Dr. Rachel Carbonara is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Religion and the Public Conversation at the Center for Culture, Society and Religion at Princeton University. She earned her PhD in 2024 in the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion from the University of Chicago. Her research examines contemporary spirituality in the Americas with a focus on energy healing practices, holistic medical philosophies, wellness culture, and manifestation.

At Princeton, Dr. Carbonara serves as co-Instructor of the Media Team, a year-long course that provides Princeton PhD Candidates with the skills to produce public-facing scholarship on digital media platforms. Additional courses include "Intro to Manifesting," offered through The Religion Department, and "Good Vibes Only: Spiritual Energy Healing and Alternative Medicine in America," previously offered at the University of Chicago through the Program on Medicine and Religion. In addition to teaching, Dr. Carbonara is currently producing and editing her own YouTube series titled "Religion Experts React to White Lotus S3."

Dr. Carbonara has previously served as a writer for the YouTube channel Religion for Breakfast, an Associate Producer for the podcast Ministry of Ideas--a Harvard University project funded by the John Templeton Foundation--and a Research Fellow for the NPR podcast Invisibilia.

Her work has been supported by funding from the Tinker Foundation, the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Chicago, the US Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the University of Chicago Divinity School, the Institute for the Formation of Knowledge, and the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion.