I was just informed today of the passing of an old friend and colleague in Pagan studies, Nikki Bado, who taught at Iowa State University.
She had been on medical leave for the last year or so, and apparently suffered a heart attack after her last surgery.
I have forgotten just when we met, but it must have been at the American Academy of Religion meeting. She helped build the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group and worked with me as a co-editor on our book series for Equinox Publishing.
She wrote on Paganism, religion in popular culture, Japanese religious festivals, the body in religion, and pilgrimage, among other topics.
Her longest work on Pagan religion was the book Coming to the Edge of the Circle: A Wiccan Initiation Ritual.
Good friend, priestess, hard-working scholar. She will be missed.
I am sorry to hear of this, and I found her book very insightful.
This is most shocking news. I thought Nikki had been progressing well. I suppose we never know ahead when any of our numbers are up. Nikki was a most fine and engaging scholar and just a nice person as well. Great sense of humour too – increasingly a rare quality. She will be missed. Prayers and wishes now for a joyous and disability-free entry into Summerland!
I’m really sorry to hear about this. Nikki was a really nice person; smart and funny.
You were an amazing person Nikki. I’m so sad to hear about your passing. Nikki was just a good person. I enjoyed all of our all night talks about religion and life.
She was so generous with others at least in part because she had to do so much on her own, putting herself through college and graduate school. She came to academe relatively late in her life, but made a profound impact. I will miss her as a dear friend and colleague.
I am surprised that no one has mentioned her interest in shamanism– she worked for a long time with the noted scholar Felicitas Goodman, author of “Where Spirits Ride the Wind”, who was one of her mentors. I remember her best from undergrad days in the 70s in Athens Ohio (Ohio University), where we had long conversations about astrology. However, years later, she taught Felicitas’ shamanic postures at Starwood Festival, while Felicitas was still researching her theories, and was deeply involved in a a trance journey group Felicitas ran at Ohio State University. I believe she thought of this shamanic work as part of her Pagan path. Nikki gave me my introduction to Felicitas’ work. She was a brilliant woman with a wide-ranging intellectual curiosity. I found her inspiring and wise, even back in those days.