Personnel
Dr. Stewart Hoover and Dr. Lynn Schofield Clark initiated pioneering research in the field of media and religion at the University of Colorado in the 1990s. They co-directed the first international public conference on Media, Religion, and Culture in Boulder in 1996. Today, studies continue with a field research staff composed of graduate students in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Department of Religious Studies and staff of the School's Center for Media, Religion, and Culture. The research is organized through an ongoing research seminar that analyzes fieldwork and maintains a lively scholarly dialogue about relevant and emerging literatures and methodologies.
Methodologies have included observational, projective and focus-group techniques building on a core of in-depth qualitative interview work with families and individuals in selected media households. Additional methodologies include "located" observational projects. The term of each project has been four years, with three years devoted to research and initial analysis and a fourth year for the development of various publications.
Research staff members are encouraged to develop and produce published work based on the project's field data, often in co-authored pieces in journals and edited volumes. In addition, staff members are free to propose complementary or related research associated with these same studies and to develop instrumentation that can be administered across the various samples, which data are then available for general analysis.
The Lilly Endowment
Research at the Center for Media, Religion and Culture has been generously funded by the Lilly Endowment. Please visit www.lillyendowment.org for more information on the Endowment, a private philanthropic organization, to learn more about the types of projects that are of interest to the Endowment.
Faculty
Stewart M. Hoover is Professor of Media Studies in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and is the director of the Center for Media, Religion, and Culture. He is also a Professor Adjoint of Religious Studies and American Studies. He holds both the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. His research centers on media audience and reception studies rooted in cultural studies, anthropology and qualitative sociology. Within this field, he has concentrated on studies of media and religion, looking first at the phenomenon of televangelism, and later at the professional, cultural and discursive construction of religion by the press. His most recent work involves household-level studies of media audience practices of meaning-making and identity. He is author or co-author of six books, including his most recent, Religion in the Media Age, and one on religion journalism, titled Religion in the News: Faith and Journalism in American Public Discourse. He is co-editor of three others, including (with Nadia Kaneva), Fundamentalisms and the Media, (with Lynn Schofield Clark), Practicing Religion in the Age of the Media, and Co-author, with Dr. Clark, Dr. Diane Alters, Dr. Joseph Champ, and Dr. Lee Hood, of Media, Home, and Family.
Dr. Echchaibi joined the faculty of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication in the fall of 2007. His teaching and research interests revolve around identity politics among young Muslims in diaspora and in the Arab world. Originally from Morocco, he taught in Europe where he helped set up a department of international communication at an American college in Switzerland. His work on minority media among young North Africans in Berlin and Paris has been published in various international journals and his book on cultural identities and diasporic radio in Western Europe is forthcoming. He is currently co-editing a book on the popular embrace of political blogging outside the US. He has been traveling to the Middle East and North Africa to conduct fieldwork on the proliferation of Islamic satellite television and the role of popular culture in challenging the old reign of clerical Islam. Echchaibi received his BA from Mohamed V University in Rabat and his MA and PhD from Indiana University-Bloomington.
Curtis Coats is the Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Media, Religion and 
Culture who earned his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado. During his graduate study, he was a research assistant and field researcher on Center projects. He has presented papers at conferences with Prof. Hoover about media, men and religion, and he has presented his own work on men and religion, as well as work on Veggie Tales and "New Age" spiritual tourism at various conferences. He is currently writing a book based on his dissertation which focused on the mediated, commodified practices of spiritual tourism in Sedona,
Arizona.
Staff
Doña is administrative assistant for the Center for Media, Religion and Culture.
Researchers
Kimberly is a doctoral student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and a research associate in the Center.
Magui is a masters student from Paraguay. Her work focuses on generational articulations of media, family and religion in Paraguay.
Rolando is a visiting professor from Peru and began the masters program in Media Studies in Fall 2007.
Doug is a Ph.D. student in communication.
Dr. Nadia Kaneva is an assistant professor in mass communication at the University of Denver. She holds a Doctoral Degree in communication from CU-Boulder, a Master's Degree in Advertising from Syracuse University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the American University in Bulgaria. She has worked in media and advertising both in the US and in her native country, Bulgaria. Nadia’s research draws on critical theories of culture and communication and explores collective identities and memories in various contexts. Her current work examines nation branding in post-communist Eastern Europe and stems from a broader interest in the intersections between nationhood, globalization, and consumerism. A secondary area of interest concerns the construction of identity and community in online environments.
