CHRIST COLLEGE – THE HONORS COLLEGE
Faculty Biographies Gretchen Buggeln, Professor of Art History and Humanities Ph.D. IN AMERICAN STUDIES | YALE UNIVERSITY
Gretchen Buggeln holds the Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Chair in Christianity and the Arts. She writes and teaches about the intersections of Christian belief and the material world. Her primary research interest is American sacred spaces, the topic of her books “Temples of Grace” (2003) and “The Suburban Church” (2015). More recently she has co-edited two books on the interpretation of religion and religious artifacts in museums: “Religion in Museums: Global and Interdisciplinary Perspectives” (2016) and “Interpreting Religion at Museums and Historic Sites” (2018). She is currently working on “Faith in Place,” a book defining a vernacular approach to the study of religious architecture. She is a past president of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, an international organization dedicated to the appreciation, study, and preservation of common buildings and landscapes.
Samuel Graber, Associate Professor of Humanities and Literature Ph.D. IN AMERICAN STUDIES | UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
Sam Graber’s interests include nineteenth-century literature and culture, the American Civil War, transatlantic studies, memory studies, and religion. In Christ College, he teaches in the first-year program; Word & Image; African American Literature; Literatures of Freedom; Literature at the Movies; American Identity; Interpretation: Self, Culture, Society; and American War Literature. His first book, “Twice-Divided Nation: National Memory, Transatlantic News, and American Literature in the Civil War Era,” was published by the University of Virginia Press in 2019. He’s also published essays in numerous scholarly journals and collections, including ESQ, The Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, “Literary Cultures of the American Civil War,” and “The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the American Civil War and Reconstruction.”
Agnes Howard, Adjunct Assistant Professor in Humanities Ph.D. IN HISTORY | UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Agnes Howard teaches in the first-year program, the Christian Tradition, and seminars on aspects of modern United States cultural history. Her research centers on American history, with special interest in Puritan New England, women’s monasticism, and the culture of maternity and family life. Her book, “Showing: What Pregnancy Tells Us about Being Human” (Eerdmans, 2020), examines ideas and practices around birth in the past and present. Her recent writing has appeared in the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, United States Catholic Historian, Commonweal, Christianity Today, and other publications. Although primarily focused on U.S. history, she has taught in Orvieto, Italy, at the Gordon-in-Orvieto program, and is researching women’s religious life in one of the city’s many monasteries.
Thomas Albert Howard, Professor of Humanities and History Ph.D. IN EUROPEAN INTELLECTUAL AND RELIGIOUS HISTORY | UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Thomas Albert (Tal) Howard is professor of humanities and history and holder of the Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Chair in Christian Ethics. He also serves as a senior fellow for the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities. He is currently working on a book entitled “Modern Christian Theology: An Intellectual History” (under contract with Princeton University Press) in addition to a collection of travel essays and an essay on the Christian conception of wisdom. He is the author or editor of many books, including “Broken Altars: Secularist Violence in Modern History” (Yale University Press (2025), “The Faiths of Others: A History of Interreligious Dialogue” (Yale University Press, 2021), “The Pope and the Professor: Pius IX, Ignaz von Döllinger, and the Quandary of the Modern Age” (Oxford University Press, 2017), “Remembering the Reformation: An Inquiry into the Meanings of Protestantism” (Oxford University Press, 2016), and (edited with Mark A. Noll) “Protestantism after 500 Years” (Oxford University Press, 2016). His writings have appeared in peer-reviewed journals, such as the Journal of the History of Ideas and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and in more general venues such as the Hedgehog Review, Wall Street Journal, Modern Age, Touchstone, Inside Higher Ed, National Interest, Christian Century, First Things, and Commonweal. His work has been translated into German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Slavica Jakelić, Professor of Humanities and Social Thought Ph.D. IN RELIGIOUS STUDIES | BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Slavica Jakelić’s scholarly interests and publications center on religion and nationalism, religious and secular humanisms, theories of religion and secularism, theories of modernity, and interreligious conflict and dialogue. She has worked at or was a fellow of a number of interdisciplinary institutes in Europe and the United States. She is a Senior Fellow of the national project “Religion & Its Publics,” placed at the University of Virginia, where she was a faculty member and co-director at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture for several years. She is also a Senior Fellow of the international project “Orthodoxy and Human Rights,” housed at Fordham University. Her writings have appeared in journals such as the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Journal of Religious Ethics, Political Theology, The Hedgehog Review, The Review of Faith & International Affairs, Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, and Commonweal. She co-edited three volumes: “The Future of the Study of Religion,” “Crossing Boundaries: From Syria to Slovakia,” and The Hedgehog Review’s issue “After Secularization.” She is the author of “Collectivistic Religions” (2010/2016) and “Pluralizing Humanism” (2025). She is currently working on two books, “Both Freedom and Belonging: Essays on Religion, Nationalism, and Solidarity” (in Croatian; under contract with TIM Press) and “Ethical Nationalisms.”