Public & magazine writing (selected)
Skeptical Inquirer (Center for Inquiry)
- Epistemic Laundering: How Universities Sell Pseudoscience (2026)
Read online
On how universities validate unreliable claims through filing decisions, safety rationales, and methodological relativism, filtering pseudoscience through degree programs and endowed chairs.
Free Inquiry (Center for Inquiry)
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The Prophet and the Pathologist: Stephen Kent, Massimo Introvigne, and the Battle for an Honest Study of Religion (2026)
Read online
An essay on methodological conflict, apologetics, and boundary work in the academic study of religion, written in conversation with Stephen Kent’s Psychobiographies and Godly Visions: Disordered Minds and the Origins of Religiosity. -
The Humanist Response to Authoritarianism (2025)
Read online -
Sacred or Secular? Rethinking Indigenous Spirituality (2025)
Read online
Nonreligion & Secularity Research Network (NSRN)
- Beyond Smudge and Creator: Recognizing Indigenous Nonbelievers in Canada (2025)
Read online
Bright Lights Film Journal
- The Pervert’s Guide to The Birds: Of Hitchcock, Žižek, the Maternal Superego, and Critical Confusion (2010)
Read online
Americana: The American Popular Culture Magazine
- Modest Intentionalism and the Replicant Debate (2010)
Read online
Fiction
On Spec Magazine
- Les Guérisseurs (On Spec, Vol. 35 No. 3 / Issue #133, 2025)
Available here
On Spec closed in 2025 after 35 years of publication.
Graduate research
PhD Dissertation
Simmons, J. (2018). Atheist Identity and Lifestyle Among Activists in Edmonton. University of Alberta.
University repository · Download PDF
MA Thesis
Simmons, J. (2012). Positive Psychology as a Scientific Movement: A Case Study in Scientific Legitimacy. University of New Brunswick.
University repository · Download PDF
Academic publications
2025
- Eacersall, D., Pretorius, L., Smirnov, I., Spray, E., Illingworth, S., Chugh, R., Strydom, S., Stratton-Maher, D., Simmons, J., Jennings, I., Roux, R., Kamrowski, R., Downie, A., Thong, C. L., & Howell, K. A. (2025). Navigating ethical challenges in generative AI-enhanced research: The ETHICAL framework for responsible generative AI use. Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching, 8(2). DOI
2024
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Simmons, J. (2024). Indigenous atheists in Canada: Challenging assumptions and navigating belonging. Secular Studies, 6(1), 62–83. DOI
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Simmons, J. (2024). The politics of nonreligion. In J. M. Smith & R. T. Cragun (Eds.), Secularity and nonreligion in North America: An introduction (pp. 152–170). Bloomsbury Academic.
2022
- Sandhu, A., & Simmons, J. S. (2022). Police officers as filmmakers: The cinematography of body worn cameras. Policing and Society, 33(5), 593–603. DOI
2020
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Simmons, J. (2020). Feminist women’s attitudes towards feminist men in the Canadian atheist movement. Religion and Gender, 10(2), 182–201. DOI
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Simmons, J., & Sandhu, A. (2020). Between Islam and Islamophobia: Stigma management among Canadian atheist activists. Secular Studies, 2(2), 117–137. DOI
2019
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Simmons, J. (2019). Politics, individualism, and atheism: An examination of the political attitudes of atheist activists in a Canadian city. Secularism and Nonreligion, 8, 1–9. DOI
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Simmons, J. (2019). Homeopathy as a form of practical magic. International Journal of Cultic Studies, 10, 32–40. Full text
2018
- Simmons, J. (2018). ‘Not that kind of atheist’: Scepticism as a lifestyle movement. Social Movement Studies, 17(4), 437–450. DOI
2017
- Simmons, J. (2017). Atheism plus what? Social justice and lifestyle politics among Edmonton atheists. Canadian Journal of Sociology, 42(4), 425–446. DOI
2015
- Simmons, J., & Kent, S. A. (2015). An expansion of the rational choice approach: Social control in the Children of God during the 1970s and 1980s. International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 6(1), 27–49. DOI
2013
- Simmons, J. (2013). Positive psychology as a scientific movement. International Journal of Science in Society, 4(1), 43–52. Full text · Download PDF