• Ashley Purpura

    Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Purdue University

    Ashley Purpura is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, a Faculty fellow of the Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts Program, and the Director of the Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program at Purdue University. She received her Ph.D. at Fordham University in 2014.  Currently, she researches the history of Orthodox Christian thought in its Byzantine tradition and investigates how historical religious practices and ways of thinking shape power structures and complex identities for past and present religious communities. She has published articles on religious authority and conceptions of gender, and her first book, God, Hierarchy, and Power: Orthodox Theologies of Authority from Byzantium (Fordham University Press, 2018) examines the development and maintenance of “hierarchy” as a theological concept. She was the 2020-21 recipient of the Center's NEH Faculty Fellowship in Orthodox Christian Studies.

    She is co-editor of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center's book series Orthodox Christianity and Contemporary Thought with Fordham University Press and
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Disability Theology
Women Scholars of Orthodox Christianity

The Unattainable Body
A Conversation about Disability Theology with Katherine Karam McCray

The Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University is delighted to present the next episode of its webinar series highlighting the scholarly insights and academic careers of female scholars whose research and writing explore some facet of the history, thought, or culture of Orthodox Christianity. This episode features a conversation with Katherine Karam McCray on...

More posts by the author

Women Scholars of Orthodox Christianity

Stories between Christianity and Islam
A Conversation with Reyhan Durmaz

The Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University is delighted to present the next episode of its “Women Scholars of Orthodox Christianity” webinar series highlighting the scholarly insights and academic careers of female scholars whose research and writing explore some facet o... Read more.
Women Scholars of Orthodox Christianity

Everyday Religiosity and the Politics of Belonging in Ukraine
A Conversation with Catherine Wanner

This episode of “Women Scholars of Orthodox Christianity” features a conversation with Catherine Wanner. Highly visible, vernacular religious practices make the presence of religious institutions in the public sphere in Ukraine possible and influential, even among non-believers... Read more.
Women Scholars of Orthodox Christianity

Divine Inspiration in Byzantium
A Conversation with Karin Krause

The Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University is delighted to present another episode of its webinar series highlighting the scholarly insights and academic careers of female scholars whose research and writing explore some facet of the history, thought, or culture of Orthodox Christia... Read more.
Women Scholars of Orthodox Christianity

Orthodox Christian Renewal Movements in Eastern Europe
A Conversation with Aleksandra Đurić-Milovanović.

The Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University is delighted to present another episode of its webinar series highlighting the scholarly insights and academic careers of female scholars whose research and writing explore some facet of the history, thought, or culture of Orthodox Christia... Read more.
Gender and Sexuality, Liturgical Life

Beyond the Binary
Hymnographic Constructions of Orthodox Gender

Much like gender itself, Orthodox understandings of gender span a spectrum of diverse views. Many who address “the problem of gender” or the “role of women in the church” rely on an assumption that any theological interpretation of gender is necessarily situated along a cisgender binary. Sim... Read more.
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