Brenda Doherty
Biographic Data
| ID | 87364 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brenda Doherty |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brenda |
| FAMILY NAME | Doherty |
| SIGNATURE | DOHERTY B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Charles Sturt University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0000-4947 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 18 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
From Conversion to Coercion
Beginning around 2018, and reaching a peak in 2024, the Korean New Religion Shincheonji has entered the Australian cultural imagination as one of a number of sinister ‘Asian cults’ seeking to convert and ‘brainwash’ unwary young Australians. Various individuals and groups—including traditional anti-cult groups, former members, and Christian clergy—have appeared in the media warning about what they claim is the danger posed by this actively prosel…
Australia’s “Cults Crisis”? Some Recent Developments in the “Cult Scene” 2000–2025
Since at least 2020 public concern around “cults” in Australia has emerged from a period of relative abeyance to once again become headline news, attracting significant free-to-air television coverage, numerous podcasts, and growing online activism. This has led to the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry in the State of Victoria. Drawing on a contextual constructionist framework, this article traces the social construction of this episode of…
Shining a light on the degradation of triarylmethane dyes
Investigation of the photochemistry of blue-green triarylmethane dyes. • In-situ analysis revealed light fading triarylmethane dyes on an 1885 cotton dress. • Evidence of two degradation pathways clarifies the dress's conservation state. • Dye substituents affect fading; findings support light-safe museum display. This study examines the fading of the blue-green background in an 1885 printed cotton dress by Edmund Potter & Co., in the collection …
The Twilight of the Devil
Since the early twentieth century, historical accounts of belief in the devil have tended to see the period from the Enlightenment onwards as the nadir of belief in a personified devil, particularly in secularising Europe. While this is demonstrably the case in some regards, more recent scholarship has complicated this picture, and this is particularly salient with reference to sectors of the Roman Catholic Church. This article examines the speci…
The Exorcist Effect
Under the Judgement of the Living God
Since the late nineteenth century, the Phrygian funerary imprecation, known as the Eumeneian formula, has been considered one of the clearest indicators of Christian religious identity on inscriptions from Roman Asia Minor. After a brief précis of the early scholarly history of interpretation of this formula and the historiographical assumptions which underpinned its identification as Christian, this article attempts to reframe how we understand …
Mapping the Territory of the Devil
In 1980 a book appeared which caused a considerable stir across the globe: Michelle Remembers by Lawrence Pazder and Michelle Smith. This book helped set in train what was later referred to by scholars as the "Satanic Panic" or the "Satanism Scare". While the book became infamous, little analysis by scholars has been given to the authors' Roman Catholicism, or more importantly to the wider way in which Catholicism contributed to this moral panic.…
“Cults,” Coercion, and Control
In the face of what has been called an epidemic of domestic and family violence (DFV) in several countries, scholarly analysts, journalists, and policymakers have increasingly turned to the matrix of ideas around what Evan Stark has called coercive control, for insights into the dynamics of abusive relationships. In seeking to address this social problem, some commentators—in both the DFV research space and cultic studies— have begun to see a lin…
‘A chain of deep-laid and premeditated villainy’
The flurry of recent interest in what scholars have dubbed ‘conspirituality’ has focused attention on the intersection between conspiracy theories and the overlapping subcultures of New Age, alternative, and esoteric spirituality. These important insights have also highlighted the extensive histories of cultures of conspiracy which exist within larger religious traditions and the related question of why adherents of specific varieties of religion…
Black Magicians and Foreign Devils in Little Britain
The unlikely literary success of Dennis Wheatley as an author of occult-themed popular fiction has had an integral and lasting impact on British popular ideas about Satanism. Writing between the 1930s and the 1970s, Wheatley’s “Black Magic Stories” pieced together a culturally specific demonology through which he filtered his often reactionary political and social views in the areas of race, class, gender, sexuality, and religion. Wheatley’s writ…
Identifying Brazilwood’s Marker Component, Urolithin C, in Historical Textiles by Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy
The fugitive nature of the colorants obtained from sappanwood (Caesalpinia sappan L.) or the South American species commonly known as ‘brazilwoods’ (including other Caesalpinia species and Paubrasilia echinata (Lam.)) makes the identification of brazilwood dyes and pigments in historic artefacts analytically challenging. This difficulty has been somewhat alleviated recently by the recognition and structural elucidation of a relatively stable mark…
