Geoffrey Pollick

Ph.D., Drew University

Geoffrey Pollick studies the history and culture of religion in the United States and North America. He teaches courses that explore broad questions of religion鈥檚 meanings and uses, including comparative studies of religious difference; surveys of global Christianity and Islam; the relationship between religious identity and healthcare; and advanced courses that consider American religious history and the relationship between religion and culture.

Dr. Pollick also works closely with students completing the Religious-Cultural Literacy for Healthcare Professions Minor, and with with students in the Philosophy and Religious Studies Major as they pursue internship opportunities with employers and community agencies, and as students seek to conduct research on topics relating to religion, culture, and society through their major capstone experience. Some examples of this work include mentoring a student through an internship at a regional social services agency that resulted in an offer of employment upon graduation; and he is currently working with an undergraduate research assistant, who will co-present with Dr. Pollick this spring, beginning to document linkages between race and religion in the early nineteenth-century New River Valley.

Dr. Pollick's scholarship emphasizes religion鈥檚 entanglements with political radicalism in the United States; the role and dimensions of religious liberalism; women鈥檚 religious leadership; critical theory and cultural history of religion; religion in popular culture; and religion and healthcare. His current research projects explore the political and social dimensions of women鈥檚 ordination during the late nineteenth century; religion and race as intertwined factors in developing the nineteenth-century settlements of Virginia's New River Valley; aesthetic impacts of influences shared between liberal Protestants and secular radicals in the prewar New York Left; and understandings of masculinity and illness among Virginia coal miners who experience Black Lung Disease.

Before coming to 澳门老奇人论坛, Dr. Pollick held positions at Sweet Briar College, New York University, Kean University, and Drew University. He holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. from Drew University, an M.A. from Claremont School of Theology, and a B.A. from the University of Puget Sound.

Selected Publications and Public Writing

in Online Biographical Dictionary of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the United States, Part III, Mainstream Suffragists鈥擭ational American Woman Suffrage Association, edited by Thomas Dublin and Kathryn Kish Sklar (Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street Publishers/ProQuest, 2021).
in Online Biographical Dictionary of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the United States, Part III, Mainstream Suffragists鈥擭ational American Woman Suffrage Association, edited by Thomas Dublin and Kathryn Kish Sklar (Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street Publishers/ProQuest, 2020).
The Revealer: A Review of Religion and Media (November 16, 2018).
review of American Prophets: Seven Religious Radicals and Their Struggle for Social and Political Justice, by Albert J. Raboteau, The Revealer: A Review of Religion and Media (October 17, 2017).
review of Village Atheists: How America鈥檚 Unbelievers Made Their Way in a Godly Nation, by Leigh Eric Schmidt, The Revealer: A Review of Religion and Media (September 8, 2017).

Selected Presentations, Papers and Media Commentary

2023: with Aysha Bodenhamer, 鈥淢asculinity, Religiosity, Vulnerability: Explaining Experiences of Black Lung Disease in Central Appalachia,鈥� March 16鈥�19, paper accepted for presentation at , Athens, OH.
2022: 鈥淎pparent Invisibility: Religio-Racial Place-Making, History, and Memory in Virginia鈥檚 New River Valley, from the Nineteenth Century to the Present,鈥� November 4, , Monmouth University, NJ.
2022: "Understanding Arnheim: Religio-Racial Place-Making in the New River Valley of Virginia, 1838鈥�1887," October 22, Mountains, Rivers, and Roads: Understanding Appalachia Symposium, Honors College, 澳门老奇人论坛, VA.
2020: September 17, paper accepted for Snapshot 20/20 Symposium in April, 2020, rescheduled as Constitution Day public lecture, delivered remotely via video webcast, Meredith College, Raleigh, NC.
2019: "The Spiritual and the Secular in Modern American Painting: Max Eastman and the Ashcan School,鈥� September 4, September Series research presentation, College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences, 澳门老奇人论坛, VA.
2018: 鈥淰isualizing the 鈥楶oetry of Life鈥�: Reconfiguring Religion through the Ashcan School of American Painters in the Pages of The Masses,鈥� March 23, paper presented at Biennial Conference on the History of Religion, Boston College, Boston, MA.
2017: Panelist, 鈥淩eligious Liberty and the American Creed,鈥� June 14, Study of the U.S. Institute on U.S. Culture and Society, Multinational Institute of American Studies, NYU Steinhardt, New York, NY.
2016: 鈥淩ev. Eastman Goes to Chicago: Interreligious Encounter and Women鈥檚 Religious Leadership at the 1893 World鈥檚 Parliament of Religions,鈥� April 9, paper presented at American Society of Church History, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
2012: 鈥淔aith and Politics,鈥� October 20, interview with George Bodarky, Cityscape, radio broadcast, WFUV 90.7, New York, NY.
2010: 鈥�The Masses鈥� Pagan Revolt: Max Eastman and 鈥楻eligion鈥� among Modern U.S. Radicals,鈥� November 1, paper presented at North American Religions Section, American Academy of Religion, Atlanta, GA.