Fall 2024

Section 0271 of RELS1
Introduction to Religious Studies -- : Aug 20 - Dec 13 2024
This section will meet in person at the day(s), time(s), and location listed. There will be additional course content delivered asynchronously online.

Section 0284 of RELS2
World Religions -- : Aug 19 - Dec 13 2024
This section has no scheduled meetings.

Section 1538 of RELS2
World Religions -- : Aug 19 - Dec 13 2024
This section has no regularly scheduled meetings.

Section 3025 of HUMAN8
Comparative Mythology -- : Aug 20 - Dec 12 2024
This section is part of an interdisciplinary partnership that centers Native American literature, culture, and knowledge. Students are also encouraged to enroll in English 1A, Section 4789 on MW 1:00pm-3:00pm with Dr. Erica Tom. All students are welcome to enroll in this Humanities class, and this section will have extra support from the Native American Center. For more information contact: Mary Churchill at mchurchill@santarosa.edu.

Section 3067 of RELS1
Introduction to Religious Studies -- : Aug 19 - Dec 13 2024
This section has no scheduled meetings.

Spring 2024

Section 4571 of RELS2
World Religions -- : Feb 08 - May 17 2024
This is a late start section that will meet in person at the day(s), time(s), and location listed. There will be additional course content delivered asynchronously online.

Section 4991 of RELS1
Introduction to Religious Studies -- : Feb 13 - May 17 2024
his is a late start section that will meet in person at the day(s), time(s), and location listed. There will be additional course content delivered asynchronously online.

Section 4995 of RELS2
World Religions -- : Jan 16 - May 17 2024
This section has no regularly scheduled meetings.

Section 6073 of RELS1
Introduction to Religious Studies -- : Jan 16 - May 17 2024
This section has no regularly scheduled meetings.

Section 7246 of HUMAN8
Comparative Mythology -- : Jan 16 - May 16 2024
This section is part of an interdisciplinary partnership that centers Native American literature, culture, and knowledge. Students are also encouraged to enroll in English 1A, Section 4789 on MW 1:00-3:00pm with Dr. Erica Tom. All students are welcome to enroll in this Humanities class, and this section will have extra support from the Native American Center. For more information contact: Mary Churchill at mchurchill@santarosa.edu.

Monday

  • 9:30 AM - 10:30 AMOnline

Wednesday

  • 3:00 PM - 5:00 PMOnline

Thursday

  • 3:00 PM - 5:00 PMOnline
  • 3:00 PM - 5:00 PMEmeritus Hall 1508Santa Rosa Campus

FALL 2024 SCHEDULE

MONDAYS: Office Hours: 9:30 am - 10:30 am via Zoom:  https://santarosa-edu.zoom.us/j/4251359266

TUESDAYS: HUMAN 8: 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm, Emeritus 1509; RELS 1: 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Emeritus 1509

WEDNESDAYS: Office Hours: 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm via Zoom: https://santarosa-edu.zoom.us/j/4251359266

THURSDAYS: HUMAN 8: 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm, Emeritus 1509; Office Hours: 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm in person (Emeritus 1508) and via Zoom: https://santarosa-edu.zoom.us/j/4251359266

OFFICE HOURS also by appointment (in person or online).  Email Professor Churchill at mchurchill@santarosa.edu.

Ph.D., Religious Studies. University of California, Santa Barbara (1997)

Emphasis on American Indian cultural, spiritual, and religious traditions; women and religion; and religion in the United States

Dissertation: “Walking the ‘White Path’: Toward a Cherokee-Centric Hermeneutic for Interpreting Cherokee Literature” (an analysis of contemporary Cherokee women’s poetry)

M.A., Religious Studies. University of California, Santa Barbara (1991)

Thesis: “‘Their Belts Never Lied’: Continuity and Change in Cherokee Sacred Ways” (an examination of the significance of wampum belts in Cherokee culture)

B.A., Social Welfare. University of California, Berkeley (1985) 

Graduated with Highest Honors in Major and Distinction in General Scholarship

Thesis: “Effective Prosecution: Empowering Battered Women” (published in the undergraduate California Legal Studies Journal, 1985)

         

Dr. Mary Churchill earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in religious studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a specialization in American Indian religious, cultural, and spiritual traditions; women and religion; and religion in the United States.  She has been an associate faculty member in Humanities and Religious Studies at Santa Rosa Junior College since 2013 and was most recently SRJC’s Native American Center faculty coordinator.  She has been a lecturer at Sonoma State University in Native American Studies, American Multicultural Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Liberal Studies for 16 years and prior to that held faculty appointments at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Iowa.  She also received a Harvard University postdoctoral fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Her master’s thesis focused on Cherokee wampum belts, and her doctoral dissertation, on contemporary Cherokee women’s poetry.  Her writing has been published in the American Indian Quarterly, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion as well as in the books Reading Native American Women: Critical/Creative Representations and Sacred Rights: The Case for Contraception and Abortion in World Religions.  Dr. Churchill is of mixed Cherokee, Anglo, and Croatian descent.  For over thirty years, she has been active on college campuses in support of American Indian and Indigenous students, staff, faculty, and local communities.  In addition, she has served the American Academy of Religion in numerous capacities, including chairing the Native Traditions in the Americas and Women and Religion program units.  She also sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion

Presentations and Publications

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

“Toward a Scholarship of Liberation: Arvind Sharma’s A Primal Perspective on the Philosophy of Religion.Journal of the American Academy of Religion 79, no. 4 (December 2011): 795-802.

