Jo Pearson, Ph.D.

Jo Pearson, Ph.D., is a British academic now resident in Canada. She has a degree in early modern history, and gained one of the first Religious Studies Ph.D.s in Britain in the field of contemporary Paganism, with a thesis on Religion and the Return of Magic: Wicca as Esoteric Spirituality. She previously worked at the Open University, Cardiff University, and Winchester University in the UK, before moving to Canada in summer 2012. She has organised two international conferences on Paganism, and delivered papers at international conferences over the past 20 years. Her publications include Wicca and the Christian Heritage and Nature Religion Today, plus numerous articles. She is presently working on a study of post-Christian priest/esshood and contributing to explorations of disability in ritual contexts.