Bio
Ciara graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 2021 with a BA in philosophy & religion and psychology. In 2019 she was a recipient of the NWU Student-Faculty Collaborative Research Grant, which allowed her to explore pathways for designing a course on "New, Emergent, and Alternative Religions" as part of the U.S. Religious Diversity course at NWU. She held internships with the Lancaster County Department of Corrections, the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Department, and the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services. Ciara was interested in the way classifications, identity formation, and rhetoric are mobilized in the interaction between law enforcement and new, emergent, and alternative religions. For part of 2021-22 and all of 2022-23, Ciara worked with Prof. Altman on REL's American Examples grant from the Luce Foundation and, throughout her graduate degree, she continued to incorporate practical internships into her studies. Ciara entered the MA intending to use her degree from UA to pursue a career in federal law enforcement and so she currently works for the Department of Justice in Seattle, Washington.