Spiritual stars: Religion and celebrity in the careers of spiritualist mediums

Scholars in celebrity studies have posited a similarity between cinematic stardom and the formation of religious and magical beliefs about the powers of spiritual leaders. Following this line of thinking, I aim to show how celebrity studies can be used in studies of religion and its history to interpret and understand the role played by spiritual leaders, providing useful insights into both celebrity theory and to the history of spiritualism. I focus here on the case study of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century spiritualist mediums. I hope such an analysis will not only contribute to a more broadly historicised approach in celebrity studies, but also elucidate how a religious movement such as spiritualism was inserted into the rising nineteenth-century consumer culture.