Diana Walsh Pasulka is an American writer and professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Her books include Heaven Can Wait, which discusses purgatory's location and materiality, and American Cosmic, which explores belief in UFOs and extraterrestrial life and how it has changed traditional religions.
[2][3][4] Sean Illing at Vox described American Cosmic as not "so much about the truth of UFOs or aliens as it is about what the appeal of belief in those things says about our culture and the shifting roles of religion and technology in it.
On the surface, it's a book about the popularity of belief in aliens, but it's really a deep look at how myths and religions are created in the first place and how human beings deal with unexplainable experiences.
She was Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Carolina Wilmington from 2015 until 2019, where she is currently professor of religious studies.