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/

It’s great to see students thinking about this.

www.thecrimson.com/article/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...

Christianity at the Crossroads | Cambridge University Press & Assessment

www.cambridge.org/universitypr...

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.

Why Religious Studies Is in Trouble As colleges plan to make cuts, departments in this field are finding themselves on the chopping block.

Virginia Tech, the University of Oregon, Indiana University have all proposed cuts to religious studies programs. Why?

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

“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...

It’s on the syllabus! I agree it’s a fantastic chapter.

My Celebrity course is reading it this fall!

We read presidential addresses in one of our required PhD courses as well. We also read some of the award-winning books in the field of the last year.

Haha! Next time, celibacy and charisma.

I’m excited to teach my new course, “Celebrity and Charisma in American Christianity,” this fall at Harvard Divinity School!

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.

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...

This was a great interview, Amanda! I enjoyed hearing more about your intellectual journey.

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.

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.

Congrats!

Shock at Harvard After Government Says International Students Must Go

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...

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...

A beautiful tribute by my advisor Catherine Brekus to her colleague Martin Marty.

arcmag.org/remembering-...

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’

Harvard University faculty sue to block Trump review of nearly $9bn in funding

The University President Willing to Fight Trump Podcast Episode · The Daily · 04/09/2025 · 39m

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.

You can email me khwoodruff (at) g (dot) harvard (dot) edu.

Sure! Direct message me your email address.

Thanks to Greg at the Classical Ideas podcast for interviewing me! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Congratulations on the book!

Awesome! I was in the January cohort and really enjoyed the training and my colleagues.

Congratulations on the book, Candace!

nyupress.org/978147983322...

Work Pray Code How tech giants are reshaping spirituality to serve their religion of peak productivity

Have you seen this book by scholar Carolyn Chen? press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Why are university presses important? A thread 🧵

Congratulations, Odalis! I’m excited to see how it develops.