Ph.D. Professor of Religious Studies, University of Kansas. Teaching area: American religious history; Research specialization: Religion in America, new religious movements, communal groups

Publications include: When Prophets Die: The Postcharismatic Fate of New Religious Movements (1991, ed), America's Alternative Religions (1995 ed), The Quest for Utopia in Twentieth-Century America (1998), The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond (1999), The Historical Communal Roots of Ultraconservative Groups: Earlier American Communes That Have Helped Shaped Today's Movement, with Special Reference to Latter Day Saint Communities, paper presented at conference on "Rejected and Suppressed Knowledge: The Racist Right and the Cultic Milieu," Stockholm, Sweden, 1997; sponsored by the Centre for Migration Studies, Stockholm University, and the National Council of Crime Prevention, Stockholm.