Academics and their interest in UAP

 "A teacher or scholar in a university or other institute of higher learning."

Introduction

This article takes a look at the time period 2006-2024, in terms of academics who have taken an interest in the subject of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP.) It is not intended to be a comprehensive listing of such academics, but to highlight some individuals who have made a significant contribution to academic research on UAP.

The early days

The two most prominent academic UAP researchers of former times, were J. Allen Hynek and James E. McDonald.

Dr. J. Allen Hynek was an astronomer at NorthWestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA. Hynek was actively engaged with the official United States government UAP agency, Project Blue Book. Originally a sceptic on the issue of "flying saucers" he came to accept that there was a real anomalous phenomena involved. He authored several books including "The UFO Experience" (1972. Regnery New York.) This was followed by a co-authored book "The Edge of Reality" with Dr. J. Vallee (1975. CreateSpace.) Finally, "The Hynek UFO Report." (1977. Dell. New York.) Even today, these books remain essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in the topic. 

Dr. James E. McDonald was a senior Physicist at the Institute for Atmospheric Physics and a Professor of Meteorology at the University of Arizona, in Tucson, Arizona, USA. McDonald spent the years between 1958 and 1971 conducting extensive research into UAP. His documentation may be accessed at the Special Collections section of the University of Arizona. These files include audio recordings of interviews with Australian UAP witnesses, recorded during McDonald's 1967 visit to Australia. 

Battaglia

Debbora Battaglia, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Mount Holyoke College, South Hadly, MA, USA, was the editor of a book titled "E.T. Culture: Anthropology in outerspaces." (2005. Duke Uni. Press.) This work examined communities centered around belief in "aliens."

Kripal

Image courtesy Amazon Books

"Authors of the Impossible" (2011. University of Chicago Press) by Jeffrey J Kripal, featured sections on the work of Charles Fort, Jacques Vallee, and Bertand Meheust. Kripal is the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought, at Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA. 

Eghigian

In 2014, an intriguing article appeared, written by Professor Greg Eghigian, Professor of History and Bioethics, Penn State University, Pennsylvania, USA, He published an article about the wave of "flying saucer" sightings on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean between 1946-1960. The article was titled "A Transatlantic Buzz: Flying Saucers, Extraterrestrials and America in Postwar Germany." (Journal of Transatlantic Studies, 12 (2014):282-303.) Eghigian followed this up in 2024 with a book titled "After the Flying Saucers Came." See further details below.

Cusack

Professor Carole Cusack (sydney.edu.au)

Carole M. Cusack is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Between 2014 and 2021 Cusack published a number of journal articles which discussed, among other things, UFO cults, apocalyptic expectations, and other aspects of UFO "religions." My article on Cusack's work, including links to some of her articles, may be read here. 

Lepsetter

"The Resonance of Unseen Things: Poetics, Power, Captivity and UFOs in the American Uncanny" (2016. University of Michigan Press) is a book by Associate Professor, Department of Communications and Culture, Indiana University, Indiana, USA, Susan Lepsetter. From chapter one of the book:

"This is not a book about UFOs. It’s not a history of UFO belief, nor a sociology of believers. Rather, this is a book about a vernacular American poetics, something you can hear building up in the stories I will tell."

Dodd

An academic tutor at the School of Communication & Arts, University of Queensland, Adam Dodd, in 2018, published a paper titled "Strategic Ignorance and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Critiquing the Discursive Segregation of UFOs from Scientific Inquiry." (Journal of Astropolitics. 2018. 16(1):75-95.) The abstract for the paper may be read here.

Pasulka

Diana W. Pasulka is a Professor of Religious Studies, at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA. She has been studying the topic of UAP since 2012. Her first book about the topic was titled "American Cosmic Space: Aliens, UFOs and Why we Believe in Them." (2019. Oxford University Press.) It explores the mechanisms which result in a belief in extraterrestrial life; and argues that movies and television shows are being used in place of conventional religions to look at such issues. A follow up book, published in 2024 is described below.

