Associate Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department
Michael E. Heyes received a Master of Arts in comparative religion from the University of Washington in 2008 and a doctorate in religious studies from Rice University in 2015. Prior to Lycoming, Heyes taught at Rice University and held a visiting instructorship at the University of South Florida – Tampa.
Heyes’ research interests can be roughly separated into the medieval and the modern. Regarding the medieval, his interests include Saints’ Lives Literature, religion and literature, race and gender in the medieval world, medieval magic, and demonology and monstrosity in the Middle Ages. In the modern world, he is primarily interested in religion and film, notions of American Exceptionalism, American Civil Religion, and demons and monsters in modernity.
His teaching interests include introductory and theory driven courses in religion, history of Christianity (especially the antique and medieval periods), religion in fiction and film, western esotericism and magic, and demons and monsters in religion.
He has published two monographs – Demons in the USA: From the Anti-Spiritualists to QAnon (Routledge, 2024) and Margaret's Monsters: Women, Identity, and the Life of St. Margaret in Medieval England (Routledge, 2020) – and an edited volume – Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques: Monstrosity and Religion in Europe and the United States (Lexington Books, 2018). He has also written for popular audiences in Religion Dispatches and The Conversation.
Heyes’ non-academic interests include novels, primarily science fiction and fantasy, as well as roleplaying games, canoeing, fishing, kayaking, and spending time with his wife, Stacey, and their children, Xander and Luna.