Ryan is a Professor of History at Virginia Commonwealth University. He specializes in American religious history, material culture, and historic preservation. His most recent book is Death and Rebirth in a Southern City: Richmond’s Historic Cemeteries. He is also the author of Gothic Arches, Latin Crosses: Anti-Catholicism and American Church Designs in the Nineteenth Century. Ryan is a founding member of the Richmond Cemetery Collaboratory and is the director of the Richmond Cemetery Project (richmondcemeteries.org). He has museum experience at the St. John’s Church Foundation, the Winterthur Museum, the St. Augustine Historical Society, and the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, among other institutions.
In this conversation, Ryan and I explore a rich array of subjects, from the Shaker aesthetic to the symbolism of lighthouses in Christianity. Ryan also explains the power dynamics involved in historical Christian burial practices, and how material religion and public spaces interact to reveal important societal values and beliefs.