Alumni
Lynn Schofield Clark, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at the University of Denver and Director of the Estlow International Center for Journalism and New Media. She is the recipient of several major grants from the Lilly Endowment and currently serves on the Academic Advisory Boards for the Pew Internet in American Life Project and the Macarthur Foundation's Digital Kids project. She is the author of two books, including From Angels to Aliens: Teenagers, the Media, and the Supernatural (Oxford University Press, 2003) and editor of Religion, Media, and the Marketplace (Rutgers, 2007). For more information, visit Lynn's website.
Dr. Emerich is a graduate of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and was the first Post-Doctoral Fellow with the Center for Media, Religion, and Culture. Her research focuses on the Healthy Living Industries and their media, with particular interest in how these media create and maintain rhetoric that links spirituality with issues of global economic sustainability. She is also interested in how Celtic Neo-Pagan groups use the Internet for purposes of political organization, worship and community building. A working journalist for 25 years for trade and consumer publications, her area of specialty is lifestyles of health and sustainability (LOHAS) including natural health, natural and organic products and agriculture, and socially responsible business practices.
A masters graduate from the Department of Religious Studies, Anne Marie is interested in Christian faith, media, and the working class, and intends to pursue doctoral study..
Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado, School of Journalism and Mass 
Communication, she joined the faculty in fall 2004 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received her PhD in Marketing. She is the author of "Roadside Retroscape: History and the Marketing of Tourism in the Middle of Nowhere," published in Time, Space, and the Market: Ecumenical Essays on the Rise of Retroscapes and has also published in the Journal of Consumer Research. She has presented numerous papers at national and international conferences and has written more than 25 histories of brand name products for the Encyclopedia of Consumer Brands. Most recently, her dissertation won the Association for Consumer Research-Sheth Foundation Dissertation Award for its exploration of social conflicts that surround the marketing of undesirable products. A former theater and dance critic for the Chicago Reader, Troester Nunez has a Diplome de Langue Francaise (Troisieme Degree) from Alliance Francaise, Paris, and a BA from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Dr. Diane Alters
Curriculum Vita
Dr. Alters is an award-winning journalist who was Assistant City Editor at the 
Denver Post and is now a free-lance author and journalist. A graduate of the doctoral program in media studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Diane is a co-author of Media, Home, and Family, and has published scholarly articles and book chapters on identity issues and the application of social theory to case studies. Prior to her doctoral studies, Diane had been a reporter or editor at several newspapers, including The Boston Globe, The Sacramento Bee, and The Colorado Springs Gazette. At The Globe, she covered the presidential campaign of George Bush in 1988.
Dr. Webber manages a company focused on market research. A Ph.D. graduate of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of 
Colorado at Boulder, Scott has published on lower-income families and the introduction of ICTs into their homes and has also conducted ethnographic research exploring the use of computers and the Internet in elementary schools. He served as a project interviewer, analyst, co-author, and dissertation fellowship coordinator. After receiving an M.A. in Radio and Television from San Francisco State University in 1997, Scott returned to Southern California where he worked for two years in the prime-time television department of Creative Artists Agency in Beverly Hills and experienced the joy of low pay and long hours as a production assistant on the pilot episode of C-16, a short-lived television series that aired on ABC in 1997.
Dr. Demont-Heinrich is an Associate Professor at the University of Denver. As a
doctoral candidate at the CU-Boulder School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Christof served as an interviewer, analyst, and co-author. He is interested in the relation between media, identity, power, language and globalization and has published extensively on these issues. Prior to entering graduate school, Christof was a journalist for several different newspapers.
Dr. Russo is an Associate Researcher of the Center and a graduate of the doctoral program in media studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is based in Frankfurt, Germany, and is interested in questions of media and identity, particularly as they relate to families and children. As a doctoral student, she served on the project as an interviewer, analyst, and co-author.
Dr. Lustyik is an Assistant Professor at Ithaca College, New York. As a doctoral
candidate at the CU-Boulder School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Kati served as an analyst and co-author. She completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in New Zealand at Auckland University of Technology. She is interested in the relation between youth cultures and globalization and has published extensively on these issues. Prior to entering graduate school, Kati was a freelance journalist in Hungary.
