Northern Illinois University
Department of Anthropology
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Professor Wiegele is a sociocultural anthropologist whose current research interests include new religious movements and religious change, mass media and religion, global urban and popular culture and colonialism. Wiegele's book on El Shaddai, a contemporary mass religious movement in the Philippines, won a 2007 National Book Award in the Philippines (given by the Manila Critics Circle and the National Book Development Board). She lived, worked and carried out research in the Philippines for many years beginning in 1988 as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and has also conducted research among Korean Americans in Illinois. She has worked on various U.S. State Department leadership training programs for Filipino and Southeast Asian youth and adults. Currently, Wiegele is part of a working group organized by Boston University's Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs (CURA) entitled "Markets, Democracy and Miracles: Evangelicalism and Charismatic Christians in the Second and Third Generation." She is also contributing to Regent University's symposium, "2011 Pentecostalism & Prosperity: The Socio-Economics of Global Renewal." Before coming to NIU, she taught at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. Her previous courses include "Ethnographic Field Methods," "Southeast Asia - Crossroads to the World," and "American Culture."

Selected Publications

"Politics, Education, and Civic Participation: Catholic Charismatic Modernities in the Philippines" in Robert W. Hefner (ed), Pentecostal Modernities: Charismatic Christianity and the Politics of Citizenship, Indiana University Press. (In Press).

"On Being a Participant and an Observer in Religious Ethnography: Silence Betrayal and Becoming," in Hillary Crane and Deana Weibel (eds.), Missionary Impositions: Conversion, Resistance, and Other Challenges to Objectivity in Religious Ethnography, Lexington Press. 2012.

"Cultural Models of Nature Among Fisherfolk and Fishery-Oriented NGOs in the Philippines," in Giovanni Bennardo (ed.), Cultural Models of Nature and the Environment: Self, Space and Casualty, Working Papers #1, Institute fro the Study of Environment, Sustainability, and Energy, Northern Illinois University. 2012.

"The Prosperity Gospel among Filipino Catholic Charismatics," in Amos Yong and Katy Attanasi (eds.), Pentecostalism and Prosperity: The Socio-Economics of Global Charismatic Movement. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2012). 

"Everyday Catholicism: Expanding the Sacred Sphere." In Kathleen M. Adams and Kathleen Gillogly(eds.), Everyday Life in Southeast Asia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 2011.

"Mediated Spaces of Religious Community in Manila, Philippines" in Michael Bailey, & Guy Redden (eds.), Mediating Faiths: Religion and Socio-Cultural Change in the Twenty-First Century. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Press. 2011.

"The Evangelical Challenge to College and Family" chapter co-authored with Nancy Abelmann, in The Intimate University: Korean American Students and the Problems of Segregation, by Nancy Abelmann. Duke University Press. 2009.

"El Shaddai and the Reframing of Poverty in the Philippines" in Tupas, T. Ruanni F. (ed.). (Re)making Society: The Politics of Language, Discourse, and Identity in the Philippines. Quezon City, Philippines: University of the Philippines Press. 2007.

"Investing in Miracles: El Shaddai and the Transformation of Popular Catholicism in the Philippines." Quezon City, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press (previously published by University of Hawaii Press, 2005). 2007.

"Catholics Rich in Spirit: El Shaddai's Modern Engagements" in Filomeno V. Aguilar (ed.), The Charismatics, special issues of Philippine Studies 54, no.4: 495-520. Quezon City, Philippines: Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University. 2006.

"Investing in Miracles: El Shaddai and the Transformation of Popular Catholicism in the Philippines." Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 2005.

"Reframing Suffering and Success through the El Shaddai Movement of the Philippines" Asia Pacific Social Science Review, Vol. 5, No. 2, December, pp. 76-102. De La Salle University-Manila. 2005.