Alex Norman

Alex Norman completed his doctorate at the Department of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney in 2010. Since then he has worked at the Department of History and Philosophy at the University of New South Wales, and the School of Social Sciences and Psychology at the University of Western Sydney before returning in 2012. He has taught subjects focussing on religions since 2006, including the units RLST2603 Classical Hinduism, RLST2626 Witchcraft, Paganism, and the New Age, and has lectured for the Centre for Continuing Education on the history of travel. In 2008 he was awarded the Faculty of Arts Teaching Excellence Award, and in 2011 was a finalist for the Rita and John Cornforth Medal for contributions to the University community.

Alex’s central research interests revolve around the confluence of travel practices and religious practices. His book Spiritual Tourism (Continuum 2011) examines the intersection of travel and secular spiritual practice by contemporary Westerners. He has published on the Camino de Santiago, World Youth Day (with Mark Johnson) and on the religious dimensions in Olympic tourism (with Carole M. Cusack). His other main research interest is in new religious movements. In 2010 he published the first scholarly article on the group Great Freedom (now known as Balanced View), and in 2012 he co-edited the Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production (Brill 2012) with Carole M. Cusack. From 2010 to 2013 Alex was co-editor of Literature & Aesthetics, culminating in a special issue examining travel and literature published in 2012. His latest research project looks at the various ways in which travel events and traditions have impacted the formation of new religious movements.