Dr. Park is an Assistant Professor at Seoul Women's University and a graduate of the doctoral program at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Jin is interested in the relationships between the media and religion; religion as a component for audiences' cultural text reading; religioius and ethnic identity construction and media use; and audiences' religious use of the Internet. He served as a project interviewer and analyst. He holds a B.A. degree in Mass Communication from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, and an M.A. degree in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.
Michelle served as a project interviewer, analyst, and co-author for the research
efforts at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is interested in films and television programs that depict interracial relationships.
Denice served as a project interviewer and analyst for the research efforts at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is interested in practices of memorialization and the material and mediated artifacts that give these practices meaning for participants while also sustaining dominant ideological patterns in society.
Dr. Champ is an Assistant Professor at Colorado State University. Joe graduated from the University of Colorado's School of Journalism and Mass Communication in the spring of 2001. As a research team member, Joseph interviewed families with younger and older children. He specializes in the role of media in environmental meaning making. Before returning to school, Joseph spent ten years in broadcast television in the upper Midwest, working as a news reporter, photographer, anchor, and documentary producer.
Dr. Hood is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. As a research team member, Dr. Hood interviewed families with young children and contributed expertise in the interpretation of electronic news. She served as a co-author on Media, Home, and Family and presented several academic papers based on research team research. An Emmy award-winning news producer in Denver (KUSA) before returning to higher education, Lee has worked as a freelance producer and writer at KCNC in Denver and also has experience in radio and newspapers. She is currently conducting research on the impact of nationally owned radio stations on small local markets.
Colin is a Master's graduate in Media Studies who is now a PhD student at the University of Washington.
Dissertation Fellows
Post-Doctoral and Dissertation Fellowship Programs
The Doctoral Dissertation and Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program in Media, Religion, and Culture has now ended. The program was co-directed by Stewart M. Hoover and Lynn Schofield Clark, and throughout the course of the program, three different scholars served as fellowship coordinators and additional resource persons from the University of Colorado: Dr. Diane Alters, Dr. Scott Webber, and Dr. Monica Emerich. The program was funded through a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. from 2002 through 2007. Other resource persons throughout the life of this program included Eileen Barker, Ronald Grimes, Amir Hussain, Hamid Naficy, David Nord, Wade Clark Roof, Michele Rosenthal, Lynn Ross-Bryant, Brad Verter, Hillary Warren, Rhys Williams, Diane Winston, and Angela Zito.
Two books are being published as a result of this fellowship program:
Religion, Media, and the Marketplace, edited by Lynn Schofield Clark, Rutgers University Press, 2007
A book on media and religious authority, to be edited by Stewart M. Hoover, is forthcoming in late 2009.
Media, Religion, and Culture Fellows:
Fellows in Media, Religion, and Culture, 2006-2007:
Christine Kraemer, Boston University, Ph.D. candidate in Religion and Literature. Christine is studying alternative religion and sexuality in U.S. culture since 1960. She is examining works that celebrate the erotic as a key religious element, including works such as Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982), which is an autobiography by Audre Lorde; Angels in America (1992) a play and film by Tony Kushner; The Fifth Sacred Thing (1993), a novel by ecofeminist theologian Starhawk, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (1998, 2001), a play and film written, directed by, and starring John Cameron Mithcell, and Blankets (2003), a graphic novel by Craig Thompson. Her dissertation is under the direction of Susan Mizruchi.
Shazia Iftkhar, University of Wisconsin Madison, Ph.D. candidate in Communication. Shazia conducts research on the media representations of race, ethnicity, gender and religion in relation to question of nation, identity, and citizenship. Specifically, she is exploring the political, religious, and gender struggles at the heart of the French law forbidding the wearing of the Muslim headscarf, exploring the representation of these issues in local and international media. Her dissertation is under the direction of Hemant Shah.
Montre Aza Missouri, School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, Ph.D. candidate in Film Studies. Montre is exploring images of Yoruba spirituality and the construction of national identity in films categorized as third cinema, with a primary focus on independent Cuban, Brazilian and African American film, comparing representations of Yoruba spirituality in films from these areas with those of the Nigerian film-video industry and its treatment of indigenous spirituality. Her dissertation is under the direction of Isolde Standish.
