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Brian C. Wilson
Professor American Religious History Department of Comparative Religion 2011 Moore Hall Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, MI 49008 (269) 387-4361 wilsonb2[at]wmich[dot]edu |
Education
Professor Wilson earned a B.S.
in Medical Microbiology from Stanford University (1982), and, after a
stint in the Peace Corps (Honduras, Dominican Republic [1982-1986]),
went on to earn an M.A. in Hispanic Studies from the Monterey Institute
of International Studies (1990) and an M.A./Ph.D. in Religious Studies
from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1991/1996).
Courses
Professor Wilson routinely
teaches Religion 3015: Christianity
in the United States for undergraduates; and Religion 6000: Classics in Theory and
Method and Religion 6100:
Contemporary Theory and Method for graduate students. In Spring,
2012, Professor Wilson will be teaching Religion 4500: Capstone Seminar for Majors and
a graduate
reading course on Comparative
Philosophy of Religion. Next year, he will be offering two new
courses, Religion 3145: New Religious
Movements and Religion
3200: Theologies and Cosmologies.
Current Research Projects
Professor Wilson's areas of
interest include religion in America, with an emphasis on religion in
the Midwest, religion in the Yankee Diaspora, and 19th-century New
Religious Movements; and theory and method in the academic study of
religion. He is currently working on the following research projects:
• The Battle for Battle Creek: Sectarian Conflict in the Yankee Diaspora (book project)
• “Liberal Education and the Academic Study of Religion” (article project)
• The Heart of the Heartland: A Religious History of the Midwest (book project)
Some Recent Publications
• Yankees in Michigan (Discovering the Peoples of Michigan) (Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2008).
• “Religion in the Great Lakes Region” in Charles Lippy and Peter Williams (eds.), Encyclopedia of Religion in America (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2010): 921-29.
PROFESSOR WILSON'S CV