Cindy Visscher
Western Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5320 USA
- Ph.D., Sociology, Western Michigan University, 2012
- Religion and health care practices
- Religious belief and health status
Dr. Cindy Visscher is a faculty specialist in the Department of Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University.
Visscher’s work includes an expansion of her thesis, “The impact of religious belief on health status: translating history, culture and religion into successful patient outcome”; and 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 include, “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,” which were both 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.
She participated in a seminar in health and religion research with Harold Koenig, M.D., at Duke University in 2005, and was a Health Forum/American Hospital Association Healthy Communities Fellow for the 2001 program year. Visscher’s teaching experience includes:
- Religions of the World
- Principles of Sociology
- Modern Social Problems
In all three courses, she introduces students to the importance of cultural understanding and how our worldviews affect perceptions of self, others and our experiences. She also teaches REL 3180: Death, Dying and Beyond.