Research in religion, sports, popular culture, technology
Leila Johnston from HackCircus interviewed Eric Olsen, Paul Graham Raven, and myself for her How to live forever podcast on 28 August 2015. The podcast is part of her art project How to life forever funded by Brighton Digital Festival, Arts Council England, and the British Science Foundation. Read more about the podcast and listen to it.
CrossFit is a fitness regime that has attracted a number of Christian athletes over the past few years. Some of these athletes bear witness to their faith with and through their bodies. Rich Froning, the four time winner of the annual CrossFit Games, for example, has “Galatians 6:14” (“May I never boast except in the Read more about Suffering in, for, and with Christ: Faithful CrossFit Bodies. 30 Sept 2015 @ Université de Strasbourg[…]
This blogpost explores the sport of CrossFit as meaningful material practice via the use and display of t-shirts. It offers a unique case study and encourages us to look at the domain of sport with new eyes, one where materials, artefacts and practices are simultaneously part of the mundane world but also transcend the ordinary Read more about Clothed with Strength: Meaningful Material Practices in the Sport of CrossFit[…]
Technological imaginaries are not confined to the imaginary realm, dreams, or narratives but what we imagine and how we imagine impacts our lived experiences and our practices. In an essay on “The Real Consequences of Imaginary Sex Acts”, Brett Lunceford argues that imagined, labeled, and named sex acts are more than mere fantasy. “My contention Read more about The Circuit of Technological Imaginaries: A Theoretical Approach[…]
In this presentation, I will look at the sport of CrossFit from the perspective of “material religion”. A written and extended version of this talk will appear in the Material Religions Blog shortly.
Death is a staple of human existence and it should come as no surprise that throughout history, human communities have developed narratives and practices to cope with death and imagine and enact a possible afterlife. Today, one arena where such narratives are acted out is popular culture and science fiction film. Transhumanists have a vested Read more about Visions of the Afterlife and Transhumanist Wet Dreams[…]
Commun(icat)ing Bodies. Body as a Medium in Religious Symbol Systems As a basic medium of human interaction, the body is fundamental to socio-cultural communication systems, in particular the communication system «religion». Over time, religious traditions – in all their various cultural and historical forms and incarnations – have developed elaborated symbolic systems with the body Read more about New book: Commun(icat)ing Bodies[…]
Fit Enough for Faith? Sports, Religion, and Values in the CrossFit Community CrossFit is a strength routine with the aim to develop a ‘broad, general and inclusive fitness’. While the workouts can be done alone, CrossFit emphasizes community and encourages working out together. In fact, this spirit of ‘togetherness’ and encouraging each other to complete Read more about Fit Enough for Faith? 26 Feb 2104 @ Univ of Hull[…]
In my Avatars, Cyborgs, and Ordinary Human(s)/Beings module, I tried to find new was to engage students with course content and one another, I decided to replace the more traditional 10-20min oral presentation (where one student talks and the rest more often than not does not pay attention) I had in the syllabus with a conference Read more about Conference Posters in the Classroom[…]
Abstract: Gender and technology might seem unrelated on first sight because technology is often considered a neutral other that does not have anything to do with gender. Yet, taking a closer look at the language we use to talk about technology, at the images we rely on to represent technology, its uses and users, it Read more about It’s all about Sex. The Peculiar Case of Technology and Gender[…]