Margarita Simon Guillory joined the department of Religion and Classics in fall 2011 after graduating with a doctorate in Religious Studies from Rice University in Houston, Texas. She teaches courses in religion and popular culture, American religious history, and African Diasporic religions. Her research interests include American Spiritualism, identity construction in African American religion, and social scientific approaches to religion. She has published articles in Culture and Religion and Pastoral Psychology. Her latest work is a co-edited volume entitled, Esotericism in African American Religious Experience (Brill 2014)