Hester Elsa Oberman

Dr. Oberman’s research focuses on the intersection between spiritual/religious experiences and observable scientific data. Her recent areas of research include religion and violence; the psychology of spirituality; the nature of belief in the twenty-first century; and the influence of faith traditions and spirituality in health care and medicine. She teaches interdisciplinary courses in the Religious Studies Program on religion, psychology, and science, which are crosslisted with the Department of Psychology and the Department of Philosophy. She also teaches for the University of Arizona Honors College. 

Dr. Oberman is Vice-President of the American Academy of Religion in the Western Region (AAR/WR), and a chair of the AAR/WR sections on Philosophy of Religion and Psychology, Culture and Religion. She has published “A Postmodern Perspective on Mental Health, Spirituality, and Religion: Bridging Humanities and Scientific Views of Religion in the Twenty-first Century,” the final chapter in Mental Health, Spirituality, and Religion in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age (De Gruyter, 2014). Her current book project is titled Postmodern Perspectives on Mental Health, Spirituality, and Religion.

Area of Specialization: 

Modern Religious Thought, Psychology of Spirituality and Religion, and Religion & Science