Publications by Deborah Whitehead
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Mar 2015
This article analyzes allegations of fraud and deception in two popular evangelical Christian “mo... more This article analyzes allegations of fraud and deception in two popular evangelical Christian “mommy blogs” in order to demonstrate how the rhetoric of authenticity in social media plays a central role in the formation of online communities. I argue that a personal religious blogger together with her readers constitutes an ongoing public conversation and community, one that is held together by a kind of belief or trust in the truthful representation of the blogger and her story. When a blog claims to be a story about the power of faith, hope, and miracles, it can be read and understood by its devoted readers as “evidence of things unseen,” that is, as a representation of the evidence of authentic religious faith and practice shared by the community. On the other hand, if credibility is doubted, the blog may become the focus of allegations of deception, leading to the creation of new forms of online community. These cases highlight the importance of attending to claims of credibility and authenticity as constitutive of religious practice and community formation in social media and in the academic study of religion more broadly.
New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia
This case study explores how US evangelical Christian “mommy blog” communities constitute spaces ... more This case study explores how US evangelical Christian “mommy blog” communities constitute spaces for the collective memorialization of infant loss. Personal religious blogs feature a rich combination of esthetics, narrative structure, description of religious practices and beliefs, reader interaction, and linked networks. Using a textual approach, I illustrate distinctive features in how pregnancy and infant loss and grief are experienced, shared and memorialized in US women’s evangelical blogging communities. I argue that the blog format allows for a (re)narrativization of the devastating experience of infant loss as grieving mothers situate their traumatic personal experiences within the context of an ongoing religious narrative in which blog readers also come to participate. As the blogger tells the story of her own loss to a listening public, it becomes a larger shared story, so that it is not just the child’s story but also the author’s story, their family’s story, and “our story” inclusive of the blog community of readers, “the story God is weaving us into,” post by post, day by day. Personal religious blogs and their reading publics, therefore, can provide a medium for the ongoing creation of meaning, faith and community in the context of infant loss.
Sexualities, Dec 2013
While some conservative religious women have rejected Fifty Shades of Grey as contrary to their v... more While some conservative religious women have rejected Fifty Shades of Grey as contrary to their values and beliefs, others have embraced it. This article analyzes commentaries and reflections on the book series in US evangelical Christian and Mormon women’s blog communities, and shows how many of these women find value in the books because of their personal, cultural, and religious significance. I argue that attention to the reading strategies employed by evangelical and Mormon women in relation to Fifty Shades demonstrates a complex set of responses to ‘secular’ culture as well as ongoing negotiations of gender, sexuality, and authority within these conservative religious traditions.
Religion Dispatches, May 6, 2013
Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 2011
The Susan B. Anthony List, a conservative women's pro-life PAC, was founded in 1992 with a m... more The Susan B. Anthony List, a conservative women's pro-life PAC, was founded in 1992 with a mission of “advancing, mobilizing, and representing pro-life women” in the political and legislative arenas. 1 The List was incorporated as a 501 (c)(4) nonprofit in 1997, founded ...
Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 2009
Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 2010
1. Do you see yourself as pursuing studies in gender and religion or feminist studies in religion... more 1. Do you see yourself as pursuing studies in gender and religion or feminist studies in religion? (And why?) I absolutely see the questions and methodologies developing from feminist and gender studies as crucial to the kind of researcher and the kind of teacher I hope to ...
Mother Goose, Mother Jones, Mommie Dearest: Biblical Mothers and Their Children, 2009
Papers by Deborah Whitehead
AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, Oct 27, 2013
Through a textual analysis of the website Alt-Muslim and semi-structured interviews with the site... more Through a textual analysis of the website Alt-Muslim and semi-structured interviews with the site's founder and editors, this paper explores the ways in which new Muslim subjectivities are envisioned and arguably enabled in what I call the 'third spaces of digital Islam'. Specifically, I ask how the site imagines a new face of public Islam that appropriates slick media and design aesthetics (more visual and non-linear) and communication modes (more interactive) to draw inspiration and nurture a different and presumably authentic religious experience. I also look at how the site produces new religious practices and generates new templates and narratives of social action for its users while policing at the same time the terms and boundaries of what it calls modern Islam.
