Profiles

These profiles are not actively maintained, but they provide a stable publication and affiliation record.

I work in Canadian higher education as a sociologist and writing specialist.

My research focuses on secularism and nonreligion, culture, and how people negotiate identity and stigma in social settings shaped by religion, colonial histories, and institutional change. Alongside this work, I support students and faculty with academic writing, argumentation, and revision practices, and I work on practical and ethical questions raised by generative AI in teaching and research contexts.

I completed my doctoral training in sociology at the University of Alberta under Stephen A. Kent. His work on new religious movements, authority, and institutional harm strongly influenced how I approach empirical research and questions of social consequence.

My academic path was not linear. I began university intending to study theatre and later English, stepped away for a period to complete training in Java programming and wireless application design, and eventually returned to university through communication studies and philosophy at the University of New Brunswick. From there, I moved into sociology, completing both a master’s degree and PhD.

Moving across disciplines left me especially attentive to audience, purpose, and how institutional contexts shape what counts as knowledge and legitimate argument.

My scholarly work now focuses on nonreligion, secular identity, and belief change, including stigma management and boundary-making around belonging and legitimacy. Some of this research engages Indigenous contexts, particularly where spirituality and identity are treated as fixed, within a broader interest in belief, authority, and social regulation across settings.

An early intellectual influence was Vernon A. Howard, a philosopher of education whose work connected philosophy, pedagogy, and the arts. His example reinforced for me that careful thinking and practical teaching belong together.

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