Gary Laderman, PhD
Goodrich C. White Professor of American Religious History and Cultures

Gary Laderman, Goodrich C. White Professor of American Religious Histories and Cultures, faculty member and content expert in religion, culture, history, and death and dying.
Laderman is writing a book on religion and drugs in contemporary culture, and has written a few books on death in America, popular cultures and religion in America, and a memoir. He has also edited two multivolume encyclopedias, one covering religion and science and the other on American religious cultures.
Education
- BA, Psychology, California State University, Northridge
- MA and PhD, Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
Books
- The Sacred Remains: American Attitudes Toward Death, 1799-1883
- Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in Twentieth-Century America
- Sacred Matters: Celebrity Worship, Sexual Ecstasies, the Living Dead, and other Signs of Religious Life in the United States
- Don't Think About Death: A Memoir on Mortality
Encyclopedias
Public Scholarship
- Religiousness, Psychology Today
- The Rise of Sacred Drugs for Existensial Struggles, Psychology Today
Awards
- Ford Foundation
- Social Scientific Research Council
- Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer
- Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences