682-12341463.
“The Uncanniness of Missionary Others: A Discursive Analysis of a Century of Anthropological Writings on Missionary Ethnographers.” Religion & Society: Advances in Research 9 (2018): 68-85.
“Taxonomy Construction and the Normative Turn in Religious Studies.” Religions 8 (2017): 1-15.
“Emerging, Emergent, Emergence: Boundary Maintenance, Definition Construction, and Legitimation Strategies in the Establishment of a Post-Evangelical Subculture.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 56.2 (2017): 398-417.
“Religion and Violence in Jesse James Films, 1972–2010.” Journal of Religion & Film 21.1 (2017): 1-41.
“Benny Hinn’s Media Empire: Image and Presence in Global Televangelism,” Symposia 6 (2014): 1-14.
“‘Cooking with Gordon’: Food, Health, and the Elasticity of Evangelical Gender Roles (and Belt Sizes) on the 700 Club,” Religion & Gender 3.1 (2013): 108-124.
“Marjoe Gortner, Imposter Revivalist: Toward a Cognitive Theory of Religious Misbehavior,” PentecoStudies 12.1 (2013): 83-105.
INVITED JOURNAL ARTICLES
"How to Edit a Building: Fieldnotes from the North American Brasilia." Urbanities 9:2: 52-65.
“Boutique Industrial Capitalism from Goop to Kinfolk Magazine: A Reply to Dana Logan.” Bulletin for
the Study of Religion 47:3-4 (2018): 7-13.
“On the Uses of ‘Data,’” Bulletin for the Study of Religion 43.1 (2014): 37-39 [with James Dennis Lorusso, Ian Brown, Tenzan Eaghll, Karen de Vries, Eoin O’Mahony, Kelly Baker, Kenneth Mackendrick, and Kate Daley-Bailey].
“Objects and the Shaping of Assemblies of God Identity,” Heritage 33 (2013): 54-61.
BOOK CHAPTERS AND ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES
"Of Clouds and Cathedrals: Media, Metaphor, and Sincerity in Global Pentecostalism." The Pentecostal World (Routledge World Books Series), ed. Michael Wilkinson and Jörg Haustein. New York: Routledge (forthcoming 2022).
"Spatial Hierarchy and Religious Distinction in an American Architectural Utopia." American Examples: Volume 1, ed. Michael Altman. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press (forthcoming 2021).
“Embodiment, Body.” The Brill Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism (2020).
“Worship Rituals, Discipline, and Pentecostal-Charismatic Techniques du Corps in the American Midwest.” Pages 77-101 in Pentecostals and the Body, Michael Wilkinson and Peter Althouse, eds. Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion, vol. 8 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2017).
BOOK REVIEWS
Russell T. McCutcheon, Entanglements: Marking Place in the Field of Religion (Bristol, CT: Equinox Publishing LTD., 2014), Religion 47:2 (2017): 298-301.
Greg Garrett, Entertaining Judgment: The Afterlife in Popular Imagination (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), The American Academy of Religion: Reading Religion (2016).
Torkel Brekke, Fundamentalism: Prophecy and Protest in an Age of Globalization (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Religion 44:4 (2014): 706-708.
Thomas A. Robinson and Lanette D. Ruff, Out of the Mouths of Babes: Girl Evangelists in the Flapper Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), Religion & Gender 4:1 (2014): 86-89.
Elisha Omri, Moral Ambition: Mobilization and Social Outreach in Evangelical Megachurches (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), Religion 43:3 (2013): 442-446.
Candy Gunther Brown, ed., Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Healing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), Religion 42:2 (2012): 341-344.
PUBLIC SCHOLARSHIP
"City Centers Are Metaphors (or, Moore vs. Tinguely)." Religion in Place / Lived Religion in the Digital Age (2020).
"The Inauthenticity of New Media." The Religious Studies Project (January 23, 2020).
“Terrence Malick’s Architecture of the Domestic.” Flow Journal 26:3 (2019).
“Henry Moore’s Large Arch or Godzilla’s Leg-Bone?” Culture on the Edge (2019).
