Director of Master of Divinity
Director of Contextual Education
Associate Professor of Contextual Education and Theology
BA Art History and Religious Studies, McMaster University (2002)
MDiv Yale Divinity School (2005)
MA Theological Studies, Vanderbilt University (2010)
PhD Theological Studies, Vanderbilt University (2011)
Contact
Tel.: (416) 585-4548
Email: natalie.wigg@utoronto.ca
Natalie Wigg-Stevenson teaches Contextual Education and Theology at Emmanuel College. Her research explores how ethnographic methods can help create theological conversations across church, academy and everyday life. She is also interested in feminist and queer theologies, cultural theories of practice and practices for decolonizing higher education.
Her current scholarly project uses ethnographic research to reimagine systematic theology as a form of performance art.
When not engaged with all things academically theological, she enjoys hiking, reading novels, doing yoga, cooking and having impromptu dance parties with her husband (Tyler) and three wild and wonderful daughters (Georgia, Heloise, and Evensong).
Publications
Books
Transgressive Devotion: Theology as Performance Art (London: SCM Press, 2021) (R)
Ethnographic Theology: An Inquiry Into the Production of Theological Knowledge (New York: Palgrave Press, 2014). (R)
Edited books
Guest editor for Ecclesial Practices (peer reviewed journal), special issue: Summer 2016.
With Pamela Couture, Robert Mager & Pamela R. McCarroll, Complex Identities in a Shifting World: Practical Theological Perspectives (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2015).
Articles in academic journals
“Imitating Christ Elsewhere?” in “Roundtable Review of Todd Whitmore’s Imitating Christ in Magwi.” Review symposium in Practical Theology 13:3 (2020): 319-336.
“Checking and Folding: Refusing the Impatience of Theodicy,” in Toronto Journal of Theology. 33(2), 241-246 (Fall 2018). (R)
“What’s Really Going On: Ethnographic Theology and the Production of Theological Knowledge” in Cultural Studies<>Critical Methodologies (November 2017). (R)
“You Don’t Look Like a Baptist Minister: An Autoethnographic Retrieval of ‘Women’s Experience’ as an Analytic Category for Feminist Theology,” in Feminist Theology, (January 2017). (R)
“An Intriguing Third Way: Mapping Contextual Education for Curricular Integration,” in Teaching Theology and Religion, (January, 2016) (R)
“From Proclamation to Conversation: Ethnographic Disruptions to Theological Normativity,” in Palgrave Communications: Radical Theologies Collection, (October, 2015). (R)
“Reflexive Theology: A Preliminary Proposal” in Practical Matters (Spring, 2013). (R)
Chapters in multi-author volumes
“Just Don’t Call it Ethnography: A Critical Ethnographic Pedagogy for Transformative Theological Education” in Qualitative Research in Theological Education: Pedagogy in Practice (SCM Press, 2018). (R)
“Trying to Tell the Truth About A Life: The Issue of Representation for Ethnographic Theology” book chapter in What Really Matters: A Nordic Perspective on Ecclesiology and Ethnography, Jonas Ideström and Tone Stangeland Kaufman, eds. (Pickwick, 2018). (R)
“To Walk in Ways that Might Make us Feel Lost” book chapter in What Really Matters: A Nordic Perspective on Ecclesiology and Ethnography, Jonas Ideström and Tone Stangeland Kaufman, eds. (Pickwick, 2018). (R)
Other publications
“When a Trusted Spiritual Leader Turns Out to Be a Predator,” Feature article in Sojourners (June, 2020).
“Editorial Introduction” in Ecclesial Practices (Fall 2016).
“Reconciliatory Hope: The Aesthetics and Ethics of Passing” in Postcolonial Networks (Postcolonial Body Performance Narratives), March 8, 2011.
“White, Privileged, Fragile”. Feature article in Sojourners (Sept-Oct, 2016).
“The Agony and Ecstasy of Baptism”. Cover article in Sojourners (March, 2016).
Professional Designations
| 2020-present | Member of Editorial Board, Brill Handbook on Empirical and Qualitative Methods in Systematic Theological Research |
| 2016-present | Member of Editorial Board, Ecclesial Practices journal |
| Member of Editorial Board, T&T Clarke Series in Ethics, Ethnography and Theology | |
| 2014-2020 | Co-chair, “Ecclesial Practices” Group, American Academy of Religion |
| 2013-present | Founding member of Steering Committee, “Ecclesial Practices” Group, American Academy of Religion |
| 2010-present | Ordained to word and table, Baptist |
| Licensure to preach, Baptist |