Directory

Rev. Dr. Michelle Mueller joined CIIS as its Human Research Review Committee Program Manager after several years of university teaching and original ethnographic research. As a lecturer at Santa Clara University, she taught courses including sociology of religion, religion and ethnography, religion and media, and even a course on Scientology. She is the author of New Religions and the Mediation of Non-Monogamy: Polyamory, Polygamy, and Reality Television (Routledge, 2021). She has also contributed to Female Leaders in New Religious Movements, The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Women’s Studies in Religion, Theology & Sexuality, Nova Religio, World Religions and Spirituality Project, and other works. Her research has been funded by the Association for the Sociology of Religion, Santa Clara University’s Center for the Arts and Humanities, and the OPUS Archives and Research Center at Pacifica Graduate Institute. In addition to her experiences with IRBs as a researcher herself, she guided students through standard human research review processes at Santa Clara University and supported graduate students through their academic milestones as the administrative assistant for the Graduate Theological Union’s Cultural and Historical Studies of Religions doctoral program. Furthermore, she volunteers as a country coordinator for the Asian-African Association for Women, Gender, and Sexuality (AAWGS); is active within the American Sociological Association; and holds a minister credential from the Covenant of the Goddess.