Fields / Areas of Teaching:
The Cherokee religious system and related cultural elements; Native American religious and cultural traditions; Comparative ritual systems; American religious history; Ritual history; Colonial contact, signification, and identity maintenance; Sports, games, and play in the study of religions

Native American Religious Traditions
Religions of America
Religion and Popular Culture
Comparative Ritual Systems
Ethnographic and Ethnohistorical Research
Theory and Method in the Study of Ritual

Publications:
"North American Indians: Southeast Woodland Traditions." Invited Article-length entry, The Encyclopedia of Religion, Revised Edition, Macmillan Publishing, March 2005.

"Ball Games: North American Indian Ballgames." The Encyclopedia of Religion, Revised Edition. Macmillan Publishing, March 2005.

"Stickball", American Indian Religions: An Encyclopedia. Forthcoming from ABC-CLIO, forthcoming 2005.

"Native American Religions Since 1600." In the Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, Revised Edition. Mercer University Press, forthcoming.

"500 Nations" television documentary mini-series review. In The Public Historian, Special Issue, "Representing Native American History." Volume 18 (Fall 1996): 201-204.

Presentations:
"The Cherokee Trail of Tears and the Persistence of Cherokee Religious Traditions: A Critique of the Concepts of Revitalization and Perseverance." American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting; Nov 2004

"Religious Freedom Under Tribal Law." Panel presentation for Tribal Law and Government Conference, University of Kansas Law School, Nov 2004.

"'Dr. Uneg I Presume?': The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and The American Indian Today." Mid-America American Studies Association Conference, University of Kansas; Apr 2004

"Wide Open Spaces: The Trail of Tears, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and Gaps in the National Memory." presented at "Moving Boundaries: American Religion(s) through the Louisiana Purchase," University of Missouri, Columbia; Feb 2004

"No Time Outs: Charting a Ritual History of the Cherokee Ball Game." American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Denver, CO; Nov 2001

"Lost and Found: Religious Stereotypes in Paul Green's The Lost Colony." American Academy of Religion southeast Region Meeting, Charlotte, NC; Mar 2001

"Introduction to Native American Religious Traditions." Seminar (5 lectures) for Unitarian Universalist Church, Chapel Hill, NC; Sep - Nov 1999

"Cultivation of Native Identities: Three Examples from the Eastern Band of the Cherokee." Native Traditions in the Americas section, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL; Nov 22, 1998

"Playing or Praying?: The Cherokee Ball Play. Open Lecture. Western Carolina Honors College; Jul 23, 1998

Grants / Awards:
Faculty Scholarly Travel Fund Award, University of Kansas, Fall 2004.

New Faculty General Research Fund Award, University of Kansas, Summer 2004.

North Carolina Arts Council Folklife Documentary Grant (in conjunction with the Museum of the Cherokee Indian), 1997.

Rowny Teaching and Research Fellowship (3-year graduate study), The University of California at Santa Barbara, 1994.

Current Research:
"Playing or Praying?: The Cherokee Anetso Ceremonial Complex." Revision of dissertation for submission as a book manuscript in 2005.

"Silence and Self-Representation: Cherokee Strategies of Identity Maintenance." Article for March 2005 submission to the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Focus Issue: "Religion and Secrecy: Political, Cultural, and Theological Issues."

"Wide Open Spaces: The Trail of Tears, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and Gaps in the National Memory." Essay in volume edited by Richard Callahan, Moving Boundaries: American Religion(s) through the Louisiana Purchase. Submitted for review to University of Illinois Press, Fall 2004.

Began conducting ethnographic and ethnohistorical research with consultants who are members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in 1993, and research is ongoing.