Carole M. Cusack received her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Religious Studies and English Literature from the University of Sydney in 1986. She later graduated PhD in Studies in Religion in 1996 and Master of Education (Educational Psychology) in 2001. She has taught in Studies in Religions since 1989, first as a casual tutor and lecturer, and from 1996 as a full-time staff member. The units she teaches include RLST 1002 The History of God, RLST 2626 Witchcraft, Paganism and the New Age, RLST 2631 Celtic and Germanic Mythology, RLST 2627 Religion in Multicultural Australia and RLST 2605 Christianity and the Medieval World.

Her research interests include medieval European religion, religious conversion, medieval and modern Paganism, contemporary religious trends, alternative spiritualities and new religious movements. She is the editor (with Dr Christopher Hartney, University of Sydney) of the Journal of Religious History, and (with Dr Liselotte Frisk, Dalarna University, Sweden) the International Journal for the Study of New Religions. She has a close relationship with the University of Edinburgh, where she takes her Special Studies Program Leave and has taught on exchange in 2009.

Carole is also involved in many Faculty of Arts and University initiatives. She is Associate Dean (Undergraduate Matters), serves as a Mentor for the Institute for Teaching and Learning, is on the organizing committee of the Arts Tutor Development Program, and is a School Representative with the Arts on Track program for undergraduate students at risk.

Carole supervises research postgraduates and Honours students in medieval religion, New Age studies, European mythology, Christian conversion, religion and new media, Pagan Studies, pilgrimage and tourism, witchcraft and magic, and new religious movements.

• Faculty of Arts Excellence in Teaching Award (2004)
  
• CHASS Excellence in Research Higher Degree Supervision Award (2006)

• Medieval Christianity
• European Mythology
• Theories of Conversion
• Western Esotericism
• Contemporary Religious Trends

• Publications (refereed)
• Carole M. Cusack, “New Religions and the Science of Archaeology: Mormons, the Goddess and Atlantis,” in James R. Lewis (ed.), How Religions Appeal to the Authority of Science, Brill, Leiden, 2010, in press.
• Carole M. Cusack, “Science Fiction as Scripture: Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land and the Church of All Worlds,” in Christopher Hartney and Alex Norman (eds), Creative Fantasy and the Religious Imagination, SSLA, Sydney, 2010, in press.
• Carole M. Cusack and Jason H. Prior, “Spiritual Dimensions of Self Transformation in Sydney’s Gay Bathhouses,” Journal of Homosexuality, Vol. 57, 2010, in press.
• Carole M. Cusack, ‘Sport and Religion: Rituals of Everyday Life,’ in Vincent Biondo III (ed.), Religion in the Practice of Everyday Life, 3 vols., Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 2010, in press.
• Carole M. Cusack and Jason H. Prior, “Religion, Sexuality and Retribution: Placing the ‘Other’ in Sydney,” in Carole M. Cusack and Christopher H. Hartney (eds), Religion and Retributive Logic: Essays in Honour of Professor Garry W. Trompf, Brill, Leiden, 2010, pp. 347-368.
• Carole M. Cusack and Christopher H. Hartney (eds), Religion and Retributive Logic: Essays in Honour of Professor Garry W. Trompf, Brill, Leiden, 2010,
• Carole M.Cusack, “Fiction, Feminism and the ‘Celtic Church’: The Sister Fidelma Novels of Peter Tremayne,” in Pamela O’Neill (ed.), The Celts in Legend and Reality, 2009 in press.
• Carole M. Cusack and Justine Digance, “The Melbourne Cup: Australian Identity and Secular Pilgrimage,” Sport and Society, Vol. 12, No. 7, September 2009, pp. 876-889.
• Carole M. Cusack and Justine Digance, “Pastoral Care and September 11: Scientology’s Non-Traditional Religious Contribution,” in James R. Lewis (ed.), Scientology, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 435-437.
• Carole M. Cusack, “Celebrity, the Popular Media, and Scientology: Making Familiar the Unfamiliar,” in James R. Lewis (ed.), Scientology, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 289-409.

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