Sarah M. Pike

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}}

{{Infobox academic|name=Sarah M. Pike|honorific_suffix=|occupation=professor, Author, and Scholar|education=PhD, (with distinction) Religious Studies, Indiana University (PhD minor, Women's Studies), 1998

MA, Religious Studies, Indiana University Bloomington, 1989

BA, cum laude, Religion, Duke University, 1983|alma_mater=Indiana University, Duke University|doctoral_advisor=Robert Orsi|discipline=Comparative Religion|workplaces=California State University, Chico}}

File:Chico CA - California State University Chico.jpg campus site.]]Sarah M. Pike is an American author and professor of comparative religion in the Department of Religious studies at California State University, Chico.{{Cite web|url=https://www.indiana.edu/~iucweb/wonderandthenaturalworld/program/invited-speakers/|title=Invited Speakers {{!}} Wonder and the Natural World|access-date=5 December 2018}}{{Cite journal|last=Dahill|first=Lisa E.|date=October 24, 2018|title=For the Wild: Ritual and Commitment in Radical Eco-Activism by Sarah M. Pike (review)|journal=Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality|volume=18|issue=2|pages=271–274|doi=10.1353/scs.2018.0038|s2cid=150221375 |issn=1535-3117}} Her interests include paganism, environmentalism, religion and ecology, and ritual studies. Her research on neopaganism and radical environmentalism has been lauded as being significant to the study of festival and group behaviour.{{Cite journal|last1=Noonan|first1=Kerry|last2=Pike|first2=Sarah M.|year=2002|title=Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community|journal=Western Folklore|volume=61|issue=1|pages=97|doi=10.2307/1500290|issn=0043-373X|jstor=1500290|doi-access=free}} She is the president of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, co-chair of the American Academy of Religion, Ritual Studies Group, and director of the California State University, Chico Humanities Center.{{Cite book|last=Morgan|first=David|editor-first1=David |editor-last1=Morgan |date=June 30, 2008|title=Key Words in Religion, Media and Culture|doi=10.4324/9780203894071|isbn=9780203894071}}{{Citation|last=Santoro|first=Anthony|chapter=Unsilent Partners|date=January 27, 2015|pages=240–266|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199361793|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199361793.003.0011|title=Religion and the Marketplace in the United States}}

Education

Pike completed her Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in Religion at Duke University in 1983. She earned her Master of Arts and PhD (with distinction) in Religious studies from Indiana University Bloomington in 1989 and 1998 respectively.{{Citation|last=Bromley|first=David G.|chapter=Teaching New Religious Movements/Learning from New Religious Movements|date=June 1, 2007|pages=3–26|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195177299|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177299.003.0001|title=Teaching New Religious Movements}} Her doctoral advisor was Robert Orsi.{{Cite book|title=Earthly bodies, magical selves : contemporary pagans and the search for community|author=Pike, Sarah M.|date=2001|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0520220300|oclc=464069681|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/earthlybodiesmag00pike}} During her time at Indiana University Bloomington, Pike extensively observed and involved herself within local (Midwestern) neopagan communities and gatherings as part of her field research.{{Cite journal|last=Anderson|first=Kristin L.|date=September 2001|title="Not to People Like Us": Hidden Abuse in Upscale Marriages. By Susan Weitzman. New York: Basic Books, 2000. Pages v+289. $26.00.|journal=American Journal of Sociology|volume=107|issue=2|pages=545–547|doi=10.1086/343187|issn=0002-9602}}

