Maeve Callan
- Department Chair of History, Philosophy, and Religion
- Co-Director of the Interfaith Fellows Program
- Bishop Matthew Simpson Endowed Chair of Religion
- Department of History, Philosophy, and Religion
-
Email
-
Office Phone
-
Office Location
Mary Berry Hall 202
I am our department’s historian of religion, with particular interest and expertise in the marginalized and underrepresented, gender issues, and interfaith engagement.
Biography
I am the historian in our program, as well as the main World Religions professor. My first book, The Templars, the Witch, and the Wild Irish (2015), published by Cornell University Press and Four Courts Press, explores Ireland’s handful of heresy trials, their role in the colonization of the island by the English, and their relationship to heresy and witchcraft prosecution in Britain and on the Continent. My second, Sacred Sisters (2020), focuses on gender, sanctity, and power in medieval Ireland, and is the first book in Amsterdam University Press’s Hagiography Beyond Tradition series. My current project examines the intersections between religion, ethnic identity, and racism in medieval Britain and Ireland. With Rev. Mara Bailey, I co-direct Simpson’s Interfaith Fellows Program, which helps cultivate greater understanding and constructive engagement with religious diversity as it helps students develop leadership skills and abilities.
Education
- Northwestern University, Ph.D. in Religion, 2002; M.A. in Religion, 1998.
- University of Dublin, Trinity College, M.Phil. in Women’s Studies, 1994.
- Pomona College, B.A. in Religious Studies, 1992.