Masters

One of the proposed hypotheses as to the origin of UAP, is that they are us in the future. Human beings as time travelers. This is the hypothesis advanced by Dr. Michael P. Masters, Montana Tech of the University of Montana, whose expertise is in the field of Biological Anthropology. in his 2019 book titled "Identified Flying Objects: A multidisciplinary Scientific Approach to the UFO Phenomenon." He later expanded his views, see below.

Halperin

Image courtesy Amazon Books

"UFOs are a myth, says David J. Halperin - but myths are real. The power and fascination of the UFO has nothing to do with space travel or life on other planets. It's about us, our longings and terrors, and especially the greatest terror of all: the end of our existence. This is a book about UFOs that goes beyond believing in them or debunking them and to a fresh understanding of what they tell us about ourselves as individuals, as a culture, and as a species."

So goes part of the blurb for the book "Intimate Alien: The Hidden Story of the UFO," (2020. Stanford University Press.) written by David J. Halperin, a retired Professor of Jewish Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. 

Jorjani

In his 2021 book titled "Close Encounters," American philosopher, Jason Reza Jorjani, State University of New York, USA, explores seven potential hypotheses for the origin of UAP. Namely, the Extraterrestrial hypothesis; the Breakaway Civilization hypothesis; the Inter-Dimensional hypothesis; Time Travellers; the Ultra-terrestrial hypothesis; the Crypto-terrestrial hypothesis and the Simulation Avatars hypothesis. The blurb for the book includes the statement "In fact humanity cannot survive the disclosure of what is detailed in this book." 

Madden

James D. Madden is an Associate Professor of Philosophy, at Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas, USA. In 2023 his book titled "Unidentified Flying Hyperobject: UFOs, Philosophy and the End of the World" (Independently published) puts forwards some intriguing ideas on the topic. He suggests that understanding UFOs requires a re-thinking of ourselves and our position in the wider universe. 

Andresen

2023 also saw the publication of two relevant books by American academic, PhD, Jensine Andresen. These were titled "Hyperconflation: Recommending a Relational Alternative to the Datacentric Approach to UAP;" and "Hyperconvergence: Religion, Politics and UFOs," both independently published. For my article on these two books, click here. 

Eghigian

Greg Eghigian, Professor of History and Bioethics, who wrote the 2014 paper "A Transatlantic Buzz" published a book in 2024 titled "After the Flying Saucers Came.: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon." (Oxford University Press.) From the blurb: 

"...traces how a seemingly isolated incident sparked an international drama involving shady figures, questionable evidence, suspicions of conspiracy, hoaxes, new religions, scandals, unsettling alien encounters, debunkers and celebrities.  It examines how descriptions, theories and debated about unidentified flying objects and alien abduction changed over time and how they appeared in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Russia." 

Pasulka 

Image courtesy Amazon Books

Also in 2024, appeared a second book by Dr. Diana W. Pasulka, namely "Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligence." (St Martins Essentials.) As part of her research Pasulka immersed herself in the world of experiencers, scientists, journalists and media personalities. She concluded that "...the UFO event was a spiritual reality for many people." Citing Jacques Vallee's UAP research methodology she writes "It is time to take Vallee's advice and turn back to the witnesses."

As an example Pasulka devotes two chapters of her book to the work of Dr. Iya Whiteley, a U.K. space psychologist. She created a program "...developing means of communication with intelligent non-human life that already surrounds us." Following chapters look at individual experiencers and their daily reality.

Today

Today there are literally dozens of academics studying UAP; and academic workshops and conferences, where academics present papers on the subject. The most recent such workshop was held in Germany, between 6-7 June 2024, sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Extraterrestrial Studies, housed at the Julius-Maximilian University of Wurzburg, Germany. Sixteen speakers presented on a wide range of topics with many of the presenters, academics from European countries. Overall, it was a truly international event. 

