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Outputs (29)

To study religion and media, we need to teach religion and media: economic realities, challenges, and future directions (2025)
Journal Article
Ornella, A. (2025). To study religion and media, we need to teach religion and media: economic realities, challenges, and future directions. Journal for Religion, Film and Media, 11(1), 27-48. https://doi.org/10.25364/05.11%3A2025.1.3

Universities in the United Kingdom, and also in the United States, Austria, and Germany, are facing increased financial pressures. This has already led to the closure of religious studies departments and courses. Course closures impact not only the s... Read More about To study religion and media, we need to teach religion and media: economic realities, challenges, and future directions.

Panic, Loss, Gratitude, and Sanity: The Impact of COVID-19 Gym Closures on the Experience of Community in CrossFit (2025)
Book Chapter
Ornella, A. D. (2025). Panic, Loss, Gratitude, and Sanity: The Impact of COVID-19 Gym Closures on the Experience of Community in CrossFit. In M. Quidu, B. Favier-Ambrosini, & M. Delalandre (Eds.), À la conquête de la forme: Regards sociologiques sur le marché du fitness (83-104). Presses universitaires de Grenoble

“Welcome to CrossFit: Join the World’s leading platform for health, happiness, and performance” – the CrossFit.com website advertises in bold letters. The background image features a group of athletes running, working out together, smiling. Health, h... Read More about Panic, Loss, Gratitude, and Sanity: The Impact of COVID-19 Gym Closures on the Experience of Community in CrossFit.

The Serious Side of Fun (2024)
Digital Artefact
Ornella, A., & Orton, B. (2024). The Serious Side of Fun. [Podcast]

The Ludicast: Ludic Pedagogy Lab

Podcast
Our guests today are Dr. Alexander Ornella and Dr. Bev Orton from Hull University in the United Kingdom. Dr. Ornella is a Senior Lecturer in Religion and the Director for Education and Student Experience.... Read More about The Serious Side of Fun.

Editorial: Paradise Lost - Romanticizing as Playing the Imagined Past (2023)
Journal Article
Ornella, A. D., & Bosman, F. (2023). Editorial: Paradise Lost - Romanticizing as Playing the Imagined Past. Journal for Religion, Film and Media, 9(1), 7-11. https://doi.org/10.25364/05.9%3A2023.1.1

Volume 9, No. 1
Paradise Lost. Presentation of Nostalgic Longing in Digital Games

Issue description

Since Milton’s poem, the notion of “Paradise Lost” (1667) has found its way into popular culture in general and digital games specifically. Whi... Read More about Editorial: Paradise Lost - Romanticizing as Playing the Imagined Past.

“Short Film Is Where Innovative Storytelling Is Born” Using the Science Fiction Short Film in the Religious Studies and Sociology Classroom (2022)
Journal Article
Ornella, A. D. (2022). “Short Film Is Where Innovative Storytelling Is Born” Using the Science Fiction Short Film in the Religious Studies and Sociology Classroom. Journal for Religion, Film and Media, 8(2), 49-64. https://doi.org/10.25364/05.8%3A2022.2.4

“Short film is where innovative storytelling is born”, the website shortoftheweek.com, a curated short film website, boldly and proudly declares. Short films often lead a Cinderella existence but engaging with them can be immensely rewarding and, due... Read More about “Short Film Is Where Innovative Storytelling Is Born” Using the Science Fiction Short Film in the Religious Studies and Sociology Classroom.

“Why nature won’t save us from climate change but technology will”: Creating a New Heaven and a New Earth Through Carbon Capture Technologies (2021)
Book Chapter
Ornella, A. (2021). “Why nature won’t save us from climate change but technology will”: Creating a New Heaven and a New Earth Through Carbon Capture Technologies. In S. Maasen, & D. Atwood (Eds.), Immanente Religion - Transzendente Technologie : Technologiediskurse und gesellschaftliche Grenzüberschreitungen (193-223). Verlag Barbara Budrich

Warnings about climate change often come wrapped in apocalyptic language and scenarios, often as a rhetorical strategy to convey the sense of urgency with which action is required. Similarly, technologies that promise to deliver us from the impending... Read More about “Why nature won’t save us from climate change but technology will”: Creating a New Heaven and a New Earth Through Carbon Capture Technologies.

The art of the circus : an exploration of the circus within its social, historical, and cultural contexts (2019)
Thesis
Ward, S. E. The art of the circus : an exploration of the circus within its social, historical, and cultural contexts. (Thesis). University of Hull. https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4223574

The Collins English dictionary gives a definition of circus as ‘a travelling company of entertainers, such as acrobats, clowns, trapeze artists, and trained animals’; ‘a public performance given by such a company’; ‘an arena, usually tented, in which... Read More about The art of the circus : an exploration of the circus within its social, historical, and cultural contexts.

‘Jesus saves’ and ‘Clothed in Christ’: athletic religious apparel in the Christian CrossFit community (2017)
Journal Article
Ornella, A. D. (in press). ‘Jesus saves’ and ‘Clothed in Christ’: athletic religious apparel in the Christian CrossFit community. Sport in Society, 22(2), 266-280. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2017.1360580

The popular sport of CrossFit has attracted a number of Christians who simultaneously celebrate their passion for their faith and their passion for their sport. In this interplay of sport and religion, fashion becomes an important means for the profe... Read More about ‘Jesus saves’ and ‘Clothed in Christ’: athletic religious apparel in the Christian CrossFit community.

Uncanny intimacies: Humans and machines in film (2016)
Book Chapter
Ornella, A. D. (2016). Uncanny intimacies: Humans and machines in film. In M. Hauskeller, T. D. Philbeck, & C. D. Carbonell (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Posthumanism in Film and Television (330-338). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137430328_33

In its Riley v. California ruling requiring the police to get a search warrant to access mobile phone content, the US Supreme Court argued that: ‘modern cell phones, (…) are now such a pervasive and insistent part of daily life that the proverbial vi... Read More about Uncanny intimacies: Humans and machines in film.