Handle with Care
The late 2018 publication of Donald Westbrook’s Among the Scientologists marks the culmination of a decade of increased scholarship on the Church of Scientology from a variety of scholarly perspectives. In conversation with the Religious Studies Project (RSP) panel on ‘New Directions in the Study of Scientology’ held at the British Association for the Study of Religion (BASR) in November 2018, this academic comment seeks to highlight some of the …
The Smoke of Satan on the Silver Screen
The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) is seen by many conservative Roman Catholics as a decisive turning-point in a wider history of a diabolically-inspired conspiracy against the Church. One facet of this has been a heightened interest in such circles in preternatural phenomena particularly demonic possession-especially as such phenomena locate the Roman Catholic Church as a central player in wider cosmic and salvific events. This article explo…
NMR spectroscopy and micro-analytical techniques for studying the constitutive materials and the state of conservation of an ancient Tapa barkcloth from Polynesia, is. Wallis
Strange Gods in a Great Southern Land
Between 1960 and 2000 Australia witnessed four waves of “cult controversy.” This article provides a historical overview of these controversies. The four historical vignettes presented demonstrate the significance of Australia in the wider global history of the “cult wars” and some of the local societal reactions occasioned by various home grown and international new religious movements that have proved controversial. This article identifies a ser…
Disclosing the composition of historical commercial felt-tip pens used in art by integrated vibrational spectroscopy and pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry
Mark Aarons with John Grenville
DouglasEzzy
Sensational Scientology
The role of communications and information media long has been acknowledged as a key factor in religious controversy. Since the 1970s “cult wars,” new religions scholars have focused considerable attention on how the media communicate, influence and frame public perception of new religious movements. In this article, I briefly survey ways in which constant changes in communications media and consumption require scholars to reassess interaction be…
Non-invasive investigation of a pre-Hispanic Maya screenfold book
AndrewDawson
Durability of the artificial calcium oxalate protective on two Florentine monuments
Non-invasive investigation of a pre-Hispanic Maya screenfold book
Durability of the artificial calcium oxalate protective on two Florentine monuments
Disclosing the composition of historical commercial felt-tip pens used in art by integrated vibrational spectroscopy and pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry
Durability of the artificial calcium oxalate protective on two Florentine monuments
Non-invasive investigation of a pre-Hispanic Maya screenfold book
AndrewDawson
Sensational Scientology
The role of communications and information media long has been acknowledged as a key factor in religious controversy. Since the 1970s “cult wars,” new religions scholars have focused considerable attention on how the media communicate, influence and frame public perception of new religious movements. In this article, I briefly survey ways in which constant changes in communications media and consumption require scholars to reassess interaction be…
DouglasEzzy
Disclosing the composition of historical commercial felt-tip pens used in art by integrated vibrational spectroscopy and pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry
Mark Aarons with John Grenville
The Smoke of Satan on the Silver Screen
The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) is seen by many conservative Roman Catholics as a decisive turning-point in a wider history of a diabolically-inspired conspiracy against the Church. One facet of this has been a heightened interest in such circles in preternatural phenomena particularly demonic possession-especially as such phenomena locate the Roman Catholic Church as a central player in wider cosmic and salvific events. This article explo…
NMR spectroscopy and micro-analytical techniques for studying the constitutive materials and the state of conservation of an ancient Tapa barkcloth from Polynesia, is. Wallis
Strange Gods in a Great Southern Land
Between 1960 and 2000 Australia witnessed four waves of “cult controversy.” This article provides a historical overview of these controversies. The four historical vignettes presented demonstrate the significance of Australia in the wider global history of the “cult wars” and some of the local societal reactions occasioned by various home grown and international new religious movements that have proved controversial. This article identifies a ser…
Identifying Brazilwood’s Marker Component, Urolithin C, in Historical Textiles by Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy
The fugitive nature of the colorants obtained from sappanwood (Caesalpinia sappan L.) or the South American species commonly known as ‘brazilwoods’ (including other Caesalpinia species and Paubrasilia echinata (Lam.)) makes the identification of brazilwood dyes and pigments in historic artefacts analytically challenging. This difficulty has been somewhat alleviated recently by the recognition and structural elucidation of a relatively stable mark…
