Kelsey Hanson Woodruff
@khansonwoodruff.bsky.social
Researching and writing about American Christianity, gender, media, and politics.
Lecturer at Harvard Divinity School.
Lecturer at Harvard Divinity School.
Reposted by Kelsey Hanson Woodruff
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to write this tribute on the late Dr. Phyllis Trible for @baptistnews.com. She gave many of us permission:
baptistnews.com/article/reme...
baptistnews.com/article/reme...
Remembering Phyllis Trible – Baptist News Global
Driven by love, she sought to reclaim and restore texts that often were rendered more sexist due to (male) scholars’ chauvinism.
baptistnews.com
November 4, 2025 at 9:33 AM
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to write this tribute on the late Dr. Phyllis Trible for @baptistnews.com. She gave many of us permission:
baptistnews.com/article/reme...
baptistnews.com/article/reme...
Reposted by Kelsey Hanson Woodruff
Save the date! The Center will once again be hosting our annual reception at the 2025 Annual Meetings of #AAR
Join us Sunday Nov. 23rd at 8pm at the Westin Copley Place in the Huntington Ballroom!
Learn more and pre-register here: raac.indianapolis.iu.edu/aar-2025/
Join us Sunday Nov. 23rd at 8pm at the Westin Copley Place in the Huntington Ballroom!
Learn more and pre-register here: raac.indianapolis.iu.edu/aar-2025/
October 22, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Save the date! The Center will once again be hosting our annual reception at the 2025 Annual Meetings of #AAR
Join us Sunday Nov. 23rd at 8pm at the Westin Copley Place in the Huntington Ballroom!
Learn more and pre-register here: raac.indianapolis.iu.edu/aar-2025/
Join us Sunday Nov. 23rd at 8pm at the Westin Copley Place in the Huntington Ballroom!
Learn more and pre-register here: raac.indianapolis.iu.edu/aar-2025/
My article, “Outposts in the Wilderness: Post-Evangelical Feminist Communities on Digital Media, 2004-2024” is out with Religion and American Culture.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Outposts in the Wilderness: Post-Evangelical Feminist Communities on Digital Media, 2004–2024 | Religion and American Culture | Cambridge Core
Outposts in the Wilderness: Post-Evangelical Feminist Communities on Digital Media, 2004–2024
www.cambridge.org
September 16, 2025 at 4:18 PM
My article, “Outposts in the Wilderness: Post-Evangelical Feminist Communities on Digital Media, 2004-2024” is out with Religion and American Culture.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Delighted to see David Hempton’s book, Christianity at the Crossroads, out in the world. I was a research assistant several years ago for his Gifford Lectures, on which this book is based.
September 11, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Delighted to see David Hempton’s book, Christianity at the Crossroads, out in the world. I was a research assistant several years ago for his Gifford Lectures, on which this book is based.
Reposted by Kelsey Hanson Woodruff
Virginia Tech, the University of Oregon, Indiana University have all proposed cuts to religious studies programs. Why?
Why Religious Studies Is in Trouble
As colleges plan to make cuts, departments in this field are finding themselves on the chopping block.
www.chronicle.com
September 8, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Virginia Tech, the University of Oregon, Indiana University have all proposed cuts to religious studies programs. Why?
Reposted by Kelsey Hanson Woodruff
“Chicago has long helped to keep alive tiny fields & esoteric areas of humanistic study... Without the univ’s support, & the continued training of grad students who can keep these bodies of kn going, entire spheres of human learning might eventually blink out.” www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...
If the University of Chicago Won’t Defend the Humanities, Who Will?
Why it matters that the University of Chicago is pausing admissions to doctoral programs in literature, philosophy, the arts, and languages
www.theatlantic.com
August 27, 2025 at 12:18 PM
“Chicago has long helped to keep alive tiny fields & esoteric areas of humanistic study... Without the univ’s support, & the continued training of grad students who can keep these bodies of kn going, entire spheres of human learning might eventually blink out.” www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...
I’m excited to teach my new course, “Celebrity and Charisma in American Christianity,” this fall at Harvard Divinity School!
August 14, 2025 at 9:13 PM
I’m excited to teach my new course, “Celebrity and Charisma in American Christianity,” this fall at Harvard Divinity School!
