# Affiliated Researchers ## expand\_more [### Frederique Apffel-Marglin ](/people/frederique-apffel-marglin) Research Affiliate Frédérique Apffel-Marglin, PhD is Professor Emerita, Department of Anthropology at Smith College. She has also taught at Harvard University, Wellesley College, and Wesleyan University. She founded the Sachamama Center for BioCultural Regeneration (SCBR)... ![Frederique headshot](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2026-05/Frederique%20Appfel-Maglin.jpeg?itok=Q4YE4Jkp) [### Helen Berger ](/people/helen-berger) Research Affiliate Helen A. Berger received her PhD in sociology from New York University. She specializes in the study of Witches, Wiccans, and other contemporary Pagans. Her research and publications explore how magic as an engagement with the other-than-human and more... ![Photo of Helen Berger smiling into the camera](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2024-09/Helen%20Berger_photo.jpg?h=d1453653&itok=C_HPS0_k) [### Phyllis Cole ](/people/phyllis-cole)Research Associate, Transcendentalism Initiative Phyllis Cole is a past fellow of Harvard Divinity School's Women's Studies in Religion Program and currently a Professor Emerita of English, Women's Studies, and American Studies at Penn State Brandywine. She has been an officer or board member of the... ![Phyllis Cole](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-07/image1.jpg?itok=nHP26UPZ) [### Richard Higgins ](/people/richard-higgins) Associate, Transcendentalism Initiative Richard Higgins is a writer, book coach and the author or editor of five books, including, most recently, Thoreau’s God , from the University of Chicago Press, which explores Thoreau’s iconoclastic religious quest, and Thoreau and the Language of Trees... ![Richard Higgins' Image](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2026-05/RH2.jpg?h=2baa4184&itok=jCZHsksH) [### John Kaag ](/people/john-kaag) Associate, Transcendentalism Initiative John Kaag is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. His research and teaching focus on American philosophy, existentialism, and the history of ideas. He is the author of American Philosophy: A Love Story (FSG, 2016), Hiking... ![John Kaag](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-08/John_Kaag.jpg?itok=iNoOGVHw) [### Nicholas Low ](/people/nicholas-low) Associate, Transcendentalism Initiative Nicholas Low received an MTS in Philosophy of Religions from Harvard Divinity School, and received his PhD from Harvard University, Committee on the Study of Religion in November 2023. His research focuses on points of contact between theology, religion... ![Nicholas Low headshot](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/hds_cswr/files/nicholaslow_400x400.jpg?itok=2gUHFpEi) [### Megan Marshall ](/people/megan-marshall) Associate, Transcendentalism Initiative Megan Marshall is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Margaret Fuller: A New American Life (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013), Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013), and The Peabody Sisters (Mariner, 2006), a... ![Megan Marshall looking into the camera](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2026-03/MM%20author%20photo%20head%20shot%20Sarah%20Putnam.jpg?itok=65sQgv8x) [### Francesco Piraino ](/people/francesco-piraino) Associate Francesco Piraino is a sociologist of religion, culture, and art. He obtained his PhD in Sociology in 2016 at the Scuola Normale Superiore (Florence) and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris), and have held research positions at KU... ![Francesco Piraino headshot](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/hds_cswr/files/francescopiraino_400x400.jpg?itok=og4MZAJD) [### Sarah Schorr ](/people/sarah-schorr) Artist in Residence Sarah Schorr is an artist-in-residence at the Center for the Study of Religion at Harvard Divinity School. A captivation with light, water, and modes of embodied contemplation runs through her work. Her new book, Ephemeral Field Journal: Climate + Love in... ![Sarah Schorr](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2024-08/Sarah-Schorr-400x400.jpg?itok=meS_Jw-Y)