Kaitlyn Lindgren-Hansen

PhD Candidate (Post-Comp)
Biography

Kaitlyn Lindgren-Hansen (she/her) is a third year PhD student in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Iowa. Her research focuses on spiritualism in the nineteenth-century U.S., a movement that blended protestant Christianity, scientific inquiry, and what we might now consider “occult” practices. In addition to her interest in spiritualism, Lindgren-Hansen’s research also examines the intersection of spiritualism with American literature and culture. She is currently writing her prospectus and expects to begin writing her dissertation this year. 

After receiving her BA at Augustana College in 2016, Lindgren-Hansen worked as an AmeriCorps VISTA member at the Cedar Rapids Public Library before beginning her career in academia. She earned her MA in Religious Studies at the University of Iowa in 2019 with her thesis, “Unsettling Religion: Anger and Race in The Bondwoman’s Narrative.” 

On campus, Lindgren-Hansen is a co-editor for Tell Magazine, a blog supported by the GWSS Department at the University of Iowa. The blog seeks to make feminist theory accessible for a public audience and foster an interdisciplinary community of feminist thinkers. She is also the coordinator for a Critical Theory Reading Group, which meets monthly to discuss themed readings over the course of each semester. Lindgren-Hansen has taught courses for both the Religious Studies and English departments and is happy to talk pedagogy anytime.

Research interests

  • 19th C. U.S. Religions
  • American Literature and Culture
  • New Materialisms

Selected publications

  • “Universities Must Protect Workers, Not Profits,” in PubLab, Los Angeles Review of Books, 2020

Presentations

  • “A Comprehensive Guide to Comprehensive Exams,” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, Texas, 2021
  • “Staging Women: Race and Femininity in Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Craft, Critique, Culture, Iowa City, Iowa, April 2020 (cancelled due to COVID-19)
  • “Teaching the World(s): Untangling Religion, Eurocentrism, and Pedagogy in American Universities,” Meeting of Upper Midwest American Academy of Religion, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2020 (cancelled due to COVID-19)

Courses taught

  • RELS:2260:EXV - Hard Cases Healthcare at the Beginning of Life
  • ENGL:1200 - The Interpretation of Literature
  • RELS:2265:EXW - Hard Cases in Healthcare/End of Life
  • RELS:1225 - Medieval Religion and Culture
  • RELS:2877 - Sport and Religion in America
  • RELS:1001 - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
  • RELS:1250 - Modern Religion and Culture

Service and public engagement

  • Humanities for the Public Good Intern, The Multicultural Development Center of Iowa, 2022
  • Graduate Certificate in College Teaching, University of Iowa, 2021
  • Graduate Student Committee, American Academy of Religion, 2019-2021
  • Los Angeles Review of Books Publishing Workshop Fellow, 2020
  • Grant and Fellowship Writing Workshop, University of Iowa, 2019

Awards, honors, and grants

  • M. Willard Lampe Scholarship, University of Iowa, 2021
  • Pres. And Mrs. Eugene Gilmore Scholarship, University of Iowa, 2020
  • Ford Predoctoral Scholarship Competition, Honorable Mention, 2020
  • Alice Marguerite Blough Award, University of Iowa, 2019
  • Dwight and Hannalore Bozeman Summer Fellowship, 2019
This is a picture of Kaitlyn Lindgren-Hansen
MA, University of Iowa
Address

University of Iowa
406 Gilmore Hall (GILH)
112 North Capitol Street
Iowa City, IA 52242
United States