Dr Christina Welch 

Senior Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies 

Humanities and Social Sciences 

Christina.Welch@winchester.ac.uk 

+44 (0)1962 827521 

+44 (0)1962 827437 

The University of Winchester
Sparkford Road
Winchester
Hampshire  SO22 4NR

Biography

Dr Christina Welch gained her first class BA (Hons) in Religious Studies with Psychology at King Alfred’s College in 2000, and her MA (with distinction) in the Archaeology of Art & Representation from the University of Southampton in 2001. In 2005 she gained her AHRB-funded Doctorate from the University of Southampton, titled ‘The Role of Popular Visual Representation in the Construction of North American Indian and Western Alternative Spiritual Identities’. This research combined her interests in religion and visual representation. Christina started University as a mature student, having previously had a career in the financial services sector. She did much of her study as a single parent, and is dyslexic.

Dr Welch is Programme Leader for the MA Religion: Rhetoric & Rituals of Death, convener of the International Death Day Conference and co-convener for the bi-annual conference on Faith, Spirituality & Social Change. She co-edits the e-journal for Faith, Spirituality & Social Change and currently supervises research students in the area of medieval to Victorian poetry as an expression of remembrance.

Publications

Welch, C. (2010). ‘The Spirituality of, and at, Greenham Common Peace Camp’. Feminist Theology, 18(2): 230-48.

Welch, C. (2007) ‘Complicating Spiritual Appropriation: North American Indian Agency in Western Alternative Spiritual Practice’. Journal of New Age & Alternative Spiritualities 3: 97-117

Welch, C., (2005) ‘Representations of North American Indian Spirituality in the World of Western Children’. In|: Ota, C. & Erricker, C. (eds) Spiritual Education: Literary, Empirical & Pedagogical Approaches, Brighton: Sussex Academic Press: 40-58

Welch, C., (2004) ‘Appropriating the Didjeridu and the Sweat Lodge: New Age Baddies and Indigenous Victims?’. In: Lewis, J. (ed) The Encyclopaedic Source Book of the New Age, New York: Prometheus Press: 349-75

Welch, C. (2002) ‘Appropriating the Didjeridu and the Sweat Lodge: New Age Baddies and Indigenous Victims?’ Journal of Contemporary Religion 17(1): 21-38

Forthcoming

Sheeran, P. & Welch, C. Contesting Power in Religion and International Relations: Ecology, Charity and the New Levellers. Ashgate; publication expected Spring 2012

‘Teepees & Totem Poles: imaginings of North American Indians in European popular culture for children’. In: D. Stirrup, & J. MacKay,  (eds.) Tribal Fantasies. Palgrave; awaiting publication date

‘Victorian Voyeurism; Sex and Social Darwinism in the Visual Representations of Indigenous Women’. In: W.G. Pearson, (ed) First Women: the politics of looking. With potential publisher, expected 2011

Savagery on Show: The Popular Visual Representation of North American Indian peoples, their Spiritualities and Lifeways at the World’s Fairs (1851-1904) and in the Wild West Shows (1884-1904). Journal of Early Popular Visual Culture; publication 2011

‘Civilizing the “Redman”’: How John Locke, Adam Smith and Social Darwinist understandings of Religion, Nature and Progress Killed the Savage to Save the Child’. International Journal for Religion, Culture & Nature

Guest editor for Fieldwork in Religion special edition on Death, Spring 2012

Exhibition

Jan – Mar 2001, ‘Bought and Sold: Southampton’s Links with the Slave Trade’, Tudor House Museum, Southampton. For more information about the exhibition, listen to this interview with Dr Welch or read this article.

Research Interests

  • Death studies
  • Indigenous religions
  • The sociology of religion
  • Religion and popular culture
  • Nature and environmentalism
  • Visual representation
  • Faith-based social change
  • Religion and globalisation

Funding Awards and Professional Membership

Funding Awards

  • 2007 British Council Overseas Travel Grant to present in Havana (ca £900)
  • 2006 Promising Researcher Grant, University of Winchester – ‘Spiritualities of Greenham Common’ (ca £500)
  • 2005 Women’s History Network – student conference grant to present paper (ca £200)
  • 2005 University College Winchester – student conference grant to present at IAHR Congress, Tokyo (ca £2500)
  • 2003 British Association for the Study of Religions – student conference grant to present paper (ca £200)
  • 2001 Arts & Humanities Research Board – studentship for doctoral study (ca £50,000)
  • 2000 University of Southampton – bursary for postgraduate study (ca £3000)

Memberships

  • American Academy of Religion
  • International Society for the study of Religion, Nature & Culture
  • British Association for the Study of Religion
  • Dying Matters
  • Association of the Study of Death & Society
  • Anthropological Association