1999 – Present: Professor of Religious Studies, Department of Humanities, Mount Royal University, Calgary, AB, Canada.

2008 – Present – Affiliate Professor, Department of Religion, Concordia University, Montréal.

2005 – 2007: Visiting Research Professor, Programa de Estudos Pós-Graduados em Ciências da Religião, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, Brazil.

2014 – 2017: Professor Colaborador, Programa de Estudos Pós-Graduados em Ciências da Religião, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, Brazil.

1999: Ph.D. Religion, Concordia University, Montréal.

1989: M.A. Philosophy, University of Toronto.

Steven Engler is Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Humanities at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Canada, and Affiliate Professor in the Department of Religions and Cultures at Concordia University in Montréal. He was a visiting professor at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo from 2005–2007. He studies Brazilian esoteric spirit-incorporation religions (Umbanda and Kardecism), with publications on Quimbanda, popular Catholicism and Neo-Pentecostalism. He works also on theory, meta-theory, and methodology (primarily grounded theory and coding). Since 2007, he has been working with philosopher Mark Gardiner on the intersection between the study of religions and Donald Davidson’s semantic theory. In addition to these areas, he teaches courses on esotericism and magic, death/afterlife, apocalypticism, religion and film, and religion and the fantastic.

Engler, Steven, and Mark Gardiner. Forthcoming. “Definition” In The Oxford Handbook of Esotericism, edited by Henrik Bogdan. Oxford University Press.

Engler, Steven. In press. “Esoteric Umbanda and Umbanda esotérica” In El Esoterismo occidental en Iberoamérica (siglos XVI-XXI), edited by Marco Pasi and Juan Bubello. Editorial de la Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Engler, Steven, Cristina Borges, Alexandre F.S. Kaitel and Guaraci M. Dos Santos. In press. “Quimbanda and Ritual Polyphony in Minas Gerais, Brazil.” In Religions in the Américas: Transcultural and Transhemispheric Approaches, edited by Chris Tirres and Jessica Delgado. University of New Mexico Press.

Engler, Steven. In press. “Grounded Theory.” In Handbook of Methods and Methodologies for the Social Sciences, edited by Allison Anders and Bethany Bell. Routledge.

Engler, Steven, and Mark Gardiner. Advance access. “The Semantics of Afro-Brazilian Spirits: Applying Davidson on Prior and Passing Theories” Religious Studies.

Engler, Steven. 2024. Tradition: A Critical Primer. Equinox Engler, Steven, and Mark Gardiner. 2024. “(Re)defining Esotericism: Fluid Definitions, Property Clusters and the Cross-cultural Debate.” Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 24(2): 151–207.
Engler, Steven. 2023. “Umbanda: Hybridity, Tradition and Semantic Plurality.” Interdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society 9: 311–334.

Engler, Steven, and Mark Gardiner. 2022 “Religion, Translation, Semantics.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Religion, edited by Hephzibah Israel, 23–37. Routledge.
Engler, Steven, and Mark Gardiner. 2022. “Theorizing and Analysis” In The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Religion, 2nd ed., edited by Steven Engler and Michael Stausberg, 110–133. Routledge.

Engler, Steven. 2022. “Grounded Theory.” In The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Religion, 2nd ed., edited by Steven Engler and Michael Stausberg, 300–313. Routledge.

Engler, Steven, Tanya Marie Luhrmann, Emily Winter and Andy Alaszewski. 2022. “Coding” In The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Religion, 2nd ed., edited by Steven Engler and Michael Stausberg, 513–531. Routledge.

Engler, Steven, and Michael Stausberg, eds. 2022. The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Religion. 2nd ed. Routledge.

Fujiwara, Satoko, David Thurfjel and Steven Engler, eds. 2021. Global Phenomenologies of Religion: An Oral History in Interviews. Equinox.

Engler, Steven. “Umbanda: Afro-Brazilian or Esoteric?” 2020. Open Library of Humanities 6(1): 1–36.

Engler, Steven. 2019. “Theory-building: Working the Theory-data Spectrum.” Horizonte 17(53): 569–588.

Engler, Steven, and Mark Gardiner. 2017. “Semantics and the Sacred.” Religion 47(4): 616–640.

“Dona Benta’s Rosary: Managing Ambiguity in a Brazilian Women’s Prayer Group.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 84/3 (2016): 776–805.

Stausberg, Michael, and Steven Engler, eds. 2016. The Oxford Handbook of the Study of Religion. Oxford University Press.

Schmidt, Bettina E., and Steven Engler, eds. 2016.  Handbook of Contemporary Religions in Brazil. Brill.