Gary Laderman, co-editor and co-director of ReligionDispatches is Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Religion at Emory University. Laderman is a professor of American Religious History and Cultures, and the author of two books on death in America: The Sacred Remains: American Attitudes Toward Death, 1799-1883 (Yale University Press, 1996) and Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in Twentieth-Century America (Oxford University Press, 2003). He also has co-edited two encyclopedias, Religion and American Cultures: An Encyclopedia of Traditions, Diversity, and Popular Expressions (3 vols., ABC-Clio, 2003) and Science, Religion, and Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Controversy, with a preface by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (2 vols, 2006; ME Sharpe). Over the last decade, Laderman has been interviewed on topics ranging from death and funerals to horror films and televangelists in a variety of media, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and other newspapers; US News and World Reports, Ebony, The Lutheran, and other magazines; On Point, Odyssey, Charles Osgood CBS Morning Show, and other radio shows; as well as on the NBC Evening News, TheToday Show, and other television and documentary broadcasts.
Linell Cady is Franca Oreffice Dean's Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies, and the Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at Arizona State University. A professor of modern western religious thought, her work primarily focuses on the relationship of religion, secularism and the public/private boundary, with primary attention to the American context. She is the author of Religion, Theology, and American Public Life and co-editor of Religious Studies, Theology, and the University: Conflicting Maps, Changing Terrain and Disrupting Violence: Religion and Conflict in South and Southeast Asia. She is currently directing a collaborative, comparative project, funded by the Ford Foundation, that explores secularisms and the public role of religion in four democracies: France, India, Turkey, and the United States.
Evan Derkacz, managing editor of Religion Dispatches, was an editor and writer at the award-winning web magazine, AlterNet.org, from 2003-2007. Previously, he was Tikkun magazine's media coordinator. His writing has appeared in McSweeney's, AlterNet, and Start Making Sense (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004). He has been interviewed on Air America and Pacifica Radio.
Lisa Webster, senior editor, is a doctoral student at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California; her M.A. is in comparative literature from Columbia University. Her work, focusing on religious writing, brings a literary approach to religious studies. She has worked in web and magazine publishing, most recently as managing editor at Tricycle: the Buddhist Review.