I'm a freelance writer who covers religion, racism, higher education, gender, labor, motherhood, and popular culture. I’m also an essayist, American religious historian, and reporter. I’ve written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Chronicle Vitae, Sacred Matters, Bearings, The Rumpus, The Manifest-Station, Religion Dispatches, Christian Century’s Then & Now, Washington Post, and Brain, Child. I’m also the author of the award-winning book, Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK’s Appeal to Protestant America, 1915-1930, The Zombies Are Coming!: The Realities of the Zombie Apocalypse in American Culture, Grace Period: A Memoir in Pieces, and Sexism Ed: Essays on Gender and Labor in Academia. My PhD (2008) is in American religious history from Florida State University‘s department of Religion. My scholarship encompasses a variety of topics including religion and popular culture, religious and racial hatred, apocalypticism, religion and gender, and horror. I’ve taught courses on these topics at Florida State University, the University of New Mexico and the University of Tennessee.