Postdoctoral fellow, 2006-2007:
Monica Emerich, University of Colorado, Ph.D. in Media Studies. Monica's dissertation was titled, "The Spirituality of Sustainability: Healing the Self to Heal the World Through Healthy Living Media." During her postdoctoral fellowship year, Monica plans to develop her research into a book on the healthy living industries and their media. She will also work closely with the 2006-2007 fellows as an intellectual resource.
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Fellows in Media, Religion and Culture, 2005-2006:
Joon Seong Lee, Dept. of Telecommunications, Ohio University. Joon is studying digituality and governmentality, examining new Korean funeral culture, particularly looking at computer-mediated rituals, issues of the Self, and implications for feminine empowerment/standing.
Katherine Meizel, Dept. of Music, University of California, Santa Barbara. Katherine is studying the performance of personal and civil religion in the televised singing competition American Idol, particularly examining this in the context of post-9/11 anxieties about faith, patriotism, and morality in the United States.
Emily Zeamer, Dept. of Social Anthropology, Harvard University. Emily is studying the origins and ideological effects of the establishment of single-sex communities of renunciate Buddhist women in contemporary Thai society, focusing particularly on the tension between ideas about new media and technologies and Buddhist tradition.
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Fellows in Media, Religion, and Culture, 2004-2005:
Alexandra Boutros, McGill University, Ph.D. in Cultural Studies. Alex studied the ways that voudun culture has migrated from the Caribbean to diasporic communities in Canada and beyond as a result of the rise in popularity of the culture’s music. She was interested in how these movements of culture changed and informed the identification practices of those in diasporic communities and those who sympathize with their political concerns. Her dissertation was under the direction of Will Straw. She is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at New York University.
Mark Elmore, University of California, Santa Barbara, Ph.D. in Religious Studies. Mark studied South Asian Hindu practices of animal sacrifice and the ways in which local officials negotiated between local preferences for certain rituals and the demands and expectations of a tourist-driven economy. His dissertation was under the direction of Mary Hancock.
Bahiyyih Watson Maroon, University of California, Santa Cruz, Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology. “B” conducted research on the introduction of cybercafes into the former coffeehouse culture of urban Morrocco, exploring how Muslims negotiated issues of gender and morality in relation to the emergent public sphere that arose as a result of cyberculture. Her dissertation was under the direction of Melissa Caldwell.
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Fellows in Media, Religion, and Culture, 2003-2004:
Maryellen Davis, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Ph.D. in Religious History. Maryellen studied the construction and use of Marian imagery for inspirational and political purposes in various militia organizations from the early 20th century to the present. Her dissertation was under the direction of Tom Tweed. She is now an Assistant Professor at Lewis University in Illinois.
Lee Gilmore, Graduate Theological Union, San Francisco, Ph.D. in Theology. Lee studied the popular Burning Man festival, drawing upon her insider knowledge as a former volunteer worker in the media relations part of the festival. She examined how the festival workers attempted to control the images of the event, and how media professionals framed the event in ways that sometimes echoed, and at other times challenged, the organizers’ preferred interpretations of the happenings at Black Rock City. She is now an Instructor at Chabot College in California.
Regina Marchi, University of California, San Diego, Ph.D. in Communication. Regina studied Day of the Dead traditions as they migrated to the U.S. from various countries in Central and South America, exploring how the media covered these events, how various groups attempted to marshal these public rituals for political purposes, and how the rise of Day of the Dead chic in art galleries around the country participates in widening and changing the ritual for a broader audience. Her dissertation was directed by Chandra Mukerji. She is now an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University.
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Fellows in Media, Religion, and Culture, 2002-2003:
Phyllis Alsdurf, University of Minnesota, Ph.D. in Communication. Phyllis conducted research on the history of Christianity Today magazine. Her dissertation was under the direction of Hazel Dickens-Garcia. She is now an Assistant Professor at Bethel University in Minnesota.
Anne L. Borden, Emory University, Ph.D. in Sociology. Anne conducted research on the rise of Christian bookselling and the ways in which various workers in the Christian retail industry negotiate the tensions between evangelism and selling. Her dissertation was under the direction of Timothy Dowd. She is now an Assistant Professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.
Ferruh Yilmaz, University of Califonia, San Diego. Ferruh’s dissertation focused on the role of the Danish press in creating a discourse that collapsed issues of immigration and Muslims in ways that reinforced discrimination against Muslims. His dissertation was under the direction of Dan Hallin.