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About Jeff
Jeff Wheatley (he/him) is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Iowa State University. He studies religion, culture, and politics with a historical focus on the United States. He first joined the AAR in 2012 and received an Individual Research Grant in 2024.
What is your area of expertise or field of study?
I research and teach religion, culture, and politics with a historical focus on the United States. My current book project is about how intellectuals, ministers, and government officials developed the concept of religious fanaticism in efforts to govern marginalized communities in the nineteenth century. I have several emerging projects, including a cultural history of hate, the role of games in the Catholic imagination, and the rise of cult simulator video games. The latter two are related to my role helping create an interdisciplinary game design major at Iowa State University.
Why did you get involved with AAR and how is your work aligned?
My first AAR annual meeting was in Baltimore in 2013, when I, a green MA student, gave a presentation to a packed room. I was nervous, and my paper, unsurprisingly, was not the best! But the support and constructive criticism I received from fellow graduate students and faculty endeared me to the AAR and its meetings. More broadly, I appreciate the AAR for its role in advocating for the civic value of religious literacy and the academic study of religion in a time of duress.
What is your favorite AAR member benefit, and how has it helped your career? This might include access to our grants, award programs, and/or various research tools; opportunities to promote your scholarship through our official channels; networking and mentoring; career training through Beyond the Professoriate; and discounts on travel, transportation, and office supplies.
I have been fortunate to have received a number of grants from the AAR. As a PhD student at Northwestern University, the AAR awarded my graduate colleagues and I with a Regional Development Grant for the conference Sovereignty & Strangeness. Another Regional Development Grant made possible a symposium on Religion in Public at Iowa State University in 2022. The symposium, which I hosted along with Cara Burnidge, Sarah Dees, and Michael Graziano, brought together Scholars of American Religion in Iowa (SOARIA) to share opportunities and challenges in our teaching and research. In Summer 2024, an AAR Individual Research Grant allowed me to conduct archival research at The Huntington Library as I was working to finish a chapter in my book on religious insanity in nineteenth-century psychiatry and law. All of these helped me advance my research and form new connections with scholars in the field.
What is one piece of advice you’d give to a first-time Annual Meeting attendee?
Make time to rest or explore the city beyond the conference. If you want to meet with a particular scholar, you should contact them ahead of time to see if they are available for a chat. Receptions are great opportunities to meet new folks. Most important: drink water!
What book is on your nightstand that you’re reading or intend to read in the future?
In terms of nonfiction, I am reading Manisha Sinha’s The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920. Sinha is one of the best contemporary historians at synthesizing new waves of scholarship into broad historical narratives that still contain her own style and arguments. In terms of fiction, I am re-reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Shelley and her imaginative story-telling remains astounding.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I watch basketball and play frisbee with my blue heeler Finney. (Yes—his name was inspired by the revivalist Charles Finney…). In part due to my involvement with the role of the humanities in game studies and design, I am investing and enjoying more time with video games and board games. For video games, I am currently playing the 2006 Japanese tactics game Jeanne D’Arc, in which you play as Joan of Arc fighting against the English, who are represented as literally demonic (!). Beyond the enjoyable gameplay, it is a fascinating Japanese cultural interpretation of Joan and medieval Christianity. For board games, I just assigned and played a session of Affliction: Salem 1692, which captures some of the historical and sociological dynamics of the witch trials.