Areas of specialization: U.S.-based Religion, New Religious Movements, Histories of the Devil, Religion and Popular Culture, and Trans Studies in Religion
Prof. Selke teaches courses on contemporary American religion, histories of Christianity, popular culture, social justice, and the paranormal. Their research and teaching centralizes the interweaving relationships between demonization, monstrification, and dehumanization within the context of marginalized groups, especially for trans and queer peoples.
Their research investigates contemporary and historical popular manifestations of the Satanic figure in Satanism, Occultism, and Witchcraft through a transgender lens. Their dissertation, entitled Trans Pandemonium: The Gendered and Sexual Mutability of Demonic Representations in Contemporary Television, examines mediatization and the politics of visibility through the transing and de-transing of various historical Satanic figures within contemporary television and film, most notably the Baphomet, Lilith, Lucifer, and Beelzebub. Using these filmic representations, the final chapters of their dissertation consider the impact of trans demonization within American Politics, Leftist Satanist movements, and the Religious Right.