WSRP Announces 2018–19 Research Associates

Five new Research Associates will join the Women’s Studies in Religion Program at HDS to work on book-length projects during the 2018–19 academic year. By bringing together scholars from different disciplines and research areas, commonalities in religion and gender emerge. While working on their projects, the WSRP Research Associates teach a one-semester course and deliver a lecture on their research.

2018–19 Research Associates

Seyedeh Zahra Moballegh

Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and Islam

Zahra Moballegh is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies in Iran and holds a visiting appointment at the University of Tehran, Department of Philosophy. Her project, “Woman in the Qur’an,” is an analytic study of about 25 stories in the Qur’an in which one or more women have a role.

Damaris Parsitau

Visiting Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and African Religions

Damaris Parsitau is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy, History and Religious Studies at Egerton University in Kenya, where she also serves as the Director of the Institute of Women, Gender and Development Studies. Her project, “The Kingdom of Holy Women: Pentecostalism, Sex and Women’s Bodies in an African Church,” explores the intersection between Pentecostalism, women’s bodies and sexual purity.

Anna Sun

Visiting Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and East Asian Religions

Anna Sun is Associate Professor of Sociology and Asian studies at Kenyon College, and Chair of the Department of Sociology. Her project, “Women in Prayer: Gendered Religious Life in Contemporary Urban China,” explores how social, political, and economic structures affect the prayer life of men and women differently.

Wylin Wilson

Visiting Lecturer on Women’s Studies and African American Religions and Colorado Scholar

Wylin Wilson is an Adjunct Professor at the College of Agriculture, Environment and Nutrition Sciences, Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tuskegee University. Her project, “‘Sick and Shut-in’: The Black Church and Black Women's Persistent Health Crisis,” project examines the relationship between religion and the health of women.

Barbara Zimbalist

Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and Catholicism

Barbara Zimbalist is an Assistant Professor at University of Texas at El Paso. Her project, “Translating Christ in the Middle Ages: Visionary Translation, Divine Rhetoric, and Verbal Devotion in England, France, and the Low Countries,” argues that female visionaries developed new forms of authorship, reading, and devotion in the Middle Ages.