Dr. Jenna Gray-Hildenbrand

Professor

Dr. Jenna Gray-Hildenbrand
(615) 898-2758
Room 301, James Union Building (JUB)
MTSU Box 73, Murfreesboro, TN 37132

Degree Information

  • PHD, University of California, Santa Barbara (2012)
  • MA, University of Colorado Boulder (2004)
  • BA, Western Michigan University (2000)

Areas of Expertise

  • Religion in the United States
  • Religion & Law
  • Religion & Gender
  • New Religious Movements
  • Theory and Method in Religious Studies
  • The Scholarship on Teaching and Learning

Publications

Recent Publications:

Gray-Hildenbrand, Jenna. "Saving Religion from BallardhooMetaphysical Religion, the Government, and the Creation of Religious Criminals." Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. 27 no. 1 (August 2023): 5–28. (

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Recent Publications:

Gray-Hildenbrand, Jenna. "Saving Religion from BallardhooMetaphysical Religion, the Government, and the Creation of Religious Criminals." Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. 27 no. 1 (August 2023): 5–28. (click)

Gray-Hildenbrand, Jenna, Beverley McGuire, and Hussein Rashid, Editors. Teaching Critical Religious Studies: Pedagogy and Critique in the Classroom. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022. (click)

Gray-Hildenbrand, Jenna, Beverley McGuire, and Hussein Rashid, "Under Pressure: Teaching Critical Religious Studies." The Wabash Journal on Teaching 3 no.1 (2022): 44-51. (click)

Gray-Hildenbrand, Jenna, and Rebekka King. “Teaching in Contexts: Designing a Competency-based Religious Studies Program.” Teaching Theology and Religion 22 (2019): 191-204. (click) To see a May 2017 interview about our Religious Studies program at MTSU click.

Smith Roberts, Martha and Jenna Gray-Hildenbrand. “Finding Religion, Spirituality, and Flow in Movement: An Ethnography of Value of the Hula Hoop Community.” Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. 22 no. 3 (Feb. 2019): 36-59.(click)  To see a March 2020 interview with Nova Religio's Co-Editor, Benjamin Zeller, about this article click .

Gray-Hildenbrand, Jenna. “The Appalachian ‘Other’: Academic Approaches to the Study of Serpent-Handling Sects” Religion Compass 10 no. 3 (2016): 47-57. (click)

Gray-Hildenbrand, Jenna and Martha Smith Roberts. “Hula Hoop Spiritualities: Social Media, Embodied Experience, and Communities of Practice,” in Practical Spiritualities in a Media Age, edited by Curtis Coats and Monica M. Emerich, 67-88. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015. (click)

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In the Media

Recent Interviews and Podcasts:

Murfreesboro: One Mosque's First Amendment Fight to Worship," Freedom Forum Inc. click click

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Recent Interviews and Podcasts:

Murfreesboro: One Mosque's First Amendment Fight to Worship," Freedom Forum Inc. click click

March 2020 interview with Nova Religio's Co-Editor, Benjamin Zeller, about “Finding Religion, Spirituality, and Flow in Movement: An Ethnography of Value of the Hula Hoop Community” (co-author Martha Smith Roberts - see above). click 

May 2017 interview about our Religious Studies program at MTSU click

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Courses

For more information about Religious Studies at MTSU (click for short video)

For more information on the Religious Studies courses (click). For more information on the Women's and Gender Studies courses (click)

  • WGST 2100: Introduction to Women’s Studies  
  • RS 2030: Reli...
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For more information about Religious Studies at MTSU (click for short video)

For more information on the Religious Studies courses (click). For more information on the Women's and Gender Studies courses (click)

  • WGST 2100: Introduction to Women’s Studies  
  • RS 2030: Religion & Society 
  • RS 3060: Pilgrimage and Sacred Journeys
  • RS 4030: Contemporary Issues in Indigenous Religions
  • RS 4120: Cults and New Religious Movements  
  • RS 4201: Women & Religion
  • WGST 4201: Symposium in Women's Studies: Women & Religion
  • RS 4130: Religion & Law
  • RS 4900: Seminar in Religious Studies (click)

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