Kira Ganga Kieffer, "Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America" (Princeton UP, 2026)

About this episode

Kira Ganga Kieffer discusses her research on religion and vaccine hesitancy in America, focusing on the intersection of spirituality and consumer culture.

Kira Ganga Kieffer (Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Wesleyan University; PhD, Boston University, 2023) studies contemporary American spiritualities, health, gender, and marketing. Her first book, a history of religion and vaccine skepticism, Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America (Princeton UP, 2026), is forthcoming from Princeton University Press. She is the author of “Smelling Things: Essential Oils and Essentialism in Contemporary American Spirituality,” in Religion & American Culture (2021) and “Manifesting Millions: How Women’s Spiritual Entrepreneurship Genders Capitalism,” in Nova Religio (2020), which received the Thomas Robbins Award for Article of the Year. She has written for Religion & Politics, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Religion for Breakfast. Kieffer uses textual analysis of spiritual marketing materials to discover how consumer culture creates religious concepts within a secular context. Focused on spiritual items and practices that are marketed to women, Kieffer compares the usage of essential oils by three very different groups of spiritual practitioners: contemporary yogis, evangelical…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guest: Kira Ganga Kieffer

Topics covered

• vaccine hesitancy
• religion
• spirituality
• consumer culture
• essential oils
• gender

Keywords

• vaccine skepticism
• spiritual marketing
• essential oils
• American spirituality
• gender and health

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Wesleyan University, Boston University, Princeton University Press, Religion & American Culture, Nova Religio, Religion & Politics, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Religion for Breakfast

Books & works: Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America, Smelling Things: Essential Oils and Essentialism in Contemporary American Spirituality, Manifesting Millions: How Women’s Spiritual Entrepreneurship Genders Capitalism

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