Overview

I am a lecturer in anthropology, specialising in environmental and medical anthropology and the anthropology of religion. Within Exeter University, I am an affiliate of the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health, Egenis the Centre for the Study of the Life Sciences, the Magic Centre, and the Global Systems Institute. My first book, Ripples of the Universe: Spirituality in Sedona, Arizona, was published in May 2021 by the University of Chicago Press. It was a Finalist for the American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion, Analytic-Descriptive Studies in 2022. I am currently working on a second book, a multi-sited ethnography of climate change. My next research project will examine the ethics and politics of conspiracy theories in south-west England. 

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Research

Environmental anthropology - climate change, 'anthropocene', oceans, forest fires

Medical anthropology - opposition to vaccination, wellness and 'alternative health' practices, naturopathy, public understanding of medicine

Anthropology of religion - new age spirituality, conspiracy theories, 'belief', Christian nationalism, shamanism, new religious movements

Digital ethnography - methodologies, online extremism, social media, disinformation

Field sites - Arizona, Missouri and Louisiana in the USA, Belgium, Sweden, and UK

Research group links

• Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences
• Centre for Magic and Esotericism

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Supervision

 I am happy to receive enquiries from students regarding any of my research areas

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Publications

_{Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.}

| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2011 | 2010 |

2023

• Crockford S. (2023) That Which They Will Not See: Climate Denial as a Vector of Epistemological Crisis in the Contemporary United States, Ethnos, pages 1-21, DOI:10.1080/00141844.2023.2242599. [PDF]
• Samanani F, Crockford S, Knight DM, Stensrud C, Daswani G, Tuters M, Chaviara I. (2023) Animating Irony, Public Culture, volume 35, no. 2, pages 191-206, DOI:10.1215/08992363-10575859. [PDF]

2022

• Crockford S. (2022) Religion, Space, and Environment, Theory and Method: The Basics, Bloomsbury.
• Crockford S. (2022) Conspiracy Theories as Religion: Strange Beliefs, Alternate Universes, and the Re-emergence of ‘Cult’ Discourse, New Religious Movements in North America, Bloomsbury.
• Crockford S. (2022) Searching for the Forest among the Trees, Nova Religio, volume 25, no. 3, pages 113-118, DOI:10.1525/nr.2022.25.3.113. [PDF]
• Crockford S. (2022) How to manifest abundance: money and the rematerialization of exchange in Sedona, Arizona, USA, JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, DOI:10.1111/1467-9655.13772. [PDF]

2021

• Crockford S. (2021) What Do Jade Eggs Tell Us about the Category “Esotericism”? Spirituality, Neoliberalism, Secrecy, and Commodities, Supplements to Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 201-216, DOI:10.1163/9789004446458_012.
• Crockford S. (2021) Starseeds, Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion, 403-422, DOI:10.1163/9789004435537_021.
• Crockford S. (2021) Ripples of the Universe Spirituality in Sedona, Arizona, University of Chicago Press.
• Caracciolo M, Crockford S, Lambert S, Ulstein G. (2021) Phenomenology of Everyday Climate: An Ethnographic Approach to Metaphor, Affect, and the Nonhuman, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, volume 30, no. 2, pages 353-376, DOI:10.1093/isle/isab006. [PDF]

2020

• Crockford S. (2020) The Work of Ocean Sciences, Scientists, and Technologies in Producing the Sea as Space, Environment and Society: Advances in Research, volume 11, no. 1, pages 64-81, DOI:10.3167/ares.2020.110105.

2019

• Crockford S. (2019) Spells of belonging, Journal of Legal Anthropology, volume 3, no. 2, pages 128-131, DOI:10.3167/jla.2019.030210.
• Crockford S. (2019) Becoming a being of pure consciousness fasting and new age spirituality, Nova Religio, volume 23, no. 1, pages 38-59, DOI:10.1525/nr.2019.23.1.38.

2018

• Crockford S. (2018) A Mercury Retrograde Kind of Day: Exploring Astrology in Contemporary New Age Spirituality and American Social Life, Correspondences, volume 6:1, pages 47-75.
• Crockford S, Asprem E. (2018) Ethnographies of the Esoteric: Introducing Anthropological Methods and Theories to the Study of Contemporary Esotericism, Correspondences, volume 6:1, pages 1-23.
• Crockford S. (2018) Thank God for the greatest country on earth: white supremacy, vigilantes, and survivalists in the struggle to define the American nation, Religion, State and Society, volume 46, no. 3, pages 224-242, DOI:10.1080/09637494.2018.1483995.
• Crockford S. (2018) How do you know when you're in a cult? The continuing influence of peoples temple and jonestown in contemporary minority religions and popular culture, Nova Religio, volume 22, no. 2, pages 93-114, DOI:10.1525/nr.2018.22.2.93.

