Bio
Professor Jeff Wheatley is a teacher and researcher of history, religion, and game studies. Motivated by the inadequacy of secularization narratives, he studies the perseverance of religion and spirituality in modern culture with attention to the intersections of religion, politics, and popular culture, with a focus on the United States. His work combines attention to lived religion with critical analyses of modern categories of fanaticism, cults, and radicalism that represent certain beliefs and practices as dangerous or subversive.
His book American Fanatics: Religion, Rebellion, and Empire in the Nineteenth Century, which examines the emergence of fanaticism as a concept from the 1830s to the early 1900s, will be published in spring 2026 by New York University Press. Emerging projects include a tentative book project on recent waves of games revolving around religious “cults” and a historiographical article on the intersection of Religious Studies and Game Studies.
Jeff is a founding faculty member of Iowa State University’s new Game Design Major and currently serves on the major’s program committee.
Research areas
American Religious History; Radicalism and Violence; Secularism Studies; Game Studies and Design
Courses taught
RELIG 2100 Religion in America
RELIG 2150 Religion and Popular Culture
RELIG/GAME 2730 Game Design and Cultures
RELIG 3320 Catholicism
Selected presentations
- “Building an Intercollegiate, Interdepartmental Game Design Major at Iowa State University: Beyond Interdisciplinary,” Nineteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices, Virtual Panel with Anson Call and Jeremy Best (February 2025)
- “Cultish Gameplay and Mechanics in the Games Cult of the Lamb and CULTivate,” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA (November 2024)
- “Religion and Politics Panel,” State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines, IA (November 16, 2024)
- “Fanatical Affects: Religious Feeling and Social Change in Anti-Abolitionist Writings,” Symposium on Religion and Social Change, Kripke Center, Creighton University (February 16, 2024)
- “Mary MacLane’s I Await the Devil’s Coming: Confession and Religious Play,” Study of Religion Club, University of Northern Iowa (October 30, 2023)
Additional information
When Professor Wheatley is not in his office, he is often watching basketball, biking around Ames, trying to keep up with new board and video games, or playing frisbee with his dog, Finney, named after the great American revivalist Charles Finney.