Cynthia Visscher

Photo of Cynthia Visscher
Cynthia Visscher (Cindy)
Master Faculty Specialist and Graduate Advisor (Spirituality, Culture and Health Program)
Office: 
(269) 387-4394
Location: 
2010 Moore Hall, Mail Stop 5320
Mailing address: 
Department of Comparative Religion
Western Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5320 USA
Office hours: 

Webex virtual office hours on Thursdays from 2 to 4p.m. and by appointment.

Education: 
  • Ph.D., Sociology, Western Michigan University, 2012
  • M.A., Comparative Religion, Western Michigan University, 2007
  • M.B.A, Grand Valley State University, 1990
Teaching interests: 
  • Religions of the world
  • Death, dying and beyond
  • Graduate courses in spirituality, culture and health in development
Research interests: 
  • Religious diversity and pluralism in the United States
  • Spirituality, culture and health
  • Interfaith relations
Bio: 

Dr. Cindy Visscher is a faculty specialist in the Department of Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University. Visscher serves as the graduate advisor for the spirituality, culture and health master's or certificate program.

Her work includes an expansion of her M.A. thesis on the impact of religious belief on health status and her dissertation which is a case study of the religious aspects of the 1893 Columbian Exposition exploring inter-religious social interaction during the third wave of immigration in the United States. Her publications, Eye on Religion: Understanding the Cultural/Religious Mélange in Treating Japanese Patients and Eye on Religion: Understanding the Cultural/Religious Mélange in Treating Chinese Patients, were included in a health and religion series in the Southern Medical Journal in 2006. Health Care and Spirituality: spiritually sensitive care of the terminally ill Muslim patient was published in the Interreligious Insight journal in 2005.

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