Reposted by Kelsey Hanson Woodruff
The Scopes trial turns 100 this month. Kelsey Hanson Woodruff writes about the legacy of the Scopes trial in Dayton, TN, and how one resident, Rachel Held Evans, tried to push evangelicalism beyond Young Earth creationism's culture war battle lines.
www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiou...
www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiou...
Rachel Held Evans And The Specter Of Scopes In Dayton
For Rachel Held Evans, living in Dayton, Ohio--of Scopes Trial fame--was a way to combat the legacy of fundamentalism in evangelicalism.
www.patheos.com
July 18, 2025 at 2:31 PM
The Scopes trial turns 100 this month. Kelsey Hanson Woodruff writes about the legacy of the Scopes trial in Dayton, TN, and how one resident, Rachel Held Evans, tried to push evangelicalism beyond Young Earth creationism's culture war battle lines.
www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiou...
www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiou...
Reposted by Kelsey Hanson Woodruff
More than 12,000 Harvard alumni, 21 state attorneys general, and two dozen universities, including five Ivy League schools, filed or plan to file amicus briefs backing Harvard in its court battle with the Trump administration, court records showed.
21 state attorneys general, multiple universities, alumni to back Harvard in court battle against Trump - The Boston Globe
Two dozen universities, including five Ivy League schools, plan to file an amicus brief, including six that joined the coalition in a filing Monday, court records show.
www.bostonglobe.com
June 9, 2025 at 8:52 PM
More than 12,000 Harvard alumni, 21 state attorneys general, and two dozen universities, including five Ivy League schools, filed or plan to file amicus briefs backing Harvard in its court battle with the Trump administration, court records showed.
My international colleagues contribute to the excellent research and the intellectual vibrancy of the university. This is an attack on every classroom, seminar room, and laboratory at Harvard. It is an attempt to dismantle America’s higher education system at large.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...
Shock at Harvard After Government Says International Students Must Go
www.nytimes.com
May 23, 2025 at 2:20 PM
My international colleagues contribute to the excellent research and the intellectual vibrancy of the university. This is an attack on every classroom, seminar room, and laboratory at Harvard. It is an attempt to dismantle America’s higher education system at large.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...
A beautiful tribute by my advisor Catherine Brekus to her colleague Martin Marty.
arcmag.org/remembering-...
arcmag.org/remembering-...
Remembering Martin Marty | ARC: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera
Martin E. Marty died on February 25, 2005. He was ninety-seven years old. Marty Marty, as he always introduced himself, was an ordained Lutheran minister, an editor and columnist for The Christian Cen...
arcmag.org
May 16, 2025 at 2:03 PM
A beautiful tribute by my advisor Catherine Brekus to her colleague Martin Marty.
arcmag.org/remembering-...
arcmag.org/remembering-...
Reposted by Kelsey Hanson Woodruff
Harvard University faculty sue to block Trump review of nearly $9bn in funding
Harvard University faculty sue to block Trump review of nearly $9bn in funding
Lawsuit filed along with motion for temporary restraining order calls threats an existential ‘gun to the head’
www.theguardian.com
April 13, 2025 at 1:21 AM
Harvard University faculty sue to block Trump review of nearly $9bn in funding
This is moral courage. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
The University President Willing to Fight Trump
Podcast Episode · The Daily · 04/09/2025 · 39m
podcasts.apple.com
April 9, 2025 at 2:55 PM
This is moral courage. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
The most realistic part of White Lotus season 3 is the religious studies major being the most stable member of the family.
March 24, 2025 at 3:54 PM
The most realistic part of White Lotus season 3 is the religious studies major being the most stable member of the family.
Thanks to Greg at the Classical Ideas podcast for interviewing me! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
March 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Thanks to Greg at the Classical Ideas podcast for interviewing me! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
February 11, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Reposted by Kelsey Hanson Woodruff
Why are university presses important? A thread 🧵
January 24, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Why are university presses important? A thread 🧵
What a fascinating chapter on a religious figure with whom I have long been intrigued, Aimee Semple McPherson.
Great news!
For a limited time, you can read a chapter of my book free of charge, thanks to Oxford University Press!
