PEARSON, Joanne (E.)

(Jo Pearson)

PERSONAL: Married (divorced). Education: University of Lancaster, degree in history and Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Office—School of Religious and Theological Studies, University of Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales. E-mail—pearsonje@cardiff.ac.uk.

CAREER: Open University, Milton Keynes, England, lecturer in religious studies, until 2002, and founder of religious studies research group Belief beyond Boundaries; University of Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales, member of religious and theological studies faculty, beginning 2002. Conference organizer. Formerly worked in banking business and operated a wiccan coven.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Richard H. Roberts and Geoffrey Samuel, and contributor) Nature Religion Today: Paganism in the Modern World, Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1998.

(Editor and contributor) Belief beyond Boundaries: Wicca, Celtic Spirituality, and the New Age, Ashgate Publishing (Burlington, VT), 2002.

A Popular Dictionary of Paganism, RoutledgeCurzon (London, England), 2002.

Wicca: Magic, Spirituality, and "the Mystic Other," Routledge (London, England), 2003.

(Editor as Jo Pearson) The Development of European Paganism: Histories, Influences, and Contexts, c. 1880-2002, Ashgate Publishing (Burlington, VT), 2005.

Contributor to books, including Theorising Faith: The Insider/Outsider Problem, edited by Elisabeth Arweck and Martin Stringer, Birmingham University Press (Birmingham, England), 2002; The Lancashire Witch Trials, 1612-1999, edited by Robert Poole, Manchester University Press (Manchester, England), 2002; From Sacred Text to Internet, edited by G. Beckerlegge, Ashgate Publishing (Burlington, VT), 2002; and Predicting Religion: Christian, Secular, and Alternative Futures, edited by Linda Woodhead, Grace Davies, and Paul Heelas, Ashgate Publishing (Burlington, VT), 2003. Contributor to periodicals, including Pomegranate: Journal of Pagan Studies, Nova Religio, and Diskus.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Research on wicca, paganism, and esoteric spiritualities; religion and magic; the relationship and interaction of wicca and paganism with Christianity; the identity and role of the priestess in contemporary spiritualities; and religion, literature, and film.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, August, 1999, Irving Hexham, review of Nature Religion Today: Paganism in the Modern World, p. 451.

Library Journal, October 15, 2002, William P. Collins, review of Belief beyond Boundaries: Wicca, Celtic Spirituality, and the New Age, p. 77.

online

Ashgate Publishing Web site, http://ashgate.com/ (April 8, 2003).

Occult E-Books Web site, http://www.occultebooks/com/ (April 8, 2003), Francis Breakspear, interview with Pearson.

University of Cardiff Web site, http://www.cf.ac.uk/ (May 7, 2003).

White Dragon Book Reviews Online, http://www.whitedragon.org/uk/ (April 8, 2003), review of Nature Religion Today: Paganism in the Modern World.*