List of Titles

ASMR, affect and digitally-mediated intimacy

- Smith, Naomi, Snider, Anne-Marie

Authors: Smith, Naomi , Snider, Anne-Marie
Date: 2019
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Emotion, Space and Society Vol. 30, no. (2019), p. 41-48
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Description: ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) is the pseudo-scientific term used to describe a ‘tingly’ physical response that viewers of ASMR videos may experience from watching a combination of auditory, visual and tactile triggers. To explore how this might happen, we examine the experience of ASMR as a technologically-mediated, affective experience, using examples from prominent ASMR artists. We seek to understand this community of ASMR viewers through the disjuncture that exists between the embodied experience of tingles and deep relaxation, and its technologically-mediated delivery. In this paper, we explore ASMR as a mediated affective experience – uniquely shaped by online spaces and their affordances. After providing a brief overview of ASMR videos and creators, we explore how ASMR artists engage in boundary work through the definitions of ASMR that they produce to support a quest for cultural and scientific legitimacy. The practice of naming and defining ASMR creates a site affective 'stickiness’, where affective experiences are intentionally constructed and strategically heightened. Finally, we examine the provocations that research into ASMR may bring an understanding of the senses, affect and technologically-mediated intimacy.

Healing, faith and fear : church opening in the United States during COVID-19 restrictions

- Smith, Naomi, Snider, Anne-Marie

Authors: Smith, Naomi , Snider, Anne-Marie
Date: 2023
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Journal of Contemporary Religion Vol. 38, no. 2 (2023), p. 283-304
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Description: This article examines how resistance to stay-at-home orders was framed to congregants through sermons and in statements to media outlets. Using an approach informed by grounded theory, we analysed news articles of church behaviour and the YouTube videos of sermons from pastors that protested against COVID-19 guidelines from March 2020 to November 2020. We also draw on legal filings to identify churches that most actively resisted closures. In analysing these publicly available data, a relationship between church openings in the United States and an evangelical theology of resistance particular to non-denominational churches to public health efforts emerged. Our analysis found that ‘largely evangelical’ churches that are not considered part of a mainline evangelical denomination were more likely to seek ways to remain open in defiance of public health orders. We use the terms ‘largely evangelical’ and ‘mainline evangelical’ to distinguish these two very different denominational families. Evidence from this article suggests that evangelical Christian churches in the US that are not considered ‘mainline evangelical’ denominations (e.g. non-denominational, Pentecostal) were more likely to resist stay-at-home orders and more prepared to be legally active in resisting such policies and gather indoors (as opposed to Catholic churches and ‘mainline evangelical’ denominations). © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Recovery from depression : re-envisioning the connection between recovery and spirituality

- Snider, Anne-Marie, Smith, Naomi

Authors: Snider, Anne-Marie , Smith, Naomi
Date: 2021
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Mental Health and Social Inclusion Vol. 25, no. 1 (2021), p. 88-102
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Description: Purpose: This paper aims to respond to the following question: What does ongoing recovery from depression look like, and what role might spirituality have for individuals’ meanings of recovery if it has any meaning at all? Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the authors reconceptualize recovery from depression as ritual, as ongoing recovery, or recovery as a process, resonated with many of the 40 participants (all ages) from the study, and much of the sociological literature on recovery from depression (Fullagar and O’Brien, 2012; Garrett, 1997, 1998; Karp, 1994, 1996, 2016; O’Brien, 2012). To explore the interplay between participants’ accounts of recovery as ongoing, and the meanings of spirituality, the authors used a ritual analysis inspired by Collins (2004). Findings: From the accounts presented in this paper, the authors suggest that participants are, if subconsciously, using objects with a special or spiritual significance to filter through their thoughts and memories as a way to create what Collins (2004) calls an emotional charge. The authors argue that these emotional charges assist people with lived experiences of depression in distancing from, and reconnecting to, certain social ties, including a particular family member, friend or social group, as part of their recovery. The authors are calling this process, ritual distancing. Originality/value: Recovery from depression includes a process of reconnection to the self and others, and this process sometimes includes a self-defined spirituality (in objects and social connections). © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Spirituality as ‘detachment’ and ‘comfort’ in the context of depression

- Snider, Anne-Marie, Smith, Naomi

Authors: Snider, Anne-Marie , Smith, Naomi
Date: 2021
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Journal for the Study of Spirituality Vol. 11, no. 2 (2021), p. 117-129
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Description: For this study, 40 people with a diagnosis of depression were interviewed about their conceptualisations of spirituality and religion, and whether or not this had an effect on their personal recovery from depression. The aim of the study was to explore the meanings of spirituality in the context of depression. Using a thematic analysis guided by a multi-perspective approach, this paper adds two novel qualities to the meanings of spirituality in the context of depression: ‘detachment’ and ‘comfort’. These are discussed in relation to research on the effects of spirituality on depression, and to current thematic research on experiences of spirituality among adults diagnosed with depression. The findings of this study are speculative and exploratory in nature. © 2021 International Network for the Study of Spirituality and Taylor & Francis.

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