Dr. Joy Palacios is the principal investigator for "Business Ritualization: Religious Performance in Corporate North America." (Principal investigator is academic jargon for the person who leads a research study.) Joy's research focuses on the way large organizations use performance and ritual to generate authority, maintain institutions, and forge communities. She is an associate professor of religious studies in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Calgary in Canada and holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. 

Pending approval of her most recent grant application, Dr. Palacios will be recruiting two graduate student researcher to assist with the next phase of the project, which will focus on user groups in technology ecosystems.