Beck Henriksen

Area of Focus: Religion and Culture

Education

M.A., Brown University, Theatre Arts and Performance Studies
M.A.R., Yale Divinity School, Religious Studies (Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies)
B.A., Biola University, Music
B.S., Biola University, Studio Art

Research Interests

• gender, sexuality, queer & trans theory
• ethnography of global christianities
• material and visual culture & performance studies

Professional Biography

I study gender, sexuality, race, resistance, visual and sensory cultures, trauma, dress and belief, embodiment, and (in)visibility in the context of evangelical religious ritual and the lived experience of conservative religious life. My research focuses on how intersectional identity dynamics play out in families, churches, and missionary agencies amidst a culture of compassionate conservatism and purity culture. I seek to conduct a multi-sited ethnography that looks at the spiritual and fleshly politics of sexual and gendered lives within evangelical mission work from the United States to Rwanda.