Academic Title: Professor
Office: EA3163A
Phone: 403.440.8992
Email: sengler@mtroyal.ca
Education
PhD - Concordia University (Montréal)
MA - University of Toronto
BA - University of British Columbia
Scholarly Interests
I focus on four areas of scholarship: fieldwork (Afro-Brazilian and esoteric spirit-incorporation religions in Brazil); methods (especially coding techniques and grounded theory); theory (critical work with concepts including tradition, lived religion and esotericism); and meta-theory (joint work with Mark Gardiner at the overlap between theory of religion and philosophical semantics).
Teaching
I have three levels of teaching outcomes. (1) Substantive – teach the material, emphasizing relations between assessment and a range of teaching techniques, with due attention to maintaining currency and accommodating students. (2) Disciplinary – represent the study of religion, in its conceptual, methodological, social, institutional and pedagogical dimensions. (3) Critical – model and provide practice in ideological critique, bridging religious and non-religious worldviews. I try to present religions as one among many forces that shape our lives.
Selected Scholarly Activity
Michael Stausberg and Steven Engler, eds. 2020. The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Religion, 2nd ed. London: Routledge
Satoko Fujiwara, David Thurfjel and Steven Engler, eds. 2020. Global Phenomenologies of Religion: An Oral History in Interviews. London: Equinox.
Michael Stausberg and Steven Engler, eds. 2016. The Oxford Handbook of the Study of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Steven Engler and Mark Q. Gardiner. 2017. “Semantics and the Sacred.” Religion 47/4: 616–40. doi: 10.1080/0048721X.2017.1362784
Steven Engler. 2016. “Dona Benta’s Rosary: Managing Ambiguity in a Brazilian Women’s Prayer Group.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 84/3: 776–805. doi: 10.1093/jaarel/lfv092
Selected Honours, Grants and Awards
- SSHRC Explore Grant – “Ritual Polyphony in Afro-Brazilian Religions,” 2019–2021.
- American Academy of Religion, Collaborative International Research Grant — “Ritual Polyphony in Afro-Brazilian Religions,” 2018–2020.
- Team member (theory/methods) of the Religion and Healing project, Sogang University, South Korea. Funded by the Korean
- Research Foundation, 2017–2021.
Link to my professional website.