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.
I started this podcast today and plan to assign a few episodes to my students in the Spring! An exceptional example of public scholarship.
On this World AIDS Day, I would like to recommend a spectacular podcast about #theChurchWithAIDS. Lynne Gerber has created "When We All Get to Heaven," which is available through Slate and details the Metropolitan Community Church in the Castro during the AIDS crisis.
slate.com/podcasts/whe...
slate.com/podcasts/whe...
When We All Get To Heaven
A queer church faces AIDS in 1980s and '90s San Francisco.
slate.com
December 3, 2025 at 9:20 PM
I started this podcast today and plan to assign a few episodes to my students in the Spring! An exceptional example of public scholarship.
This exhibit by James Bielo is really cool. Stop by today at #aarsbl25 if you haven’t seen it yet!
Traveling light to @aarsbl25 this year. Secondhand Sacred will be at booth #430 Sat-Monday morning: swing by and say hi, listen to cassettes, click through View-Master slides, peer through a stereoscope, flip through vinyl and postcards and much more! #aarsbl25 #secondhandsacred
November 24, 2025 at 1:33 PM
This exhibit by James Bielo is really cool. Stop by today at #aarsbl25 if you haven’t seen it yet!
Reposted by Kelsey Hanson Woodruff
okay, friends, let's do something community-oriented and helpful. #sblaar25 veterans, drop your best conference advice for first-time attendees. be sure to signal boost so folks across bluesky can add on/peruse.
November 19, 2025 at 3:08 PM
okay, friends, let's do something community-oriented and helpful. #sblaar25 veterans, drop your best conference advice for first-time attendees. be sure to signal boost so folks across bluesky can add on/peruse.
Congratulations to my friend and colleague Mac Loftin on the publication of his timely and beautifully written book. @harvarddivinity.bsky.social
November 17, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Congratulations to my friend and colleague Mac Loftin on the publication of his timely and beautifully written book. @harvarddivinity.bsky.social
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...