“The Strange Rites of Celebrity.” Sapiens: Anthropology / Everything Human (2019).
“Theses on Method: New Media, Social Technologies, and the Anthropology of Digital Worlds.”anthro{dendum} (2019).
“Normativity Reconsidered.” [A Response to Thomas A. Lewis’s Why Philosophy Matters for the Study of Religion & Vice Versa.] Syndicate (2018).
“How to Resist Christian Hegemony: Reflections on the #RAAC2017 Biennial.” Bulletin for the Study of Religion (2017).
“Against Freedom: A Response to Finbarr Curtis.” The Religious Studies Project (2017).
“New Media (and) Ritual.” Studying Religion in Culture: Ongoing Discussions at the University of Alabama (2017).
“The Normative Turn and its Discontents.” Bulletin for the Study of Religion (2016).
“Media Ideologies, Contested Authenticities, and Socality Barbie.” Bulletin for the Study of Religion (2016). Republished on the University of Chicago Divinity School and Martin Marty Center’s Religion and Culture Web Forum (2016).
“Interpreting Purity: Thoughts on Viewing Controversial Portraiture.” Invited response essay for the David Magnusson “Purity” gallery, February 6 - March 28, Pictura Art Gallery (2015).
“Bourgeoisie Bohemians, Hipsters, and Social Order.” Bulletin for the Study of Religion (2014).
“Theory & Religion Series: Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco by Paul Rabinow.” Bulletin for the Study of Religion (2014).
“A Quasi-Caricatured Taxonomy of Religious Studies Instructors.” Bulletin for the Study of Religion (2014).
“The Invention of the Emerging Church Movement.” The Religious Studies Project (2014).
“‘Anxiety-Laden’ Rituals and Competitive Rites of Passage: Publishing at the Graduate Student Level in Anthropology” (with Mirshad Ghalip). Socioculture Theory in Anthropology, Indiana University (2014).
“ePrayer and Online Prayer Rituals.” Reverberations: New Directions in the Study of Prayer – Social Science Research Council (2013).
“Evangelical Tastes, Gray Matters, and (a) Shifting Habitus.” Bulletin for the Study of Religion (2013).
“Stereotypes and Dangerous Rituals: A Reflection on the Academic Study of Serpent Handling.” The Religious Studies Project (2013).
“Serpents, Novelty, and Academic Fetish.” Bulletin for the Study of Religion (2013).
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Butler University, Indianapolis (Lecturer, International Studies):
"Global Issues in Contemporary Film" (Spring 2020).
“Introduction to International Studies” (Spring 2018).
“Understanding Global Issues” (Fall 2017 - Spring 2020).
“The United Nations and Other International Organizations” (Fall 2017).
Indiana University – Bloomington (Full Instructor, Global Studies LLC):
“Religion and Film in Global Perspective” (Fall 2016).
Indiana University – Bloomington (Full Instructor, Religious Studies):
“New Media and Digital Religion” (2016).
“Religion, Ethics, and the Public Sphere” (2016).
“Religion and Popular Culture” (2015)
“Introduction to Religion (and Religious Studies)” (2015).
Indiana University – Bloomington (Associate Instructor, Religious Studies):
“Introduction to Buddhism” (2013, 2014, 2015).
“Introduction to Religion” (2014).
“Pleasure, Pain, and Peak Oil” (2013).
“Sickness and Health” (2012).
Missouri State University (Graduate Assistant, Religious Studies):
“Religion in America” (2008, 2009, 2010).
“Religion in Society” (2009).
HONORS AND AWARDS
St. Louis University Department of Theological Studies, Lived Religion in the Digital Age, Research fellow and grant recipient (2018 – 2019).
University of Alabama Department of Religious Studies. American Examples workshop participant, lodging and travel expenses covered (March 2019).
Universitair Centrum Sint Ignatius Antwerpen (UCSIA), Summer Seminar Fellow, housing allowance and partial travel expenses covered (August 2017).
Universitair Centrum Sint Ignatius Antwerpen (UCSIA), Travel Award, 300.00 Euros (August 2017).