Publications

=Books=

Pike's most recent book titled For the Wild: Ritual and Commitment in Radical Eco-Activism{{Cite book|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/706857/pdf|title=For the wild : ritual and commitment in radical eco-activism (review)|journal=Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality|volume=18|issue=2|last=Pike|first=Sarah M.|publisher=University of California Press|year=2017|isbn=9780520294950|location=Oakland, California|pages=271–274|oclc=980346822|doi=10.1353/scs.2018.0038|s2cid=150221375 }} covers issues regarding the demonization of radical environmentalists and how religious studies translate into nature and ecology. She explores the motivations for those who partake in risky and illegal behaviour to protest against the destruction of natural habitats and forestry. Her first book, Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves, primarily focuses on neopagan festival behaviours including witchcraft, magic, Spiritualist gatherings, as well as individual and group identity.{{Cite journal|journal = Western Folklore|volume = 61|issue = 1|pages = 97–99|jstor = 1500290|last1 = Noonan|first1 = Kerry|title = Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community|last2 = Pike|first2 = Sarah M.|year = 2002|doi = 10.2307/1500290|doi-access = free}} In her book, New Age and Neopagan Religions in America, Pike sees members of neopagan religions as placing high emphasis on ritual practice as a way of shaping individual and group identities, having significant connections with nature, and understanding God as a living entity.{{Cite book|title=The making of an American Shinto community|last=Sarah.|first=Spaid Ishida|date=2008|publisher=University of Florida|oclc=664031265}}

  • Pike, Sarah M. (2017) For the Wild: Ritual and Commitment in Radical Eco-Activism, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. {{ISBN|9780520294950}}
  • Pike, Sarah M. (2004) New Age and Neopagan Religions in America, New York: Columbia University Press. {{ISBN|0231124023}}
  • Pike, Sarah M. (2001) Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. {{ISBN|9780520923805}}

=Selected articles and book chapters=

Pike has written several articles and book chapters on topics such as Burning Man, neopaganism, rituals, environmentalism, youth spirituality, New religious movement and animal rights activism. Her work also includes Wiccan ritual practices pertaining to sexuality, polyamory, and marriage.{{Cite book|title=Wiccan Marriage and American Marriage Law: Interactions|last=Marie|first=Carda, Jeanelle|date=November 19, 2008|publisher=ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University|oclc=1011131010}}

class="wikitable"

|+

!Year

!Journal/Book

!Article/Chapter

2018

|Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Nature, edited by Laura Hobgood and Whitney Bauman. London: Bloomsbury.

|"Feral Becoming and Environmentalism's Primal Future”

2016

|Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture

|"Mourning Nature: The Work of Grief in Radical Environmentalism”{{Cite journal|last=Pike|first=Sarah M.|date=November 21, 2016|title=Mourning Nature: The Work of Grief in Radical Environmentalism |journal=Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=419–441 |doi=10.1558/jsrnc.v10i4.30627 |issn=1749-4907}}

2016

|Spiritualizing the City: Agency and Resilience of the Urbanesque Habitat, edited by Victoria Hegner and Peter Jan Margry (New York: Routledge){{Cite book|title=Spiritualizing the City : Agency and Resilience of the Urban and Urbanesque Habitat.|last=Victoria.|first=Hegner|date=2016|publisher=Taylor and Francis|isbn=9781317396697|oclc=965157439}}

|"The Dance Floor as Urban Altar: How Ecstatic Dancers Transform the Lived Experience of Cities”

2014

|Social Science Research Council Forum, [http://forums.ssrc.org/ndsp/2014/04/04/sweating-our-prayers-in-dance-church/ “Reverberations: New Directions in the Study of Prayer."]{{Cite book|title=Reverberations : new directions in the study of prayer.|last=Organ.|first=Social Science Research Council (USA) Herausgebendes|oclc=1045370993}}

|"Sweating Our Prayers in Dance Church"

2014

|Religion and the Marketplace in the U.S., edited by Detlef Junker, Jan Stievermann, and Philip Goff. London and New York: Oxford University Press

|"Selling Infinite Selves: Youth Culture and Contemporary Festivals”

2013

|Social Science Research Council Forum, [http://forums.ssrc.org/ndsp/2013/05/14/prayer-and-presence-in-unexpected-places/ “Reverberations: New Directions in the Study of Prayer.”]

|"Prayer and Presence in Unexpected Places”

