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About our Director

I am interested in the ways we imagine religion and spirituality when we talk about health, diversity, security and civil society. Most of my work concerns religion, spirituality, and secularity in North America and Western Europe, although I am increasingly interested in the relationships between these societies and global forces.

My most recent research and teaching interests revolve around modern postural yoga in North America. I’ve just finished a book entitled . It will be published by McGill-Queens University Press early in 2025. An edited volume entitled We Should Know Better is also in the works. It focuses on the awkward situations in which western-trained scholars of religion find themselves when they take up Asian-rooted spiritual practices.

I am also nearly finished working with my colleagues John Borrows and David Seljak, on an edited volume we put together on the ways Indigenous spiritualities show up in and are engaged by the Canadian public arena. The authors we have gathered for this book explore the ways Canadian society responds to Indigenous claims and practices connected with health, law, land use, land protection, rituals, and education. This book will be published with the University of Toronto Press in 2025.

I received my PhD in religious studies from McMaster University (1998), my MA in religion and culture from McGill University (1993), and my BA in religious studies from the University of Winnipeg (1990). I taught in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Winnipeg from 1998 until 2008. In addition to directing the CSRS since 2008, I hold teaching appointments in the Department of History and the Religion, Culture and Society Program at the ·¬ÇÑÉçÇø.

My first book, The Church on the World’s Turf (Oxford 2000), examined the ways religious sub-cultures can thrive in largely secular environments. Other books include: Religion and Ethnicity in Canada (Pearson 2005), and Christianity and Ethnicity in Canada (University of Toronto Press 2008), both edited with David Seljak; International Migration and the Governance of Religious Diversity (McGill-Queen’s University Press 2009), edited with German sociologist Matthias Koenig; Spirituality and Hospice Palliative Care (SUNY 2013), edited with Kelli Stajduhar and Harold Coward; and Religious Radicalization in Canada and Beyond (University of Toronto Press 2014), edited with Lorne Dawson; Public Health in the Age of Anxiety: Religious and Cultural Roots of Vaccine Hesitancy in Canada (University of Toronto Press 2017) edited with Canadian scholars and scientists, Maryse Guay, Real Roy, and Julie Bettinger; and Urban Religious Events: Public Spirituality in Contested Spaces (Bloomsbury  2021), edited with European sociologists, Mar Griera, Julia Martínez-Ariño, and Marian Burchardt; and Religion at the Edge: Nature, Spirituality, and Secularity in the Pacific Northwest, edited with Patricia O’Connell Killen and Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, published by the University of British Columbia Press.

My articles have appeared in Social Compass, Religion, State and Society, the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Canadian Ethnic Studies, Studies in Religion, Ethnicities, Ethnologies, and the Journal of International Migration and Integration, as well as magazines such as Canadian Diversity, The Ecumenist and Canadian Issues. I am also an Associate Editor at the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.  

Books

2025. Paul Bramadat, Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press. 288 pp.

2022. . Paul Bramadat, Patricia O’Connell Killen, Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, eds. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. 278 pp.

2021.  . Bramadat, Paul, Mar Griera, Julia Martínez-Ariño, Marian Burchardt, eds. London: Bloomsbury. 328 pp. 

2019. La santé publique à une ère marquée par le doute - Origines religieuses et culturelles de l’hésitation des Canadiens face à la vaccination. P. Bramadat, M. Guay, J. Bettinger and R. Roy, eds. Sherbrooke: University of Sherbrooke Press. French version of Public Health in the Age of Anxiety (2017).

2017. . Paul Bramadat, Maryse Guay, Julie Bettinger and Réal Roy, eds. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 398 pp.

2014. . Paul Bramadat and Lorne Dawson, eds. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 332 pp.

2013. . Paul Bramadat, Kelli I. Stajduhar and Harold Coward, eds. Albany: SUNY Press. 210 pp.

2009. . Paul Bramadat and Matthias Koenig, eds. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press. 340 pp.

2008. . Paul Bramadat and David Seljak, eds. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 444 pp. 

2005. . Paul Bramadat and David Seljak, eds. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada.  252 pp. [Reprinted in 2009 by the University of Toronto Press.]

2000. . New York: Oxford University Press. 205 pp.

Articles 

2024. Part of a special issue on the scholar in the public arena. Studies in Religion.

2024. . Part of a special issue co-edited with Jennifer Selby. Published by the Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA). 

2024. . Co-authored with John Thatamanil. Social Compass 71 (3). 16 pp.

2022. . Journal of Interreligious Studies: 34: 12-17.

2021. . Studies in Religion (September): 1-2.

2019. . Religion, State and Society 47 (4). 491-507.

2014. . Journal of the American Academy of Religion 82 (4): 907-937.

2013. Co-authored by Eve Dubé, Caroline Laberge, Maryse Guay, Paul Bramadat, Réal Roy, and Julie Bettinger. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics 9 (8) 1–11. 

2013. . On-line Working Paper #22 from the RECODE Responding to Complex Diversity in Europe and Canada Project. 6530 wds.

2012. Ethnicities 12 (6): 11-16. 

2011. . Journal of the American Academy of Religion 79 (2): 315-345.

2011. They were always such nice boys: Religion, Radicalization and Securitization in Canada and Beyond. Our Diverse Cities 8: 54-58. 

2009. . Canadian Journal for Social Research 2: 227-234.