Handle with Care
The late 2018 publication of Donald Westbrook’s Among the Scientologists marks the culmination of a decade of increased scholarship on the Church of Scientology from a variety of scholarly perspectives. In conversation with the Religious Studies Project (RSP) panel on ‘New Directions in the Study of Scientology’ held at the British Association for the Study of Religion (BASR) in November 2018, this academic comment seeks to highlight some of the …
‘A chain of deep-laid and premeditated villainy’
The flurry of recent interest in what scholars have dubbed ‘conspirituality’ has focused attention on the intersection between conspiracy theories and the overlapping subcultures of New Age, alternative, and esoteric spirituality. These important insights have also highlighted the extensive histories of cultures of conspiracy which exist within larger religious traditions and the related question of why adherents of specific varieties of religion…
Black Magicians and Foreign Devils in Little Britain
The unlikely literary success of Dennis Wheatley as an author of occult-themed popular fiction has had an integral and lasting impact on British popular ideas about Satanism. Writing between the 1930s and the 1970s, Wheatley’s “Black Magic Stories” pieced together a culturally specific demonology through which he filtered his often reactionary political and social views in the areas of race, class, gender, sexuality, and religion. Wheatley’s writ…
“Cults,” Coercion, and Control
In the face of what has been called an epidemic of domestic and family violence (DFV) in several countries, scholarly analysts, journalists, and policymakers have increasingly turned to the matrix of ideas around what Evan Stark has called coercive control, for insights into the dynamics of abusive relationships. In seeking to address this social problem, some commentators—in both the DFV research space and cultic studies— have begun to see a lin…
Under the Judgement of the Living God
Since the late nineteenth century, the Phrygian funerary imprecation, known as the Eumeneian formula, has been considered one of the clearest indicators of Christian religious identity on inscriptions from Roman Asia Minor. After a brief précis of the early scholarly history of interpretation of this formula and the historiographical assumptions which underpinned its identification as Christian, this article attempts to reframe how we understand …
Mapping the Territory of the Devil
In 1980 a book appeared which caused a considerable stir across the globe: Michelle Remembers by Lawrence Pazder and Michelle Smith. This book helped set in train what was later referred to by scholars as the "Satanic Panic" or the "Satanism Scare". While the book became infamous, little analysis by scholars has been given to the authors' Roman Catholicism, or more importantly to the wider way in which Catholicism contributed to this moral panic.…
The Twilight of the Devil
Since the early twentieth century, historical accounts of belief in the devil have tended to see the period from the Enlightenment onwards as the nadir of belief in a personified devil, particularly in secularising Europe. While this is demonstrably the case in some regards, more recent scholarship has complicated this picture, and this is particularly salient with reference to sectors of the Roman Catholic Church. This article examines the speci…
The Exorcist Effect
From Conversion to Coercion
Beginning around 2018, and reaching a peak in 2024, the Korean New Religion Shincheonji has entered the Australian cultural imagination as one of a number of sinister ‘Asian cults’ seeking to convert and ‘brainwash’ unwary young Australians. Various individuals and groups—including traditional anti-cult groups, former members, and Christian clergy—have appeared in the media warning about what they claim is the danger posed by this actively prosel…
Australia’s “Cults Crisis”? Some Recent Developments in the “Cult Scene” 2000–2025
Since at least 2020 public concern around “cults” in Australia has emerged from a period of relative abeyance to once again become headline news, attracting significant free-to-air television coverage, numerous podcasts, and growing online activism. This has led to the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry in the State of Victoria. Drawing on a contextual constructionist framework, this article traces the social construction of this episode of…
Shining a light on the degradation of triarylmethane dyes
Investigation of the photochemistry of blue-green triarylmethane dyes. • In-situ analysis revealed light fading triarylmethane dyes on an 1885 cotton dress. • Evidence of two degradation pathways clarifies the dress's conservation state. • Dye substituents affect fading; findings support light-safe museum display. This study examines the fading of the blue-green background in an 1885 printed cotton dress by Edmund Potter & Co., in the collection …
Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices (11 works) · History (10 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Media, Religion, Digital Communication (6 works) · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Art (4 works)