2012

|The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the American News Media, edited by Diane Winston. London and New York: Oxford University Press{{Cite book|date=August 29, 2012|editor-last=Winston|editor-first=Diane|title=The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the American News Media|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195395068.001.0001|isbn=9780195395068}}

|"Witchcraft Since the 1960s”

2011

|Children and Religion: A Methods Handbook, edited by Susan B. Ridgely. New York: New York University Press{{Cite book|title=The study of children in religions : a methods handbook|last=Bales)|first=Ridgely, Susan B. (Susan|date=2011|publisher=New York University Press|isbn=9780814777466|oclc=756642789}}

|"Religion and Youth Culture”

2010

|God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture, edited by Katherine McCarthy and Eric Mazur. New York: Routledge, Inc.{{Cite book|last=Mazur|first=Eric|editor-first1=Eric |editor-first2=Kate |editor-last1=Mazur |editor-last2=McCarthy |date=October 4, 2010|title=God in the Details|doi=10.4324/9780203854808|isbn=9780203854808}}

|"Desert Goddesses and Apocalyptic Art: Making Sacred Space at the Burning Man Festival"

2010

|Weinhold, J. & Samuel G. (eds.) "The Varieties of Ritual Experience," in Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual. Volume II – Body, Performance, Agency and Experience, ed. by Axel Michaels et al. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz{{Cite book|title=Body, performance, agency, and experience|last=Germany)|first=International Conference "Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual" (2008 : Heidelberg|date=2010|publisher=Harrassowitz|isbn=9783447062022|oclc=711612980}}

|"Performing Grief in Formal and Informal Rituals at the Burning Man Festival”

2009

|Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 77: 647–672.

|"Dark Teens and Born-Again Martyrs: Captivity Narratives After Columbine”{{Cite journal|last=Pike|first=S. M.|date=September 1, 2009|title=Dark Teens and Born-again Martyrs: Captivity Narratives after Columbine|journal=Journal of the American Academy of Religion|volume=77|issue=3|pages=647–679|doi=10.1093/jaarel/lfp038|pmid=20681084 |issn=0002-7189}}

2008

|Key Words in the Study of Media and Religion, edited by David Morgan. New York: Routledge

|"Religion”

2006

|Teaching New Religious Movements, edited by David G. Bromley. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press

|"Men and Women in New Religious Movements: Constructing Alternative Gender Roles”

2004

|Researching Paganisms, edited by Jenny Blain, Doug Ezzy and Graham Harvey. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press{{Cite journal|last=Hjelm|first=Titus|date=January 2006|title=Researching Paganisms – Edited by Jenny Blain, Douglas Ezzy, and Graham Harvey|journal=Religious Studies Review|volume=32|issue=1|pages=25|doi=10.1111/j.1748-0922.2006.00024_3.x|issn=0319-485X}}

|"Gleanings from the Field: Leftover Tales of Grief and Desire”

Awards and recognition

=Selected position=

  • board of directors, American Academy of Religion
  • board of directors, International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture{{Cite web|url=https://www.tf.uio.no/english/research/projects/redo/partnere/pike.html|title=Sarah M. Pike – The Faculty of Theology|last1=Phone|first1=Visiting address Domus TheologicaBlindernveien 9 0371 OSLO Norway Mail address P. O. Box 1023 Blindern NO-0315 OSLO Norway|last2=fax|website=tf.uio.no|access-date=5 December 2018}}
  • Chair, American Academy of Religion's Committee for the Public Understanding of Religion
  • Chair, Department of Comparative Religion and Humanities, California State University, Chico{{Cite book|title=The Bloomsbury handbook of religion and nature : the elements|last=editor.|first=Hobgood-Oster, Laura, 1964– editor. Bauman, Whitney|isbn=9781350046825|oclc=985072503}}

=Awards=

class="wikitable"

!Year

!Award/Grant

2015

|Visiting Scholar, University of Oslo

2013 to 2017

|Norwegian Research Council multiyear grant for international collaborative project

1999

|American Academy of Religion Individual Research Grant to aid in publication of Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves.

See also

References