I received my PhD in the study of religion from the University of Toronto in 1995, where I earned an MA as well. Prior to that I earned three degrees at Queens University, in Canada--starting out in Life Sciences (or what some once called pre-med). Since 1993 I have worked full time in the US, first as an Instructor at the University of Tennessee ('93-6), then at what was once called Southwest Missouri State University ('96-2001; now Missouri State), and finally moved in 2001 to the University of Alabama, where I have remained, serving as Department Chair from 2001-2009 and then again in 2013 to the present. My work focuses mainly on the history of the study of religion and the practical implications of classification system, such as the one perhaps most prominent in our field "sacred/secular."