From Chance Encounter to Collaborative Success
Bielo and Campbell connected online in 2022 after seeing images of each other’s collections on social media. Intrigued by their shared interests and complementary expertise, they began exchanging ideas and insights. This serendipitous encounter quickly evolved into a dynamic collaboration, leading to research that neither could have achieved alone.
Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Northwestern University
I am an anthropologist of religion, with an ethnographic focus on Christianity in the United States.
My research interests center on materiality and language as expressive resources in religious life, and the intimate relations of religion and power.
My “Secondhand Sacred” collection began in 2020, focusing on Christian traditions and includes materials representing Black Church denominations, Eastern Orthodoxy, evangelical and fundamentalist Protestants, charismatic Christians, Roman Catholics, Latter-Day Saints, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and utopian communities.
The range of materials I’ve collected is immense, from Bibles and books to prayer guides, rosaries, holy cards, figurines, clothing, art, icons, and other decor. My exhibits will provide a much more expanse visual of our research project findings.
Professor of Communication and an affiliate faculty in Religious Studies at Texas A&M University
I was named a Presidential Impact Fellow at Texas A&M University in 2018 and received a Transformational Teaching Award from Texas A&M’s Center for Teaching Excellence in 2017.
I have also been recognized as one of the founders of Digital Religion studies, a new subfield of research that explores how religious beliefs and practices are performed and understood online and offline within digital culture.
My “Thrifting Religion” collection began in 2021 and focuses on how religion is represented in Texas through thrift store culture and artifacts. My collection primarily represents Protestant and Catholic Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism and New Age religions.
I’ve collected, cataloged, and learned the stories surrounding a variety of religious artifacts, which has drawn my attention to what types of religious items show up in thrift stores and what this says about religiosity in Texas.
