Women's Studies in Religion

The incoming Chair of the WSR is Rev. Dr. Kirsi Stjerna, The First Lutheran, Los Angeles/Southwest California Synod Professor of Lutheran History and Theology, PLTS of California Lutheran University. She is from Finland, an ordained Lutheran pastor, and a docent at the Helsinki University, Finland. She serves at the Core Doctoral Faculty in the departments of the HCSR as well as Theology and Ethics at GTU. She has been committed to women and gender studies as a teacher and an author in the fields of Christian theology and history. Women’s voices, experiences, and theological texts are engaged in all her classes. Her dissertation on Santa Birgitta from Sweden (Boston University) broke ground in analyzing a medieval woman’s writings as a theological source. Her latest book project, “Women Reformers of Early Modern Europe: Profiles, Texts, and Contexts” is a collaboration of over 30 international scholars, from the intersecting fields of theology, history, and women and gender studies. It marks a milestone for the scholarship on the history of the reformations and on the protestant theological traditions.