Meet Associate Professor James Bielo of the Department of Religious Studies

Weinberg College welcomes Associate Professor James Bielo to the Department of Religious Studies!

Where are you from? Where did you study?
I grew up by the Corrotoman River, in a rural county on Virginia’s east coast. I earned my BA from Radford University in southwestern Virginia, and my MA and PhD from Michigan State University. Before joining Northwestern in 2023, I taught at Miami University in southwest Ohio for 15 years.

What inspired you to pursue your area of study?
I took an Anthropology of Religion course with Melinda Wagner as an undergraduate at Radford. That course inspired me to do ethnography with a local African American congregation, and I was hooked from there. Doing fieldwork that brings me into close relation with religious lives and stories and places has proven to be an evergreen well of fascination.

Please describe your research.
I am an anthropologist of religion, with an ethnographic focus on Christianity in the United States. My work centers on materiality and language as expressive resources in religious life, and the intimate relations of religion and power.

What are you working on right now that excites you the most?
My current ethnographic work focuses on the circulation of Christian material culture through secondhand economies. I’ve been excited to engage estate sales, thrift stores, antique shops, and online platforms like eBay and Instagram as ethnographic sites. And, it’s been really rewarding to explore the relations among sacrality, valuation, ethics, discard, material excess, collecting, and capitalism.

How do you enjoy spending your free time?
My greatest joy comes with hanging out with my wife, Sara, and our two sons: Simon (6) and Charlie (3). Cooking, hiking, exploring new places, listening to music: these are all life-giving practices for me that I do as often as possible.

What is most fulfilling to you about teaching?
Teaching is sacred work. Building relationships with students and helping guide them through the discovery of new methods and new frameworks for apprehending the world never gets old.