Strong Foundations, Forward Thinking

The Women’s Studies in Religion Program (WSRP) at Harvard Divinity School is no ordinary fellowship program. Its rigorous vetting process and innovative format were born in the 1970s, at a time when scholars, including HDS faculty, questioned whether the study of women and gender had intellectual legitimacy. More than 50 years and 130 publications later, the WSRP has built a multifaceted academic community and a robust foundation of research. Its scholars of religion and gender from around the world go on to contribute their knowledge to their disciplines, their home academic institutions, and the field of religious studies. 

Collaborating Across Generations 

WSRP research associates (RAs) not only spend a year immersed in research and writing, they also interrogate their work in the classroom—drawing on the School’s pluralistic academic context. “Most research fellowships do not require teaching, and ours does,” says Ann D. Braude, director of the program. “It’s an opportunity to explore texts, contexts, or issues that are crucial to their research with a talented, motivated group of Harvard graduate students who are there because they are passionate about the topics—and because they really want to dig deeper and broaden their knowledge.”  

Every year at HDS orientation, new students receive a list of the more than 200 WSRP international scholars who have been through the program since its inception. “Many of them see the authors they have read in college and who have shaped their perspectives,” says Braude. “I tell the students they might be part of the next generation: learning with our current RAs, teaching that work to their own students someday, and returning here as scholars to change the way we think about religion and gender.”  

The WSRP also cultivates a special connection between students and RAs—encouraging students to study further, publish research of their own, and join the lineage of scholars before them. “At my institution, I primarily work with undergraduate students, but while I was at HDS, I had this wonderful cohort of nine graduate students who took my seminar on women, power, and freedom in Orthodox Christian thought,” says Ashley Purpura, MTS ’09, WSRP ’24. “About five of them were Orthodox, several of whom have gone on to graduate programs, and they all feel empowered to talk about issues of gender inequality in ways that I think a generation ago would not have been possible.”  

Through connections like these, the program itself has revolutionized the study of gender and religion. This past year, Wendy Mallette, WSRP ’25, turned her critical eye toward second-wave feminism of the 1960s and 1970s—creating a full-circle moment for the WSRP as she highlighted queer and trans history through the lens of 1970s feminist author Jill Johnston. Polly Wynn Allen, one of the founding WSRP RAs from that era (1973–74), attended Mallette’s lecture and offered invaluable information to Mallette during her research. Braude says, “For me, it was a phenomenal moment to have a current research associate seeking out one of the students who called for the creation of the WSRP, not just as support, but as a source for research.”