“In Bad Faith?:  Possibilities and Perils in the Age of Faith-Based Initiatives.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 70, no. 4 (December 2002): 843-53.

“The Oppositional Paradigm of Purity Versus Pollution in Charles Hudson’s The Southeastern Indians,” American Indian Quarterly 20, no. 4 (fall 1996): 563-93. 

Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters

“Out of Bounds: Indigenous Knowing and the Study of Religion.” In Reading Native American Women: Critical/Creative Representations, edited by Inés Hernández-Ávila, 251-68. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2005.

“Reproductive Rites and Wrongs: Lessons from American Indian Religious Traditions, Historical Experience, and Contemporary Life.” In Sacred Rights: The Case for Contraception and Abortion in World Religions, edited by Daniel C. Maguire, 175-97. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

“Purity and Pollution: Unearthing an Oppositional Paradigm in the Study of Cherokee Religious Traditions.” In Native American Spirituality: A Reader, edited by Lee Irwin, 205-35.Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. (Reprint of article)

Essays in Peer-Reviewed Journals

“Adjunctification—The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” In Living It Out: Neoliberalism and the Academy. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 35, no. 2 (fall 2019): 71-77.

“Teaching Native American Religious Traditions: Missing Persons and Silent Scripts,” response to Melanie L. Harris, Carolyn M. Jones Medine, and Helen Rhee’s “Women of Color in the Religious Studies Classroom: Silent Scripts and Contested Space.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 32, no. 1 (spring 2016): 126-30.

“Asking Hard Questions—Learning from the Wind.” In a special issue on the work of Jewish feminist theologian Judith Plaskow. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 23, no. 1 (spring 2007): 16-21.

“Response to Mary Elizabeth Hobgood’s ‘Solidarity and the Accountability of Academic Feminists and Church Activists to Typical (World-Majority) Women,’” in “JFSR Roundtable Discussion: Intellectual Struggle and Material Solidarity.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 20, no. 2 fall 2004): 157-62.

Interviews

“A Feminist in the House and Senate:  An Interview with Dorothy Jensen Rupert.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 27, no. 2 (fall 2011): 109-17.

Encyclopedia Articles

“White Buffalo Calf Woman.” Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed. New YorkMacmillan Reference, 2005.

“Native Americans.” In Lesbian Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia, edited by Bonnie Zimmerman, 535-38.  New York: Garland, 2000.

“Two-Spirit.” In Lesbian Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia, edited by Bonnie Zimmerman, 779-80.  New York: Garland, 2000.

“Allen, Paula Gunn.” In Lesbian Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopediaedited by Bonnie Zimmerman, 25-26.  New York: Garland, 2000.

“Lesbianism in Microhistorical Traditions.” In Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion, edited by Serinity Young, 587-89. New York: Macmillan, 1998.

“New Religions in Native American Traditions.” In Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion, edited by Serenity Young, 724-26. New York: Macmillan, 1998.  Co-authored with Michelene Pesantubbee.

“Paula Gunn Allen.” In Gay and Lesbian Biography, edited by Michael J. Tyrkus, 15-16. Detroit: St. James Press, 1996.

Book Reviews

Review of Spirit Wars: Native North American Religions in the Age of Nation Building. By Ronald Niezen. Journalof the American Academy of Religion 70, no. 2 (June 2002): 430-33.

Review of Mountain Windsong: A Novel of the Trail of Tears, by Robert J. Conley. American Indian Quarterly 18, no. 1 (winter 1994):130-31.

Review of The Witch of Goingsnake and Other Stories, by Robert J. Conley. New Scholar 11 (1993): 373-75.

 

Honors and Awards

Outstanding Faculty Member, Women’s Studies Student Advisory Board, Women’s Studies Program, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2006

Twenty-Ninth Annual Antoinette Brown Endowed Lecture, Vanderbilt Divinity  SchoolVanderbilt University, 2003

Bunting Postdoctoral Fellowship, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, 2001-02

Faculty Equity and Excellence Award, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2001

Rupert Costo Chair Invited Lecture, University of California, Riverside, 2001

Finalist, North American Indian Prose Award, University of Nebraska Press, 2000

Junior Faculty Development Award, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2000-01

Women’s Studies Dissertation Fellowship, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1994-95

Dissertation Teaching Fellowship, Northern Arizona University, 1993-94

National Women’s Studies Association Graduate Scholarship in Women’s Studies, 1993-94

Research Fellowship, D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History, Newberry Library, 1991

Rowney Graduate Fellowship in Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1989-93