Ashley M. Purpura
Associate Professor
// Religious Studies // SIS
Faculty
Associate Professor
// Jewish Studies // SIS
Faculty
Affiliated Faculty // Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies // SIS
Associate Professor
// Cornerstone
Faculty
Office and Contact
Courses
REL200: Introduction to the Study of Religion
PHIL/REL230: Religions of the East
Ashley Purpura received her Ph.D. Fordham University in 2014. 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. With current projects, Purpura analyzes Orthodox Christian constructions of gender in relation to religious ideals of patriarchy, and the formation of religious identity in ritual contexts.
Specialization
History of Christianity, Orthodox Christianity, gender, ritual, identity, and authority in Byzantine religious genres