Dana Logan

Dana Logan is an Assistant Professor and Program Head in the Liberal and Professional Studies department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her research focuses on American religion, ritual, and the intersections of governance, consumerism, and spiritual discipline in historical contexts. She specializes in evangelicalism, 19th-century civil society, and the analysis of ritual's role in everyday life.

Education:

• Ph.D. Religious Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington (2015)
• MTS in History of Christianity, Harvard Divinity School (2009)
• B.A. Religious Studies, Reed College (2007)

Her work explores how ritual practices blur lines between governance, work, and spirituality. Recent projects include studies on Baptist discipline in the antebellum South and policing mechanisms in American religious history. Her book Awkward Rituals: Sensations of Governance in Protestant America (2022) redefines understandings of ritual's relationship with authority and boredom. She also writes on Shaker communities, celebrity religion, and the cultural history of asceticism.

Key Themes in Publications:

• Interdisciplinary approaches to ritual theory
• Racialized religious practices in urban contexts
• Material culture and consumerism in religious frameworks
• Gendered dimensions of religious discipline

Teaching: Courses on American religious history, 'cult' studies, religion and race, and religion in celebrity culture. She emphasizes experiential learning through analysis of texts like Shaker narratives and contemporary self-help movements.