Kelly E. Hayes is a Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University–Indianapolis and a permanent fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies – Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective (CAS-E) at the University of Erlangen–Nürnberg in Germany.

An ethnographer committed to long-term fieldwork, Hayes specializes in new and alternative religious communities in Brazil, the U.S., and Europe. Her research focuses on groups often dismissed by outsiders as “cults” or “black magic”—forms of supernatural engagement that mainstream society deems illegitimate. She explores how individuals imagine, invoke, and materialize otherworldly beings—from the African-derived orixás of Brazilian Candomblé to the highly evolved extraterrestrials central to UFO religions.

Her latest book, Spirits of the Space Age: The Imagined World of Brazil’s Valley of the Dawn (Oxford University Press, 2024), offers a comprehensive ethnographic study of this unique religious community, which blends Brazilian spiritual traditions with space-age cosmology and elaborate material culture. Through this and other work, Hayes examines how certain beliefs, behaviors, and desires become normative while others are marginalized, and how contemporary religious communities forge meaning and identity in a rapidly changing world.

  • Ph.D., History of Religions, University of Chicago, 2004 ​
  • M.A., Religious Studies, University of Chicago, 1996
  • B.A. (Honors), Independent Major, Non-Western Religious Traditions, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1991 ​

My teaching explores religion as a lived, embodied, and culturally embedded phenomenon, drawing on my expertise in Brazilian religions, spirit mediumship, esotericism, ritual, healing, gender, and visual culture. I teach courses ranging from introductory surveys such as Introduction to Religion to upper-level seminars including Religion and Healing, where students examine the intersections of belief, practice, identity, health, and social life across diverse religious traditions. My courses emphasize critical thinking, close engagement with ethnographic and historical sources, and the application of theory to contemporary issues. I employ student-centered, discussion-based pedagogies that encourage active learning, collaborative inquiry, and reflective analysis. Through activities, case studies, multimedia materials, and research-based assignments, I seek to help students develop cultural literacy, intellectual curiosity, and the analytical skills necessary to understand religion's complex role in human experience and society.

Monographs

Book Chapters (partial)

  • ​Hayes, K.E. (submitted). ”Materializing Transcendental Heritages: Aesthetic Practice and the Making of Esoteric Practitioners at Brazil’s Valley of the Dawn.” Esotericism and Visual Arts in Latin America: Experiences, Practices and Representations, eds. Mariano Villalba and Mauricio Oviedo. Leiden: Brill.
  • ​Hayes, K.E. and K. Graw (2026). “Divination and Mediumship Compared: A Dialogical Essay on the Logic of Ritual Consultations in Senegal and Brazil.” Comparing Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective: Experiments in Collaborative Authorship, eds. Bernd-Christian Otto and Michael Lackner. Leiden: Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004743625-003
  • ​Hayes, K.E. (2026). “Becoming a Master: Materializing Esoteric Wisdom in Brazil’s Valley of the Dawn.” Esoteric Practices and Alternative Rationalities: A Global Perspective, eds. Dominik Müller, Andreas Nehring, and Raquel Romberg. Leiden: Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004736245-016
  • ​Hayes, K.E. (2022) “The High Magic of Jesus Christ: Materializing Secrets in Brazil’s Valley of the Dawn,” The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy, eds. Paul C. Johnson and Hugh Urban, 243-257. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Religion-and-Secrecy/Urban-Johnson/p/book/9780367857417
  • ​Hayes, K.E. (2021). “Spirits of the Space Age: The Valley of the Dawn as a UFO Religion,” Handbook of UFO Religions, ed. Benjamin Zeller, 425-451. Leiden: Brill. https://brill.com/view/title/57043?rskey=akvbBn&result=4
  • ​Hayes, K.E. (2019). “Black Magic and Sexuality in Brazil,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, ed. William Beezley.
  • ​Hayes, K.E. (2018). “Where Men are Knights and Women are Princesses: Gender Ideology in Brazil's Valley of the Dawn,” Irreverence and the Sacred: Critical Studies in the History of Religions, eds. Hugh Urban and Greg Johnson, 197-226. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • ​Hayes, K.E. (2016). “Women and Religion in Brazil,” Brill Handbook of Contemporary Religions in Brazil, eds. Bettina Schmidt and Steven Engler, 395-430. Leiden: Brill.

Articles in Journals (partial)

  • Roberto Reis Senior Scholar Book Award for Spirits of the Space Age (2026)
  • ​IUI Arts and Humanities Institute International Collaboration grant (2026)
  • ​IUI Sarah Baker High Impact Practice Teaching Award (2025)
  • ​IUI Outstanding Mentor​ (2024)
  • ​​IUI School of Liberal Arts Teacher of the Year​ (2019)
  • IU Consortium for the Study of Religion, Ethics & Society Seminar (2018-2019)
  • ​​IUI Arts and Humanities Institute project grant​ (2010, 2014, 2017)
  • ​​IUI Summer Research and Creative Activity grant​ (2009, 2015)
  • ​​Thomas Robbins Award, Excellence in the Study of New Religions​ (2013)
  • Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant (Brazil) (2012)
  • ​​IU New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities grant​ (2006, 2012)
  • ​​IUI Research Frontiers Trailblazer award​ (2011)

  • Faculty mentor, Religious Studies, 2009 - present.
  • Community Engagement Associate faculty mentor, 2022-present.
  • SLA Teaching and Advising committee, member, 2021-2023.
  • IU Presidential Arts and Humanities Review Committee, member, 2020-2021.
  • IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute Committee, member, 2009-2011

My academic interests center on the study of lived religion, with particular emphasis on Brazilian religious traditions, esoteric movements, spirit mediumship, healing practices, and the material and visual dimensions of religious experience. As an ethnographer, I am interested in how individuals and communities create meaning through ritual, narrative, embodiment, and sacred space. My research examines the ways religious ideas are mediated through objects, images, architecture, performance, and the senses, as well as how alternative religious communities negotiate questions of identity, authority, gender, and belonging. More broadly, I am interested in the relationship between religion and culture, the formation of religious worlds, and the diverse ways contemporary people understand their lives through relationships with beings, forces, or realities that lie beyond the material world.