It's about the charismatic Holywood celebrity evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and her mysterious disappearance in 1926.
academic.oup.com/book/59042/c...
For a limited time, you can read a chapter of my book free of charge, thanks to Oxford University Press!
It's about the charismatic Holywood celebrity evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and her mysterious disappearance in 1926.
academic.oup.com/book/59042/c...
January 22, 2025 at 2:28 AM
What a fascinating chapter on a religious figure with whom I have long been intrigued, Aimee Semple McPherson.
Excited to be part of this cohort!
Please put your virtual hands together for the intrepid cohort of religion, gender, and sexuality scholars selected for our January Intensive Public Scholarship Training, funded by the Carpenter Foundation! 👏 meet them below and www.sacred-writes.org/carpenter-co...
2025 Carpenter Cohorts — Sacred Writes
Sacred Writes’ trainings provide scholars with opportunities to acquire skills, identify resources, push disciplinary boundaries, and build communities of accountability and support to produce public ...
www.sacred-writes.org
December 31, 2024 at 2:22 AM
Excited to be part of this cohort!
Reposted by Kelsey Hanson Woodruff
Please put your virtual hands together for the intrepid cohort of religion, gender, and sexuality scholars selected for our January Intensive Public Scholarship Training, funded by the Carpenter Foundation! 👏 meet them below and www.sacred-writes.org/carpenter-co...
2025 Carpenter Cohorts — Sacred Writes
Sacred Writes’ trainings provide scholars with opportunities to acquire skills, identify resources, push disciplinary boundaries, and build communities of accountability and support to produce public ...
www.sacred-writes.org
December 30, 2024 at 10:50 PM
Please put your virtual hands together for the intrepid cohort of religion, gender, and sexuality scholars selected for our January Intensive Public Scholarship Training, funded by the Carpenter Foundation! 👏 meet them below and www.sacred-writes.org/carpenter-co...
Editing a dissertation chapter by changing all the present tense sentences about Twitter to the past tense. #amwriting
December 17, 2024 at 7:28 PM
Editing a dissertation chapter by changing all the present tense sentences about Twitter to the past tense. #amwriting
Great new essay by my SSRC colleague Emily Fraser.
We are proud to share a new essay written by Emily K. Fraser (Missouri State Univ) for @therevealer.bsky.social with the support of our summer RSDR Fellows Workshop on Christianity in the US led by journalist Rebecca Randall.
therevealer.org/to-evangelic...
#academicsky #polrel #polisky
therevealer.org/to-evangelic...
#academicsky #polrel #polisky
To Evangelical Christians, What Does it Mean to "Welcome the Stranger"? — The Revealer
A surge in White evangelicals working to help immigrants and refugees—and if that influences their politics
therevealer.org
December 17, 2024 at 7:25 PM
Great new essay by my SSRC colleague Emily Fraser.
Reposted by Kelsey Hanson Woodruff
🧵So many people have asked me about this article. nypost.com/2024/12/03/u...
Young men leaving traditional churches for ‘masculine’ Orthodox Christianity in droves
As churches unfurl pride flags and Black Lives Matter banners in front of their gates, young men are trending towards more traditional forms of worship.
nypost.com
December 4, 2024 at 12:00 AM
🧵So many people have asked me about this article. nypost.com/2024/12/03/u...
A piece I wrote for the Weatherhead Center’s Epicenter blog. I’m thankful for the support I’ve received from @weatherheadcenter.bsky.social
epicenter.wcfia.harvard.edu/blog/christi...
epicenter.wcfia.harvard.edu/blog/christi...
Christian Feminists from Abroad Confront US Sexual Politics
Evangelicalism and feminism come together in a movement that challenges patriarchy while still claiming Christian values. Graduate Student Affiliate Kelsey Hanson Woodruff introduces us to leaders of ...
epicenter.wcfia.harvard.edu
November 21, 2024 at 6:47 PM
A piece I wrote for the Weatherhead Center’s Epicenter blog. I’m thankful for the support I’ve received from @weatherheadcenter.bsky.social
epicenter.wcfia.harvard.edu/blog/christi...
epicenter.wcfia.harvard.edu/blog/christi...