Dr. Heidi Campbell

2009 Distinguished Academic Visitors

Dr. Heidi Campbell

Dr. Heidi Campbell is Assistant Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University where she teaches in Media Studies.

She has a PhD in Practical Theology and Computer-mediated Communication from the University of Edinburgh-Scotland. Since 1997 she has studied the rise of religion on the internet and what impact new media technologies are having on religious communities.

Heidi has written on a variety of topics including Christianity online, new media ethics and religious community’s response to mass media and she is author of Exploring Religious Community Online (Peter Lang, 2005) and co-editor of A Science and Religion Primer (Baker Academic, forthcoming 2009).

She is also completing training with the Episcopal Diocese of Texas Formation in Direction (F.I.N.D) School to become a spiritual director.

Her time at Vaughan Park will be spent working on a book project on how new media technologies raises important theological and ethical issues focusing how different categories of religious authority are being re-shaped and influenced by use of the Internet, especially within the Anglican tradition.  Specifically she will explore the emergence of the Anglican Cathedral in Second Life, a virtual church online has sought from its beginning to build a relationship with the offline Anglican Church.