Exploring human behavior and groups at the intersections of science, religion, and gender.

Kate Stockly is a qualitative researcher specializing in the scientific study of religion and gender and sexualities studies. Kate’s first book, High On God: How Megachurches Won the Heart of America (co-authored with Dr. James K. Wellman, Jr. and Dr. Katie Corcoran; Oxford 2020) looks closely at the affective and emotional dynamics animating evangelical megachurches. Kate’s second book, Spirit Tech: The Brave New World of Consciousness Hacking and Engineering Enlightenment (co-authored with Dr. Wesley J. Wildman; St. Martin’s Press 2021) looks at how brain-based technologies that are being applied by spiritual seekers to set in motion a new, post-secular wave of spirituality in the United States.

Kate also analyses the pervasive gender/sex difference in religion and spirituality from a bio-psycho-social perspective. Putting the critical humanities—especially feminist materialism and affect theory—into conversation with the biological sciences, she theorizes how gender/sex performativity intra-acts with spiritual and religious expression and experience.

Kate is a lecturer at Boston University, a teaching assistant at Harvard University, and a researcher at the Center for Mind and Culture.

Kate is available for interviews, speaking, and teaching.