2008. . Studies in Religion 37 (1): 121-143.

2005. . Canadian Ethnic Studies 37 (1): 1-20.

2005. .”  Journal of International Migration and Integration 6 (2): 201-218.

2001..  Ethnologies 23 (1): 211-232. 

2001. . Canadian Ethnic Studies 33 (3): 78-98.

1996. . The Journal of Religion and Culture 10 (Spring): 30-46. 

1992. . The Journal of Religion and Culture 6 (Spring): 27-42. 

Chapters in Books

2022. Religion, Discrimination, and the Canadian Experience: Lessons for Elsewhere? In Social Discrimination, Spirituality and Religious Beliefs: A Challenge for Anthropologists and Social Workers. Alberto Montes and Fina Antón, eds. Granada: University of Granada Press. Pp. 251-268.

2022. Wellness in the Wild: Reverential Naturalism in the Pacific Northwest. In . G. Mossière, ed. Berlin: Springer. Pp. 135-151.

2022. Come from Away but Here to Stay: Religion and Migration in Contemporary Discourse. In Religion and Migration. R. Ramji and A. Marshall, eds. London: Bloomsbury. Pp. 273-288.

2022. Religion, Spirituality and Irreligion in The Best Place on Earth. In Religion at the Edge: Nature, Spirituality and Secularity in the Pacific Northwest. Pp. 3-22.

2022. Reverential Naturalism in Cascadia: From the Fancy to the Sublime. In Religion at the Edge: Nature, Spirituality and Secularity in the Pacific Northwest. Pp. 23-40.

2022. Conclusion. Co-authored with P. O’Connell Killen. In Religion at the Edge: Nature, Spirituality and Secularity in the Pacific Northwest. Pp. 241-253.

2021. Religion, Culture, and the Politics of Vaccine Hesitancy: Perspectives of Parents, Pundits, and Physicians. In . D. Lüddeckens, P. Hetmanczyk, P. Klassen, and J. Stein, eds. Milton Park: Routledge. Pp. 450-463.

2021. . In Urban Religious Events: Public Spirituality in Contested Spaces. Pp. 79-94.

2021. . In Urban Religious Events: Public Spirituality in Contested Spaces. Pp. 1-16.

2020. . In Women and Religion in the International Arena. Morny Joy, ed. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing. Pp. 295-300.

2020. Complicating Religious Identities through the Social Relations of Prayer. Co-authored with Rachel Brown and Sylvia Collins-Mayo. In . Sheryl Reimer Kirkham, Sonya Sharma, Rachel Brown, and Melania Calestani, eds. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press. Pp. 122-137.

2019. Defiant Subjects: Radicals, Refugees, and Refuseniks. In . D. Jung and S. Stetter, eds. London: Palgrave Studies in International Relations. Pp. 127-147.

2018. He Said, We Said: Religion in the York University Controversy of 2013-2014. In . J. Borup, W. Hoverd, and L. Kuhle, eds. Leiden: Brill. Pp. 208-229.

2017. Introduction: Seeking a Better Conversation. In Public Health in the Age of Anxiety: Religious and Cultural Roots of Vaccine Hesitancy in Canada. Pp. 5-15.

2017. Crises of Trust and Truth: Religion, Culture, and Vaccine Hesitancy in Canada. In . Pp. 16-55.

2017. Continuing the Conversation. Co-authored with J. Bettinger and M. Guay. In . Pp. 355-65.

2017. Appendix. Co-authored with J. Bettinger and M. Guay. In . Pp. 365-376.

2017. Growing Up and Getting Along During a Cosmic War: Youth Radicalization and Religious  Minorities in Canada. In .  S. Wilson-Forsberg and A. Robinson, eds. Toronto: Oxford University Press. Pp. 288-305.

2016. Managing and Imagining Religion in Canada from the Top and the Bottom: 15 Years After. In . B. Berger and R. Moon, eds. Toronto: Hart Publishing. Pp. 61-78. 

2014. The Public, the Political and the Possible: Religion and Radicalization in Canada and Beyond. In . Pp. 3-34.

2014. Conclusion. Co-authored with Lorne Dawson. In . Pp. 301-314.

2013. Introduction. Co-authored with Kelli I. Stajduhar and Harold Coward. In . Pp. 1-11.

2013. Religion, Spirituality, Medical Education, and Hospice Palliative Care. Co-authored with Joseph Kaufert. In . Pp. 60-85.

2013. Conclusion. Co-authored with Kelli I. Stajduhar. In . Pp. 164-171.

2013. Between Secularism and Post-Secularism: A Canadian Interregnum. Co-authored with David Seljak. In   A. Laliberté, B. Berman, and R. Bhargava, eds. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Pp. 97-119.

2011. Immigration. In . Wade Clark Roof and M. Juergensmeyer, eds. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage. Pp. 545-546. 

2009. Religious Diversity and International Migration: National and Global Dimensions. In . Pp. 1-28.

2008.. Co-authored with David Seljak. In Christianity and Ethnicity in Canada.  Pp. 1-40. 

2008. . Co-authored with David Seljak. In Christianity and Ethnicity in Canada. Pp. 380-400. 

2005. Beyond Christian Canada: Religion and Ethnicity in a Multicultural Society. In . Pp. 1-29. 

2005. Toward a New Story about Religion and Ethnicity in Canada. Co-authored with David Seljak. In .  Pp. 222-234.