Georgian Court University
Candidate for Executive Council (2025-27)
Candidate statement
I am a historical theologian who has been involved with the ACHA since 2013 when I was completing my PhD in historical theology/modern Christianity at Saint Louis University. I am currently Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Theology at Georgian Court University (GCU), an institution founded by the Sisters of Mercy in Lakewood, New Jersey. There, I bring my historical approach to my teaching of general education courses such as the Christian Tradition, Social Justice Ethics, and the graduate-level methods course in theology. This past summer I had the opportunity to bring students to Paris for a study-abroad course that allowed them to experience the religious history of the city.
My area of specialization is early modern French theological history, focusing particularly on the seventeenth century, Jansenism, and the nuns of Port-Royal. My current book project is titled Searching for the Theologian: A Feminist Historical Theology of Port-Royal. This project uses the example of Mother Angélique Arnauld, the reforming abbess of the so-called Jansenist convent of Port-Royal to propose a methodology of feminist historical theology. Angélique provides a valuable case study for this method because the Jansenist controversy—as it affected Port-Royal—debated the ability of the nuns to know theology. The work begins by defining historical theology as an interdisciplinary field that uses historical and theological methods to evaluate expressions of theology in the past for their use today; a feminist historical theology, therefore, uses explicitly feminist criteria—whether the theology is liberative or oppressive to women. The methodological approach of the feminist historical theologian involves, in part, the recovery of women’s voices from history as sources of theology, which often necessitates different interpretive approaches than used for male theologians. I have published related research articles in the Catholic Historical Review, Cistercian Studies Quarterly, and Studies in Spirituality.
I am also a co-editor and regular contributor to the academic blog WIT: Women in Theology, where I write about my current research, theology, and popular culture. Through my work on the blog, I recently edited—with Allison Murray—Women and Public Theology: Emerging Voices (Paulist Press, 2024). My chapter in that volume discusses in more detail some of my methodological approaches as a feminist historical theologian.
I would be honored to have the opportunity to serve on the Executive Committee of the ACHA. I have always found the ACHA to be a welcoming academic association, especially for those of us working interdisciplinarily between history and theology. I would bring a variety of current and prior administrative experience to this work, including my current position as chair of GCU’s General Education Curriculum Committee. I also bring prior experience in service to a variety of academic associations, including to the American Academy of Religion—as member of the Travel Grants Jury and both member and chair of the steering committee of the Religion in Europe Unit—and to the Catholic Theological Society of America—as member of the steering committee of the Women’s Consultation on Constructive Theology.