Graduate College (Indiana U.), College of Arts and Sciences Travel Award, 400.00 USD (Fall 2016).
Graduate College (Indiana U.), College of Arts and Sciences Travel Award, 500.00 USD (Spring 2016).
Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study, Summer Seminar Fellow, housing allowance and travels expenses covered (June 2014).
Indiana University Religious Studies Department, Student Academic Appointment: Associate Instructorship, full tuition waiver and stipend (2012 – 2016).
Indiana University Religious Studies Department, College Graduate Fellowship, full tuition waiver and stipend (2011 – 2012).
Missouri State University Religious Studies Department, Graduate Assistantship, full tuition waiver and stipend (2008 – 2010).
Theta Alpha Kappa: National Honor Society for Religious Studies and Theology, Inductee (2008 – present).
Alpha Chi: National College Honor Society, Inductee (2008 – present).
Evangel University, “Outstanding Intercultural Studies Graduate” (2008).
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS AND TALKS
Pennsylvania State University Religious Studies Program. Zoom Roundtable: Religious Responses to COVID-19 in the U.S. Talk: "Evangelicals in Quarantine: Pandemic Responses Mainstream and Marginal" (2021).
University of Alabama Department of Religious Studies. American Examples workshop. Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Paper: “Spatial Hierarchy and Religious Distinction in an American Architectural Mecca” (2019).
University of Antwerp, UCSIA. Antwerp, Belgium. Paper: “The Varieties of Evangelical Neoliberalism in the Post-Industrial, Digital Era” (2017).
Indiana University Department of Religious Studies. “Presence and Absence” graduate conference. Paper: “Discourses of Presence and Absence in Evangelical Media Ideologies” (2017).
American Academy of Religion. San Antonio, Texas. Religion and Popular Culture panel: “Beyond Pop Culture as Text: Rethinking Religion and Pop Culture.” Paper: “Religious Studies, Celebrities, and the Pervasive Popular (with Continual Reference to Jesse Eisenberg)” (2016).
University of Chicago Divinity School. Chicago, Illinois. An Inter- disciplinary Graduate Student Conference: “Religion and Movement.” Keynote Speaker: Thomas Tweed. Paper: “Competitive Travelers, Imperialist Agents: Anthropological Discourse on Missionary Ethnographers, 1900 – 2010” (2016).
Media, Gender & Religion Conference. Boulder, Colorado. Paper: “From Failed Bra-Burnings to Social Networking Strategies: Feminism, Dress, and the Modesty Debates in the Progressive Evangelical Blogosphere, 2012-2014” (2016).
American Academy of Religion. Atlanta, Georgia. Philosophy of Religion panel: “Description, Prescription, and Value in the Study of Religion.” Paper: “Valuable Categories, Evaluative Taxonomies: Re-Reading Functionalist and Structuralist Classification Paradigms after Jonathan Z. Smith” (2015).
Indiana University – Department of Anthropology. Graduate Student Association Symposium: “Digital Communication, Collaboration, and Innovation.” Paper: “Digital Evangelicals, Religio-Social Networks, and the Challenge of Digital Ethnography” (2015).
Indiana Association of Historians. Anderson, Indiana, 34th Annual Meeting: “Conflict and Transformation.” Paper: “Innovation, Populism, and the Conflict of Authority in American Protestantism: The Case of the Emerging Church Movement” (2014).
University of California Santa Barbara – Department of Religious Studies. “Personhood, Place, & Possession: Embodiment & Emplace-ment in Special Contexts” graduate conference. Paper: “Contested Ecstasies: Body, Experience, and Self in Expressive Worship Rituals” (2013).
University of Toronto – Department for the Study of Religion. “Media fever! Religion as Mediation” graduate conference. Paper: “Benny Hinn’s Media Empire: Image and Presence in Global Televangelism” (2013).
Harvard University Divinity School. “Ways of Knowing” graduate conference. Paper: “Between Knowing and Feeling: The Subjective Construction of Pentecostal Experience” (2012).