While some conservative religious women have rejected Fifty Shades of Grey as contrary to their v... more While some conservative religious women have rejected Fifty Shades of Grey as contrary to their values and beliefs, others have embraced it. This article analyzes commentaries and reflections on the book series in US evangelical Christian and Mormon women's blog communities, and shows how many of these women find value in the books because of their personal, cultural, and religious significance. I argue that attention to the reading strategies employed by evangelical and Mormon women in relation to Fifty Shades demonstrates a complex set of responses to 'secular' culture as well as ongoing negotiations of gender, sexuality, and authority within these conservative religious traditions.
Key Terms in Material Religion, 2015
Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 2009
American Journal of Theology & Philosophy, 2014
William James’s interest in psychical research is often treated as something of an anomaly. The f... more William James’s interest in psychical research is often treated as something of an anomaly. The fact that James took "that large group of debatable phenomena designated by such terms as ’mesmeric,’ ’psychical,’ and ’spiritualistic,’" seriously as a legitimate area of scientific inquiry seems slightly bemusing to our contemporary jaded ears. As a result, his writings collected in Essays in Psychical Research tend to be marginalized, even ignored by most serious James scholars. But American pragmatist communication theorist John Durham Peters, in his innovative philosophical and cultural history of communication, Speaking into the Air, provides the key to a new appreciation of this oft-neglected work by asserting that, for James, "the question of communication was one of our time’s questions of faith." By this Peters means that James’s investigations were not simply about whether communication with the dead via mediums was scientifically possible but also and more ...
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2014
This article analyzes allegations of fraud and deception in two popular evangelical Christian “mo... more This article analyzes allegations of fraud and deception in two popular evangelical Christian “mommy blogs” in order to demonstrate how the rhetoric of authenticity in social media plays a central role in the formation of online communities. I argue that a personal religious blogger together with her readers constitutes an ongoing public conversation and community, one that is held together by a kind of belief or trust in the truthful representation of the blogger and her story. When a blog claims to be a story about the power of faith, hope, and miracles, it can be read and understood by its devoted readers as “evidence of things unseen,” that is, as a representation of the evidence of authentic religious faith and practice shared by the community. On the other hand, if credibility is doubted, the blog may become the focus of allegations of deception, leading to the creation of new forms of online community. These cases highlight the importance of attending to claims of credibility and authenticity as constitutive of religious practice and community formation in social media and in the academic study of religion more broadly.
New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 2014
This case study explores how US evangelical Christian “mommy blog” communities constitute spaces ... more This case study explores how US evangelical Christian “mommy blog” communities constitute spaces for the collective memorialization of infant loss. Personal religious blogs feature a rich combination of esthetics, narrative structure, description of religious practices and beliefs, reader interaction, and linked networks. Using a textual approach, I illustrate distinctive features in how pregnancy and infant loss and grief are experienced, shared and memorialized in US women's evangelical blogging communities. I argue that the blog format allows for a (re)narrativization of the devastating experience of infant loss as grieving mothers situate their traumatic personal experiences within the context of an ongoing religious narrative in which blog readers also come to participate. As the blogger tells the story of her own loss to a listening public, it becomes a larger shared story, so that it is not just the child's story but also the author's story, their family's story, and “our story” inclusive of the blog community of readers, “the story God is weaving us into,” post by post, day by day. Personal religious blogs and their reading publics, therefore, can provide a medium for the ongoing creation of meaning, faith and community in the context of infant loss.
Sexualities, 2013
While some conservative religious women have rejected Fifty Shades of Grey as contrary to their v... more While some conservative religious women have rejected Fifty Shades of Grey as contrary to their values and beliefs, others have embraced it. This article analyzes commentaries and reflections on the book series in US evangelical Christian and Mormon women’s blog communities, and shows how many of these women find value in the books because of their personal, cultural, and religious significance. I argue that attention to the reading strategies employed by evangelical and Mormon women in relation to Fifty Shades demonstrates a complex set of responses to ‘secular’ culture as well as ongoing negotiations of gender, sexuality, and authority within these conservative religious traditions.
UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dissert... more UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. Learn more... ProQuest, A mediating way of thinking: Rhetoric, gender, and religion in the American pragmatist tradition (Richard Rorty, William James). ...
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Publications by Deborah Whitehead
Papers by Deborah Whitehead