William W. McCorkle Jr.

William "Lee" Wagner McCorkle Jr. is an evolutionary anthropologist interested in the interface between cognition, culture, and religion. He completed (2007) his doctoral research at the Institute of Cognition and Culture at the Queen's University, Belfast under the supervision of Professor E. Thomas Lawson and Professor Harvey Whitehouse (Oxford University). Dr. McCorkle's research examined the nature of ritualized disposal behavior of humans cross culturally (especially in regards to Buddhist traditions). Moreover, his most recent research has concentrated on the evolution of ritual behavior in vertical (generation to generation) and horizontal (peer to peer) transmission.

Career

Dr. McCorkle currently lectures on the topic of cognition and culture and is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Webster University, St. Louis. He has also lectured at the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and for the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Winthrop University. He has presented papers at conferences internationally on topics ranging from early Indian Buddhism, ritualized compulsions and ritual behavior, disgust and contagion, the psychology of branding cultural representations, personality and culture, and theory and method in the study of religion and culture (especially as it pertains to the history of the field and the interface between explanation and interpretation type theorizing). He is also the deputy treasurer for the International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion.

Publications

"Memes, genes, and dead machines: Evolutionary anthropology of death and burial" (2008) in "The Evolution of Religion" edited by J. Bulbulia "et al". Santa Margarita: Collins Foundation Press.

"From corpse to concept: Beyond meaning in the ritualized treatment of dead bodies" (2008/forthcoming) in "Origins of Religion" edited by A. Geertz London: Equinox Press LTD.

Forthcoming Conference Presentations

May 30-31 2008 Religious Ritual, Cognition and Culture. The University of Aarhus, Denmark. Paper: When Compulsion becomes Script: The Vertical Transmission of Ritual Form. http://www.teo.au.dk/en/research/current/cognition

Sept 7-11 2008 The 8th annual conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR) will be held at the Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. "Time of Decline, Time of Hope: Scientific, Cultural and Political Engagement of the Study of Religions." Paper: "The Fate of Religious Studies: The Future of an Illusion." http://www.phil.muni.cz/relig/easr2008/

Sept 29 - Oct. 2 2008 International Conference at the University of Heidelberg, Germany: "Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual." Panel: Rituals, Language and Cognition. Paper: "When Meaning Doesn't Matter Anymore: Personality Traits and Cognitive Constraints Concerning the Ritualized Disposal of Dead Bodies." http://www.rituals-2008.com/panels.php

Nov 1-3 2008 American Academy of Religion, Chicago, IL. Panel: Ritual Studies. Paper: "When Dead Bodies do Tell Tales: A Cognitive Theory on the Ritualized Disposal of Dead Bodies." http://www.aarweb.org/

Other Interests

His other interests include Music under the name Leisure McCorkle. He currently has released four cd's Nappy Superstar (1997/1998), American Ghetto Pop Machine (1999), Beautiful (2000), and Jet Set Baby (2002). He plans to release a fifth album 5000 Light Years Beyond the Speed of Sound in 2008/2009. His website is www.leisuremccorkle.com.

Related Links

cognitive science of religion,
cognitive science of culture,
evolutionary psychology,
evolutionary anthropology,
history of religions,
Indian Mahayana Buddhism,
mortuary rituals,
ritual studies,
International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion IACSR,
American Academy of Religion,
American Anthropological Association,