Indiana University Department of Religious Studies. “On Religion: Definition, Delimitation, and Application” graduate conference. Paper: “Religion, Science, and Glossolalia: Interpreting (Academic) Tongues-Speaking” (2012).
(Midwest) American Academy of Religion. Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, 2011. Paper: “Weak, Vulnerable, Pleasurable Bodies: An Investigation of Evangelical Discourses on Sexuality through the
Popular Every Man Series on Sexual Integrity” (2011).
(Midwest) American Academy of Religion. Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois. Paper: “The Contentious Body: An Ethnographic Study of Pentecostal-Charismatic Worship” (2010).
Missouri State University. Springfield, Missouri. Graduate Interdisciplinary Forum. Paper: “A Tale of Two Churches: Walmartization, Cultural Accommodation, and Modernization in Two Ozarks Area Megachurches” (2010).
GUEST LECTURES
“Evangelicals and Changing American Foodways” (IU: Food & Rel.) (2014).
“How to Be an Anthropologist” (IU: Rel. & Pop. Culture) (2014).
“On Urban Resilience” (IU: Pleasure, Pain, and Peak Oil) (2013).
“Religion & Violence in Jesse James Films” (IU: Rel. & the Am. West) (2013).
“A Brief History of American Medicine” (IU: Sickness & Health) (2012).
“Secularism and the Secular” (MSU: Religion in Society) (2009).
“Religion and Civil Rights in America” (MSU: Rel. in America) (2008).
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Editorial Assistant, Journal of the American Academy of Religion (2017 – 2018).
Organizer, Article Roundtable. In reply to Dana Logan’s “The Lean Closet: Asceticism in Post-Industrial Consumer Culture” (JAAR 2017). Special 2019 Issue of The Bulletin for the Study of Religion 47.3-4.
External Article Reviewer, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (2018).
External Article Reviewer, Journal of Religion & Film (2017).
Co-Organizer, Graduate Student Conference. “Religion, Conflict, & Boundary Maintenance.” Indiana University Religious Studies Department (2015).
Interview Respondent. The Religious Studies Project (2013 – present).
Faculty Mentor Award Committee and Application Reviewer. Graduate and Professional Student Government (2013).
Contributing Academic Blogger. The Bulletin for the Study of Religion (2013 – present).
External Article Reviewer, Religion & Gender (2013, 2017).
Graduate Sustainability Committee Member. Graduate and Professional Student Government (2012 – 2013).
Department Representative, Religious Studies. Indiana University Graduate and Professional Student Government (2011 – 2013).
Graduate Diversity Committee Member. Graduate and Professional Student Government (2011 – 2013).
Panel Chair. “Mediation and Representation: Religion, Art, and Society.” Harvard Divinity School’s “Way of Knowing” graduate conference (2012).
Panel Chair. “Interdisciplinarity and Universality.” Indiana University’s “On Religion: Definition, Delimitation, and Application” graduate conference (2012).
NEWS MEDIA CONTRIBUTIONS
Research Consultant. Mark Hicks, Detroit News, November 23, 2018. “2 Wayne Co. churches transform old houses of worship to serve the community.”
RELATED WORK AND VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
Volunteer, Refugee Support Network (2022).
Volunteer, Stone Belt Friends Program (2022).
Volunteer, Hoosier Hills Food Bank (2022).
Freelance Ethnographic Audio Transcription (2017).
Independent Research Consulting (2015 – 2017).
Podcast Transcription, The Religious Studies Project (2014).
Volunteer, Bloomington Community Kitchen (2012 – 2017, 2022).
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
American Academy of Religion
Society for the Anthropology of Religion
Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
American Anthropological Association
LANGUAGES
Spanish: Limited reading and research proficiency.
French: Limited reading and research proficiency.
Hebrew: Limited reading and research proficiency.
RESEARCH INTERESTS AND METHODS
global Christian movements; religion in the Americas; digital media; religion and media; religion and popular culture; religion and film; gender and the body; globalization; international studies; architecture and the built environment; anthropology of religion; method and theory in the study of religion