Helen Berger

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-than-human world can help to create a self, particularly a gendered self, a community, and connections to the larger world.

She has published four books, an edited volume, and numerous articles on the topic. Her most recent book is Solitary Pagans: Contemporary Witches, Wiccans, and others who practice alone. She is currently writing a book on right-wing Pagans in which she explores their connection to the far-right in the U.S., the larger contemporary Pagan movement, and earlier Nazi spirituality. Her work explores the way right-wing Pagans reframe issues common among traditionally more progressive contemporary Pagans—such as environmentalism, the questioning of gender roles, and critiques of modernity—within a right-wing agenda. She is also beginning a new research project on death and dying among contemporary Pagans, looking specifically at Pagan rituals around death and the attempts by Pagans to provide environmentally conscious burials.