Devir photo
  • Associate Professor, World Languages and Cultures
801-585-3000

Research Statement

Scholarly Publications

Books:

First-Century Christians in Twenty-First Century Africa: Between Law and Grace in Gabon and Madagascar. Leiden: Brill (Studies of Religion in Africa series, Vol. 50), 2022. x + 246 pp.

https://brill.com/view/title/57308

New Children of Israel: Emerging Jewish Communities in an Era of Globalization. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2017. xvi + 289 pp.

https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/new-children-of-israel/

Selected Recent Articles and Book Chapters:

“Culture-Bound Psychopathology or Supernatural Reality? A West African Case Study of Psychotherapeutic Strategies for Improving the Welfare of Patients in Spiritual Crisis” (coauthored with Chantal Gahou). Journal of the Middle East and Africa 13.4 (2022): 451–466.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21520844.2022.2111986

“Exploring Integration Issues for African Youth of Refugee Backgrounds in Utah” (coauthored with Caren J. Frost, Kilee Jorgensen, Suavis Kanyange, and Aster S. Tecle). Journal of Comparative Studies 12 (2019): 66–93.

https://journals.indexcopernicus.com/api/file/viewByFileId/1226726.pdf

“Propagating Modern Jewish Identity in Madagascar: A Contextual Analysis of One Community’s Discursive Strategies.” In Connected Jews: Expressions of Community in Analogue and Digital CultureEds. Caspar Battegay and Simon J. Bronner. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press/Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2018. 149–179.

https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/isbn/9781906764869/

“The ‘Internet Jews’ of Cameroon: Inside the Digital Matrix of Globalized Judaism.” In The Shadow of Moses: New Jewish Movements in Africa and the Diaspora. Eds. Daniel Lis, William F. S. Miles, and Tudor Parfitt. Los Angeles: African Academic Press/Marymount Institute Press/Tsehai Publishers, 2016. 113–130.

http://www.store.tsehaipublishers.com/product_info.php/religion-spirituality/in-the-shadow-of-moses-p-168

 


Research Keywords

  • Religious Studies
  • Medical Humanities
  • Medical Anthropology
  • Ethnography
  • Cultural Studies
  • African Studies

Geographical Regions of Interest

  • Africa
  • Benin
  • Cameroon
  • Côte d'Ivoire
  • Gabon
  • Ghana
  • Madagascar
  • Senegal