Another recent event, featuring academics from the U.S.A. was an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation and held 15-17 May 2024, in Virginia, USA. This was a workshop titled "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP): A Dialogue on Science, Public Engagement and Communication." Its purpose was to outline a path to engage science and the general public, concerning UAP. For my article on this workshop, click here.

 Learned groups

A number of learned groups/institutions have emerged in recent times, among them:

Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU)

Founded in 2018, its mission is to promote "...rigorous scientific examination of Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena..." It presents itself as a "think tank" of academics, and other professionals. It holds annual conferences and produces both a quarterly newsletter and a series of technical reports on its analyses of aspects of the phenomena, including case studies. 

The Society for UAP Studies

In simple, the Mission of The Scoiety for UAP Studies is to promote academic research on UAP via interdisciplinary study. It has a board of Directors which includes Philosopher Michael C. Cifone, University of Maryland, USA. 

There is also a Board of Advisers, which includes Greg Eghigian; Kimberly Engels, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Molloy University; Kevin H. Knuth, Professor of Physics, State University of New York, Albany; and Beatriz Villarroel, Associate Professor of Astrophysics, Nordic Institute of Physics, Sweden. 

The Society has its own peer reviewed Journal titled "Lumina;" held its inaugural Symposium in February 2023 and runs several online courses. 

The Galileo Project

Founded in July 2021 by Harvard University's Professor Avi Loeb

"The goal of the Galileo Project is to bring the search for extraterrestrial technological signatures of Extraterrestrial Technological Civilizations (ETCs) from accidental or anecdotal observations and legends to the mainstream of transparent, validated and systematic scientific research. This project is complementary to traditional SETI, in that it searches for physical objects, and not electromagnetic signals, associated with extraterrestrial technological equipment."

The SOL Foundation 

The SOL Foundation for Advanced Scientific and Policy Research, was established in California in July 2023. Its incorporation document shows its team includes Dr. Garry Nolan and Dr. Peter Skafish. Its website states: 

"The Sol Foundation brings together experts from academia and government to address the philosophical, policy and scientific problems raised by the likely presence on the Earth of UAP." 

Dr. Garry Nolan is the Rachford and Carlotto Harris Professor, in the Department of Pathology of Stanford University's School of Medicine. 

Dr. Peter Skafish is the Director of the Institute of Speculation and Critical Inquiry and is a sociocultural anthropologist. 

The Foundation stimulates serious research into the topic of UAP, and to date has published a number of policy "white papers." Its advisory board includes Kevin Knuth; Jeffrey Kripal; Diana Pasulka, and Beatriz Villarroel.

Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Extraterrestrial Studies,

Housed at the Julius-Maximilian University of Wurzburg, Germany, this Research Centre:

"The Centre is dedicated to developing and promoting interdisciplinary aspects of the extraterrestrial studies by means of basic research, development and participation in scientific-technical application projects, as well as in terms of the creation of appropriate training programs."

One of its work areas is the study of UAP. One project is SkyCAM-5:

"...an experimental test platform for the autonomous detection of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs). Through the use of image processing algorithms, the sky is continually monitored for unusual phenomena...The main objective of the camera system is to detect UAPs. It can also detect short duration luminous phenomena such as lighting and meteors."

 As mentioned earlier in this article, the Centre held a UAP workshop between 6-7 June 2024. Sixteen speakers presented on a wide range of topics with many of the presenters, academics from European countries.

Update: 9 October 2024. 

Dr. Karl Svozil, is a physicist, Vienna Institute for Theoretical Physics, in Austria. In 2023, his book "UFOs: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena: Observations, Explorations and Speculations" was published by Springer. Svozil writes that the subject of UAP deserves serious scientific study, separate from any military investigations. From the back cover, the "...book surveys the history of UFO observations, the variety of recorded phenomena, and recounts the efforts of investigative commissions and their published findings." Some observations currently defy conventional explanation. The book concludes with some plans and ideas for future research. 

Update: 26 October 2024

A recent article advised of the formation of an independent, academic based, UAP research group/panel in Spain.