Faculty Profile
Mary Thurlkill
Professor of Philosophy and Religion
Phone Number: (662)915-1400
Email: maryt@olemiss.edu
Key Words: Early Church History, Islamic Studies, comparative medieval Christianity and Islam, Gender Studies
Research Description: Currently, I'm working on 'pilgrimage' in Christianity and Islam. When most people imagine a "pilgrimage site," they consider a fixed location, deeply linked to sacred geography or a holy act. However, pilgrimage sites tend to "multiply" to meet the needs of various audiences- beliefs, ethnicity, and gender-- particularly with relic multiplication and proliferation. The project includes reading early/medieval pilgrimage manuals in Christianity and Islam as well as doing ethnographic work at sacred sites.
Honors Theses:
McKinley, Currie D. (2015) Revisiting The Ghosts of Vatican II: Gender in Catholic Horror Cinema of the American 60s and 70s. (full text)
Hickman, Jacob Nathaniel (2013) "A God Up Above, The Land Down Under" (full text)
Available Research Projects:
Pilgrimage in Early Christianity and Islam
Project Description: As part of an on-going research project on 'pilgrimage,' I have been traveling to important historical/religious sites for archival research as well as ethnographic inquiry. As an historian, this is a new field for me-- interviewing "living" sources-- and I lack the language proficiencies to interview pilgrims/visitors/religious authorities. (I read classical languages, but I must rely on translators to effectively communicate... especially in Arabic.)
Desired Student Qualifications: Students fluent in (or working on fluency in) a variety of languages, including Arabic (Egyptian), Hebrew, Turkish, and Italian.
Project Timeline: Research trips and interviews will continue over the next 3- 5 years (2022-2025/27).
Duties of Student Researcher: Students should be interested in religious traditions and practices, with methodological backgrounds in oral history/ethnography/linguistics across diverse cultures. Optimally, research would include international travel with students assisting in translation and interviews. Less ambitiously, research and translations would proceed virtually.
Last Updated on 2021-09-26 00:34:39
Religious Diversity in Mississippi
Project Description: I am applying for an NEH grant in the Digital Humanities to build an open-source, easily accessible website that explores Mississippi's religious diversity. The website will be 'housed' in the University's library repository, and I hope to build the site over 5 years (2022-2027). The site will allow readers to explore Mississippi by region, then town, then specific religious communities. The site will include a brief narrative history of each community; professional images with a critical analysis of the 'sacred' space; and a bank of interviews with community members (some professional interviews in a 'documentary style' and others more informal, e.g. zoom files).
Desired Student Qualifications: As an interdisciplinary project, interested students might focus on historical research of specific communities' foundations (e.g., Magnolia Grove Buddhist community in Batesville); Art History (e.g., analyze the communities' space); Southern Studies/Documentary Studies (e.g., filming and interviewing practitioners); Sociology/Anthropology (e.g., exploring and analyzing communities' socio-economic and racial frameworks); and/or Gender Studies (e.g., exploring communities' gendered roles of leadership and authority).
Project Timeline: I plan to build an expansive and inter-active site over a 5 year period (2022-2027). After that, specific oral histories/interviews will be added and socio-cultural analyses revised periodically by a project director.
Duties of Student Researcher: Specific duties will depend on the Student's own disciplinary interests (as listed above).
Last Updated on 2021-09-26 00:35:00