#  Jessica J. Fowler 

Visiting Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Catholicism 

WSRP Research Associate 2023–24

 

 

 



   ![Jessica Fowler WSRP RA](/sites/g/files/omnuum4861/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/hds_wsrp/files/jessica_fowler.jpg?itok=pybg4p8U) 

 



 





 

## Home institution

University of Montana Western

## Research project

### Illuminating the Empire: The Spanish Inquisition and the Spread of Global Heresy, 1500-1700

A trans-imperial study encompassing three continents, two centuries, and approximately four hundred cases, that illustrates how the Spanish Inquisition created a heresy and then set in motion a circumambulatory logic that fabricated heretical sects, led by women, out of inquisitorial fears and anxieties about women and their religiosity.

## Profile

Jessica Fowler is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Montana Western. She earned her PhD from the University of California, Davis. Her work investigates how the Spanish Inquisition, through its own personnel, procedures, and paperwork, was able to create, as well as spread, the heresy of alumbradismo. Those accused, most often charismatic laywomen, though occasionally also nuns, threatened the Catholic Church by assuming the authority of the male clergy while, at the same time, developing cohorts of followers which often included priests and friars. Tracing the process, from the creation of this heresy through its evolution and dissemination, demonstrates how this institution could transform its own anxieties and concerns into tangible heretical realities since it alone was responsible for dictating the terms on which heretics were identified and judged.

Fowler is currently a member of the international research group “[História das Inquisições](https://portal.cehr.ft.lisboa.ucp.pt/Inquisicoes/)”. She also previously worked as an Advanced Researcher in the European Research Council project “Conversion, Overlapping Religiosities, Polemics, and Interaction: Early Modern Iberia and Beyond (CORPI)” \[P.I.: Mercedes García Arenal\] at the National Research Council of Spain. Additionally, was a member of the Research Team for “Los límites del diseño. La política expurgatoria de la monarquía hispánica (1571-1584)” \[P.I.: María José Vega\] funded by a grant from Spain’s Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and based out of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.



 

 

 





 

 

- ## affiliation
    
     [Past WSRP Research Associates](/affiliation/past-wsrp-research-associates) [WSRP Research Associate](/affiliation/wsrp-research-associate)
- ## alpha grouping
    
     [F-J](/alpha-grouping/f-j)
- ## academic year
    
     [2023-24](/year-grouping/2023-24)