Xander Princz, PhD
they/them pls
I am a cultural historian of American religions and the social history of madness. My work intersects with the fields of American religious history and Mad Studies, while my teaching focuses on Indigenous and Black religious traditions and New Religious Movements (NRMs). I am additionally interested in religion and the law, the history of psychiatry in America, and alternative and religious print media.
Since 2021, I have taught in the faculty of Religious Studies at Skidmore College. In 2020, I earned my PhD in U.S. History from the University at Buffalo (SUNY) with concentrations in Theory and Methodology in Religion, Disability Studies and the History of Madness in the US. I also hold a MA in History and Media and a BA in Religious Studies and History.
Currently I am working on my first book project, which explores the social history of madness and American religious identity over the long 19th century and an oral history project concerning the religious history of the Catskills region of New York State.
Quite often, I conduct oral history interviews and write short local history pieces pertaining to the Catskills region of New York State, where I live and oversee a small hobby farm with an ever evolving and expanding cast of creatures including Japanese quails, honeybees, French meat rabbits and just barely domesticated spaniels. Most winters I make maple syrup on a small wood-fired evaporator. Warmer months I like to dig in the soil and tend to my bees.
Sample writings:
- “‘Driven Insane by Eddyism’: Christian Science, Popular Psychopathology, and a Turn of the Century Contest over Faith and Madness” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 31, no. 3. December 2021.
- “Stirpiculture: Science-Guided Human Propagation and the Oneida Community.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 52, no.1. (2017): 76-99.
- “The Church of Christ, Scientist.” Database of Religious History, Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia.
- “The Oneida Community.” Database of Religious History, Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia.
- “Faith, Superstition, or Insanity?” Fugitive Leaves: A Blog from the Historical Medical Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. December 12, 2018.
In addition to my academic work, I enjoy visiting and documenting through photo and video sites of historical religious significance, attending religious services and writing about them (sometimes in this blog), and collecting old postcards.
I am a #MuslimAlly and stand in solidarity with the Muslim and Jewish communities of America who are under attack in the current political environment.
I study religious history to expand religious tolerance and understanding.
Build tolerance and understanding in your life and community
Consider visiting a place of worship you’ve never been in your neighborhood, speaking to people of different faith backgrounds, learning about new religious traditions and the diversity of the American religious experience through first-hand experience. Contact me if you want to share your pictures and impressions here.
Contact: stirpicult@gmail.com
Instagram: @sabbathways
Very rarely tweeting @stirpicult
OTHER PROJECTS
finespines : book art lost and found
medium & the message : spiritualist trance recordings from the 1970s and 80s
Sabbath Ways 