James Kapalo is Senior Lecturer in the Department of the Study of Religions at University College, Cork, where he teaches courses on contemporary Global Christianities, theory and method in the Study of Religions and ethnographic fieldwork. His main research interests include ethno-religious minorities and minority religons in Eastern Europe, Orthodox Christianity in the contemporary world, the academic discourse of folk religion, and folk healing and charming practices. In May 2015 he was elected President of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions (ISASR). He is Principal Investigator of the European Research Council Project Creative Agency and Religious Minorities: Hidden Galleries in the Secret Police Archives in Central and Eastern Europe (Hidden Galleries).