Brian C. Wilson

Brian C. Wilson is Professor of Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan. A native of Santa Clara, California, he earned a B.S. in Medical Microbiology from Stanford University (1982), and, after three years in the Peace Corps (Honduras, Dominican Republic), went on to earn an M.A. in Hispanic Studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies (1990) and an M.A. (1991) and Ph.D. (1996) in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Professor Wilson joined the faculty of the WMU Department of Comparative Religion in 1996 and was its chair from 2001 to 2009. His areas of interest include theory and method in the academic study of religion and American religious history with an emphasis on new religious movements and religion in the Midwest. His most recent book is Yankees in Michigan, part of the Discovering the Peoples of Michigan Series published by Michigan State University Press in 2008. His latest book, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and the Religion of Biologic Living (Indiana University Press), is available now.