Robert M Geraci

I’m Texan, but living, teaching, and writing in New York City. I’m pretty sure that everyone loves robots, which is why I’ve written a book about them. People love games too, so I wrote another book.  I’m also interested in the toadstool circles, the ancient temples, the soaring cathedrals of our religious imagination. Likewise, the dark tunnels of mining and rapid transit. I visit mountains, deserts, temples, laboratories, factories, virtual realities…the places where magic enters the world.

Thanks to a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Award, I spent 5 months at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, where I interviewed dozens of scientists in academia, industry, and hacker culture. The book has gone through peer-review, and I look forward to a contract soon. The book will offer new insights into contemporary India and into methodology in the study of religion, science, and technology.

Right now, I’m in the preliminary (i.e. grant-writing) stage for a new project on Indian handcraft technologies. I’ve got some contacts, now I just need some funding.

Overall, my interest is in how we use technology to enchant and give meaning to the world. To study this, I use ethnographic fieldwork, literature (science fiction) studies, and the hodgepodge of methods that all of us in “religion and science studies” put to use. Regarding the study of religion and science, I am a Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion.