Faculty Profile for Dr. Joseph Laycock

Biography Section

Biography and Education

Joseph Laycock is an associate professor of religious studies at Texas State University. He holds a MTS from Harvard Divinity School and a PhD from Boston University. He has written several books on new religious movements and American religious history. He is also a co-editor for the journal Nova Religio. He currently serves on the Programming Committee for the American Academy of Religion.

Teaching Interests

Joseph Laycock helped to create the new major in religious studies at Texas State and currently serves as program coordinator. Laycock has advocated for pedagogy that promotes religious literacy, critical thinking, writing, and research skills that students can apply in many different career paths.

Research Interests

Some of Joseph Laycock's recent publications include

-“Perspective Essay: A Cult by Any Other Name: Is ‘High Demand Group’ a Useful Category?” Nova Religio 28:1 (2024): 90-104.
-Satanism. Cambridge University Press, 2023.
-(with Eric Harrelson) The Exorcist Effect: Religion, Horror, and Demonic Belief Oxford University Press, 2023.
-New Religious Movements: The Basics. Routledge, 2022.
(co-edited with Natasha Mikles) The Religion Matters Reader. Norton, 2021.
-The Penguin Book of Exorcisms. New York: Penguin Classics, Penguin 2020.
-Speak of the Devil: How the Satanic Temple is Changing the Way We Talk About Religion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
-Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic over Role-Playing Games Says about Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds. University of California Press, 2015.
-The Seer of Bayside: Veronica Lueken and the Struggle to Define Catholicism. Oxford University Press, 2014.