Ryan Goeckner, MA, PhD Candidate

Areas of Research and Publications

Ryan Goeckner, PhD, MA is a cultural anthropologist who studies how beliefs, worldviews, and cultural experiences shape health and community wellbeing. His research explores how cultural values and meanings—not just biology—affect health outcomes and how culturally informed approaches can advance health equity.

Since 2014, he has collaborated with the American Indian Health Research and Education Alliance, working with Native communities to address health and educational disparities. His projects have examined Native identity, mental health, recreational tobacco cessation, college preparation, and grassroots social justice movements.

Since completing his doctorate in 2024, Dr. Goeckner’s research has expanded to include the health implications of anomalous and extraordinary experiences often dismissed by Western science and allopathic medicine. These include Morgellons disease, ghost and haunting experiences, witchcraft practices and beliefs, and alien abduction narratives, among others. Using ethnographic methods, he studies the lived experience of such phenomena to understand how they shape identity, wellbeing, and access to care.

Dr. Goeckner also co-hosts two podcasts, Religiously Literate and Beyond the Human, which encourage critical engagement with belief, culture, and the unknown.

Learn more about his work at ryangoeckner.com.