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Biography

Dr. Marie Olson Purcell is a Visiting Lecturer of Religion. Her scholarship focuses on theories of identity formation at the intersections of religion, gender, and politics in the United States. Her dissertation, which was funded by multiple awards, including a national dissertation fellowship, is an ethnography of women's religious identity formation at the nationally prominent and politically conservative First Baptist Dallas. The book project considers complex paradigms of marginalization by using feminist frameworks to study nonfeminist subjects and uses a theory of religious performativity to advance understanding across difference. The study crosses disparate worldviews with the aim of contributing to the slow work of depolarization that ultimately aids pursuits in social justice, democracy, and community. As a teacher in higher education, she strives to provide student-centered learning environments that are focused on cultivating intellectual curiosity across diverse worldviews and equipping students for constructive dialogue and compassionately critical understanding in an increasingly polarized nation and world.

Selected Publications

Purcell, Marie Olson. “Bodies That Matter to God: A Feminist Theory of Religious Performativity Applied to the #SilenceIsNotSpiritual Movement.” 5.2 (2022).

Purcell, Marie Olson. “‘Oh, Those Words Are so Divisive, Pastor!’: Christian Nationalism and Identity Expression in the United States.” Word and World: Theology for Christian Ministry 43, no. 2 (2023): 138–45.

Purcell, Marie Olson. “‘I Am Completely Confident in the Authority of God’s Word’: Intersecting and Approbatory Identities at First Baptist Dallas.” Religion: Religionslaererforeningen [Journal for Teachers of Religion in Gymnasium]. 4 (2023): 21–29.