2011

• Crockford S. (2011) Entering the crack between the worlds: Symbolism in Western Shamanism, Pomegranate, volume 13, no. 2, pages 184-204, DOI:10.1558/pome.v13i2.184.

2010

• Crockford S. (2010) Shamanisms and the authenticity of religious experience, Pomegranate, volume 12, no. 2, pages 139-158, DOI:10.1558/pome.v12i2.139.

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External impact and engagement

Media

• TV4 Sweden documentary, interview 2024
• Sacred and Profane podcast, interview 2022
• Straight White American Jesus podcast, interview 2021
• Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology podcast, 2 pt interview 2021
• Straight White American Jesus podcast, interview 2021
• Classical Ideas podcast, interview 2021
• The Religious Studies Project, podcast, panel discussion 2019
• BBC Radio Wales, “All Things Considered,” radio broadcast, panel discussion (file available on request) 2018
• The Religious Studies Project, podcast, interview 2018
• LSE US Centre, “The Ballpark Podcast,” interview 2018
• LSE US Centre, “The Ballpark Podcast,” interview 2017
• CNN India, “The UK Edition,” television broadcast, interview 2017
   

Public Scholarship

• “From Civil Rights Liberals to New Age Conspiracy Theorists — What Betty And Barney Hill’s Alien Abduction Story Reveals About America,” Religion Dispatches, 2023
• “Pelosi Attacker’s New Age Spirituality and Belief in QAnon is No Contradiction,” Religion Dispatches, 2022
• "Conspiracy EP." Contribution to Machines in Between by John Lardas Modern, a Henry Luce Foundation funded project, 2023
• “Fireways: Entanglements Of Fire, People, And Environment In The Coconino National Forest, USA.” EnviroSociety, the online publication of the journal Environment and Society, 2022
• “Where the Path of Denial Leads.” Contending Modernities, the online publication of the Keogh School of Global Affairs, University of Notre-Dame, 2022
• "Whose House? Their House: Just Who Was Held Accountable for the 1/6 Insurrection is Telling." Religion Dispatches, 2022
• "The Power of Belief in Conspiracy Theories." Sightings, the online publication of the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, University of Chicago Divinity School, 2021
• “The ‘Health Freedom Movement’ Enters the Covid Era by Disseminating Medical Disinformation.” Religion Dispatches, 2021
• “Q Shaman’s New Age-Radical Right Blend Hints at the Blurring of Seemingly Disparate Categories.” Religion Dispatches, 2021
• “How ‘Positivity’ Can Lead to Conspiratorial Thinking.” Religion Dispatches, 2021
• “Orders of Nature, Norms of Order.” The Immanent Frame, a digital publication of the Social Science Research Council, 2020
• “How Can We Learn When We Have No Future?” Footnotes, 2020
• “Currents of Knowledge, Waves of Grief in Ocean Science.” Counterpoint: Navigating Knowledge, 2020
• “When is a Psychic or a Witch a Fraud? Reflections on Religious Fraud Investigations in North America.” The Religion Factor, 2018
• “What It Means to Deny Climate Change.” Counterpoint: Navigating Knowledge, 2018
• “‘Better than the Walmart Parking Lot’: Valle, Arizona Epitomizes the Extreme Poverty that is the Dark Side of the American Dream.” LSE US Centre, 2018
• “Visa Overstayers in Northern Arizona Reveal Complex Motivation Behind Undocumented Migration.” LSE US Centre, 2017
• “Why Building a Wall on the U.S.-Mexico Border is a Symbolic Monument not Sensible Immigration Policy.” LSE US Centre, 2017
• “Surviving with Guns in Rural Arizona.” Anthropology News, online version, 2016

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Teaching

Modules taught

• ANT1009 - Theories and Approaches in Anthropology
• ANT2111 - Climate Change in Global and Local Perspectives
• ANT2112 - When Things Fall Apart: Social Infrastructures
• ANT2113 - Social Media, Disinformation and Authoritarianism

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Biography

University of Exeter, Lecturer, 2022-

Ghent University, Belgium, Post-doctoral Reseacher, 2018-2020

London School of Economics and Political Science, PhD, 2011-2017

University of Amsterdam, MA, 2008-2010

University of Cambridge, MA, 2000-2003

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