Kelly E. Hayes

Kelly E. Hayes is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University-Indianapolis (USA). She earned a Ph.D. in the History of Religions at the University of Chicago and has been conducting field research on religion in Brazil since 1997. The author of Holy Harlots: Femininity, Sexuality, and Black Magic in Brazil (University of California Press, 2011) as well as numerous scholarly articles, Hayes is interested in the myriad ways that religious practitioners make otherwise invisible spiritual powers present through visual and material means. Currently she is writing a book about the Valley of the Dawn, an alternative Brazilian religion known for its colorful rituals and imaginative synthesis of elements drawn from Christianity, Spiritualism, Afro-Brazilian religions, and various esoteric traditions.