A religion scholar will visit The Florida State University this week to discuss his work with corporate and government researchers in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to determine the biological, ecological, economic and cultural effects of the spill.

Michael Pasquier, an assistant professor of American religious history at Louisiana State University, will speak on “Standard Lives: Visualizing Oil and Religion in Louisiana.” His lecture, which is free and open to the public, draws upon a stock of photographs taken between the early and mid-20th century, all focused on the oil culture of Louisiana and the place of religion in it. It will take place:

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 10

5 P.M.

BROAD AUDITORIUM

CLAUDE PEPPER CENTER, 636 W. CALL ST.

THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

Pasquier, who received his Ph.D. in religion from Florida State in 2007, teaches courses in U.S. religious history, Christianity, and world religions at LSU. He is a recent Visiting Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Mass. (2009-2010). His research focuses on the history of Roman Catholicism in the American South, Catholic devotional culture, and religion in colonial Louisiana. Pasquier recently has published “Fathers on the Frontier: French Missionaries and the Roman Catholic Priesthood in the United States, 1789-1870” (Oxford University Press, 2009).

He is currently conducting a new research project on the intersection of African religions, American Indian religions and Christianity in the Lower Mississippi Valley during the 18th century, as well as editing a volume of essays on the study of religion and culture along the Mississippi River.