Henri Dengah
Cultural Anthropology
Associate Professor

Contact Information
Office Location: Old Main 245GPhone: (435) 797-9056
Email: francois.dengah@usu.edu
Educational Background
Biography
My interests lie in the relationship between culture and health. I research Brazilian Pentecostals, computer gamers, and Mormon college students to examine how adherence to cultural norms shapes well-being.
Research Interests
Medical anthropology, cognitive anthropology, virtual ethnography, urban anthropology, epidemiology, religious movements, mental health, dissociation, stress, gender roles, mixed methodology, social statistics, technology, Brazil
Awards
Finalist, Dean’s “Giraffe Award”, 2017
CHaSS
Finalist, Peak Prize for Undergraduate Mentoring, 2017
Utah State University
Finalist, Robins Award: Undergraduate Research Mentor, 2017
Utah State University
Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor, 2017
CHaSS
Finalist, USU Honors Outstanding Professor, Last Lecture Award, 2016
Utah State University
Outstanding Dissertation Award, 2014
University of Alabama
Outstanding Dissertation in the Social Sciences, 2013
College of Arts and Science, University of Alabama
Publications | Books
- Dengah, H.J, Budge, J., Broadbent, L., Davis, J., Neal, C., Searle, K., Tauber, D., Wanner, J., (2017). Virtually Together: Collaborative Experiences in an Online World: Practicing Ethnography: A Student Guide to Method and Methodology. University of Toronto Press
Publications | Book Chapters
An asterisk (*) at the end of a publication indicates that it has not been peer-reviewed.
Publications | Journal Articles
Academic Journal
- Dengah, H.J, Else, R., Polzer, E., Snodgrass, J., (2018). The Social Networks and Distinctive Experiences of Intensively Involved Online Gamers: A Novel Mixed Methods Approach. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 80, 229-242.
- Lacy, M., Snodgrass, J., Meyer, M., Dengah, H.J, Benedict, N., (2018). A Formal Method for Detecting and Describing Cultural Complexity: Extending Classical Consensus Analysis. , 30:3
- Dengah, H.J, (2017). Being part of the Nação: Examining Costly Religious Rituals in a Brazilian Neo-Pentecostal Church. Ethos, 45:1, 48-74.
- Dengah, H.J, (2016). Religious Dissociation and Economic Appraisal in Brazil. Journal of religion and health, 55:2, 522-534.
- Snodgrass, J.G, Lacy, M.G, Dengah, H.J, Eisenhauer, S., Batchelder, G., Cookson, R.J, (2014). A vacation from your mind: Problematic online gaming is a stress response. Computers in Human Behavior, 38, 248–260.
- Dengah, H.J, (2014). How religious status shapes psychological well-being: Cultural consonance as a measure of subcultural status among Brazilian Pentecostals. Social Science & Medicine, 114, 18–25.
- Snodgrass, J.G, Dengah, H.J, Lacy, M.G, (2014). “I Swear to God, I Only Want People Here Who Are Losers!” Cultural Dissonance and the (Problematic) Allure of Azeroth. Medical anthropology quarterly, 28:4, 480–501.
- Snodgrass, J.G, Dengah, H.J, Lacy, M.G, Fagan, J., (2013). A formal anthropological view of motivation models of problematic MMO play: achievement, social, and immersion factors in the context of culture. Transcultural psychiatry, 1363461513487666.
- Dressler, W.W, Dengah, H.J, Balieiro, M.C, dos Santos, J.E, (2013). Consonancia Cultural, Religiao e Sofrimento Psicologico em uma Comunidade Urbana. Paidéia (Ribeirao Preto), 23:55, 151–160.
- Dengah, H.J, (2013). The Contract with God: Patterns of Cultural Consensus Across Two Brazilian Religious Communities. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library
- Snodgrass, J.G, Dengah, H.J, Lacy, M.G, Fagan, J., Most, D., Blank, M., Howard, L., Kershner, C.R, Krambeer, G., Leavitt-Reynolds, A., others, , (2012). Restorative magical adventure or warcrack? Motivated MMO play and the pleasures and perils of online experience. Games and Culture, 7:1, 3–28.
- Snodgrass, J.G, Lacy, M.G, Dengah, H.J, Fagan, J., (2011). Cultural Consonance and Mental Wellness in the World of Warcraft: Online Games as Cognitive Technologies of ‘Absorption-Immersion’. Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition
- Snodgrass, J.G, Lacy, M.G, Dengah, H.J, Fagan, J., (2011). Enhancing one life rather than living two: Playing MMOs with offline friends. Computers in Human Behavior, 27:3, 1211–1222.
- Snodgrass, J.G, Lacy, M.G, Dengah, H.J, Fagan, J., Most, D.E, (2011). Magical flight and monstrous stress: technologies of absorption and mental wellness in Azeroth. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 35:1, 26–62.
An asterisk (*) at the end of a publication indicates that it has not been peer-reviewed.
Publications | Other
Magazine/Trade Publications
- Dengah, H.J, (2014). Anthropology is Elementary and can be Taught There: Teaching Four-Field Anthropology to 3rd and 4th Grade Students. Anthropology News *
- Dengah, H.J, (2012). Using Cultural Consonance to Understand the Religion-Health Connection among Brazilian Evangelicals. Anthropology News *
Other
An asterisk (*) at the end of a publication indicates that it has not been peer-reviewed.