Writer and professor of religious studies
Diana Walsh Pasulka is an American writer and professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Education.
Pasulka has a B.A. from University of California, Davis, an M.A. from Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from Syracuse University.
Career.
Her research focuses on religion and technology. Her books include "Heaven Can Wait", which discusses purgatory's location and materiality, and "American Cosmic", which explores belief in UFOs and extraterrestrial life and how it has changed traditional religions.
Sean Illing at "Vox" described "American Cosmic" as not "so much about the truth of UFOs or aliens as it is about what the appeal of belief in those things says about our culture and the shifting roles of religion and technology in it. On the surface, it's a book about the popularity of belief in aliens, but it's really a deep look at how myths and religions are created in the first place and how human beings deal with unexplainable experiences." "Foreword Reviews" states, ""American Cosmic" is a superb investigation into the birth and rise of a new religion".
Pasulka was principal investigator for the Teaching American History Grant which ran for three years from 2009. She also acts as a consultant for movies about the Catholic and religious supernatural (such as "The Conjuring"). She was Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Carolina Wilmington from 2015 until 2019, where she is currently professor of religious studies.
Personal life.
Pasulka is a practicing Roman Catholic, yet grew up in a secular family in California with a Jewish mother and Irish Roman Catholic father. As of 2023, she is the mother of five teenagers.
References.
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