Alumni

Alphabetical by last name.

  • The results are being filtered by the character: W
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y Z
Michael J. Walsh
  • BS, Political Studies, Sociology, and Religious Studies, University of Cape Town, 1990.
  • MA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 1994.
  • PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2000.
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: History of Religion, Chinese Religions, Buddhism.
  • Title of Master’s Thesis: “A Tale of Many Cities: Disruptions of the Sacred in Eighth Century Chang’an.”
  • Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “Profiting the Treasure House: Monasteries and Land in Thirteenth Century China.”
  • Current Employment: Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Religion, Vassar College.
Jeannette (Jinny) Webber
  • BA, English Literature, UC Santa Barbara, 1963.
  • MA, English Literature, UC Santa Barbara. 1965.
  • PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 1986.
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: Religion and Literature.
  • Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “The Prophetic Truth of Doris Lessing: A Study of Canopus in Argos: Archives.”
  • Current Employment: Professor Emeritus, Santa Barbara City College; novelist.
Sarah Whedon
  • BA, Religious Studies & Theatre Studies, Wellesley College, 1999.
  • MA, Religious Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2001.
  • PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2007.
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: American Religious History, Childhood & Religion, Gender & Religion, New Religious Movements.
  • Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “Hands, Hearts, and Heads: Childhood and Esotericism in American Waldorf Education.”
  • Current Employment: Instructor, Department of Theology and Religious History, Cherry Hill Seminary.
Melissa M. Wilcox
  • BS, Biological Sciences, Stanford University, 1993.
  • MA, Women’s Studies in Religion, Claremont Graduate University, 1996.
  • PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2000.
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: Sociology of Religion, U.S. Religious History, History of Religions, Feminist and Gender Theory, Queer Theory.
  • Title of Master’s Thesis: “‘She Changes Everything She Touches’: The Confluence of Feminism and Wicca in the United States.”
  • Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “Two Roads Converged: Religion and Identity among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Christians.”
  • Current Employment: Associate Professor of Religion and Gender Studies, Whitman College.
Brian Wilson
  • BA, Medical Microbiology, Stanford University, 1982.
  • MA, Hispanic Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies, 1989.
  • MA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 1991.
  • PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 1996.
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: History of Religions, American Religious History.
  • Title of Master’s Thesis: “Heavenly Jerusalem in the Ascetical-Mystical Works of Renaissance Spain.”
  • Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “The New World’s Jerusalems: Franciscans, Puritans, and Sacred Space in the Colonial Americas, 1519-1820.”
  • Current Employment: Professor of Comparative Religion, Western Michigan University.
Matthew Wilson
Colleen Windham-Hughes
  • BA, Theater History and Dramatic Criticism, Whittier College, 1996.
  • MDiv, Claremont School of Theology, 2001.
  • PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 2010.
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: Christian Thought, Theology.
  • Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “The Horizon of Birth.”
  • Current Employment: Assistant Professor of Religion, California Lutheran University.
Bruce Wollenberg
  • MA, Religious Studies, Indiana University, 1976.
  • PhD, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 1986.
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: Religion in American History, Christian Social Ethics.
  • Title of Master’s Thesis: “John R. Commons and the Social Gospel.”
  • Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “Christian Social Thought in Great Britain Between the Wars.”
  • Current Employment: Pastor, St. Mark Church (ELCA), Charlottesville, Virginia
Lucas Wright

I am a PhD student in the German Programme in the Department of European Languages and Studies at the University of California, Irvine. I also hold an M.A. in Religious Studies from UC Santa Barbara, an M.A. in Theology, Philosophy, and Literature from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, and a B.A. with a concentration in Theology and Philosophy.

My current research focuses generally on modern Jewish thought and European history, thought, and culture – particularly 19th and 20th century Europe in relation to contemporary trends in continental philosophy and medieval and renaissance mysticism. My most recent publication, entitled Broken Mirrors, Distorted Reflections: Anthropomorphism and the Recovery of the Concrétude of Human Being in Rosenzweig, Heidegger, and Adorno (Forthcoming, Mohr Siebeck),*  examines divergences vis-à-vis the concept of anthropomorphism amongst three thinkers otherwise collectively known for, amongst other things, tarrying with the finitude of human being in contrast to certain allegedly reductive tendencies of German idealism and Romanticism.

*See: Lucas Scott Wright. “Broken Mirrors, Distorted Reflections: Anthropomorphism and the Recovery of the Concrétude of Human Being in Rosenzweig, Heidegger, and Adorno.” Humanity: An Endangered Idea? Ed. Ingolf Dalferth and Marlene Bloch. Claremont Studies in the Philosophy of Religion. (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, Forthcoming).

Wendy M. Wright
  • BA, History, California State University at Los Angeles, 1972.
  • MA, Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 1976.
  • PhD, Interdisciplinary Studies (Religious Studies, History, Languages), UC Santa Barbara, 1983.
  • Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from DeSales University, PA, 2000.
  • Areas of Study at UCSB: History of Christian Spirituality, Early Modern Catholicism.
  • Title of Doctoral Dissertation: “Bond of Perfection, Jeanne de Chantal and Francois de Sales: A Study of the Nature of Spiritual Friendships between Men and Women in the Christian Contemplative Tradition.”
  • Current Employment: Professor & Kenefick Chair in the Humanities, Creighton University.