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/

 

Recent Articles and Book Chapters:

 

“Notions of Agency: Conceptual Paradigms of Gender, Family, and Propriety among Adherents of an Ivorian Neo-Jewish Community.” In Jewish Families in Global Perspective. Ed. Harriet Hartman. New York: Springer, forthcoming 2024.

 

https://link.springer.com/book/9783031450051

 

“Reading The Exorcist in Benin: How Discussing a Catholic Devotional Novel about Conflicting Approaches to Psychospiritual Healing in the United States Can Provide a Contextualized Understanding of Ecumenical West African Theology, Familial Values, Moral Ecclesiology, and Notions of Psychospiritual Wellness.” Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature 75.2 (2023): 73–109.

 

https://www.pdcnet.org/renascence/content/renascence_2023_0075_0002_0073_0109

 

“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

 

“The Role of the Internet in the Promulgation of Judaism and Jewish Identity in Central Africa.” Journal of the Middle East and Africa (Special Issue: “Focus on Jewish Africa”) 10.1 (2019): 75–94.

 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21520844.2019.1565198#:~:text=The%20role%20of%20the%20Internet%20has%20been%20pivotal%20in%20the,practice%20Judaism%20in%20the%201990s.

 

“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

 

“Popular Perceptions of Israelite Genealogy in Madagascar: Dissociating Bio-racial Signifiers from Mainstream Jewish Religious Practice.” In Africana Jewish Journeys: Studies in African Judaism. Eds. Marla Brettschneider, Edith Bruder, and Magdel le Roux. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019. 78–90.

 

https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-2213-8#:~:text=The%20contemporary%20phenomenon%20of%20people's,as%20Jews%20or%20are%20converting.

 

“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 Culture. Eds. 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/

 

“African Judaizing Movements and the Question of Polygamy: Perspectives from Cameroon.” Journal of the Middle East and Africa 8.1 (2017): 75–96.

 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21520844.2017.1289496

 

“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