Heidi Campbell
Associate Professor
Department of Communication
Texas A&M University
Dr. Campbell’s teaching and research centers on the social shaping of technology, rhetoric of new media, and themes related to the intersection of media religion and culture, with a special interest in the internet and mobile phones. Her books include Exploring Religious Community Online: We are one in the network (Peter Lang, 2005) looking at how members of online religious communities connect their online and offline social-religious networks and When Religion Meets New Media (Routledge, 2010) investigating Jewish, Muslim & Christian communities’ historic perceptions and contemporary use of media technologies. Her current research looks at how bounded communities domesticate the internet in light of their social values or core beliefs and the relationship between online religious authority and established, offline institutions and hierarchies.
Jeremy Stolow
Associate Professor
Department of Communication Studies
Concordia University, Montréal, Canada.
Dr. Stolow’s research focuses on religion and media, culture and technology, and globalization studies. His work has appeared in Theory, Culture & Society, Utopian Studies, Topia, and in edited anthologies on religion and culture. His most recent book, Orthodox by Design, a groundbreaking exploration of religion and media, examines ArtScroll, the world’s largest Orthodox Jewish publishing house. Synthesizing field research conducted in three local Jewish scenes where ArtScroll books have had an impact—Toronto, London, and New York—along with close readings of key ArtScroll texts, promotional materials, and the Jewish blogosphere, he shows how the use of these books reflects a broader cultural shift in the authority and public influence of Orthodox Judaism. His edited volume, Deus in Machina: Exploring Religion and Technology in Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspective, is forthcoming in 2012.
Juliana Rotich
Founder and Executive Director of Ushahidi
Ms. Rotich is a writer, blogger and the environment editor of Global Voices Online. She is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of
Ushahidi Inc, a non-profit tech company, born in Africa, which specializes in developing free and open source software for information collection, interactive mapping and data curation. Ushahidi builds tools for democratizing information, increasing transparency and lowering the barriers for individuals to share their stories. Ms. Rotich has worked in the telecommunications and data warehousing industry for over ten years. She is originally from Kenya, with a Computer Science degree from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. She is a Technologist, African Futurist and TED Senior Fellow. She co- founded Mobisoko, a mobile marketplace for language and location relevant apps in Africa. She speaks at international conferences about technology, innovation, mobile technology, open source, and Africa.
Religion Dispatches (Panel)
Lisa Webster, Editor of Religion Dispatches
Evan Derkacz, Editor of Religion Dispatches
Religion Dispatches is an online religion magazine based at Emory University and devoted to exploring the intersections of religion, values, and public life, nationally and globally. It aims to provide a platform for expert, critical exploration of religion in the contemporary world for a general readership. The goal of RD is to inform public debate by analyzing and critically engaging the role of religion and values on the most vital issues of our time. This will involve bringing a wider spectrum of perspectives into the conversation, especially voices that have been marginalized in most media, and increasing attention to progressive expressions of religion and values. Religion Dispatches provides information and analysis, and critical and constructive perspectives on public issues that explicitly or implicitly intersect with religion and values. It aims to foster thoughtful, informed, and engaged reflection on religion that is too often missing from the public debate. It exemplifies a form of public scholarship and reflection that contributes to a broad conversation on religion that respects multiple voices and avoids becoming an extension of singular political interests.
Jason Anthony
Senior Editor at Time Inc.
Writer and Game Designer
Anthony’s work has been focused on religion and ritual as praxis. His articles about religion have appeared in the Christian Century, Washington Post and Boston Review among other places. His games, including Shabbat-Put! and Sacrifice Play have been staged in the U.S. and U.K., and earlier this year he staged a fully-gamed church service at Union Theological Seminary. His largest project to date is the Ten Year Game, a fully-gamed new religion to start in the fall of 2011.
