Richard Yoder
108 Weaver Building
University Park, PA 16802
Phone: (814) 865-1367
Education:
PhD Candidate in History, The Pennsylvania State University
M.Phil, Theology (Distinction), The University of Oxford, 2019
B.A., Religious Studies (High Distinction), The University of Virginia, 2017
Biography:
I am a historian of gender and religion in France, with a focus on the Jansenists. My dissertation examines the convulsionnaires of Saint-Médard through a queer/disabled lens. I locate the convulsionary movement as a privileged site for marginalized voices and the disruption of gender norms within French Catholicism. I tie this disruption to the larger epistemic process known to historians and cultural theorists as “disenchantment.” More broadly, l am interested in the history of the supernatural within modernity. In my previous scholarly life, I have had training in both Religious Studies and Theology, and I see my work as engaging critically with both of these fields.
Publications:
FORTHCOMING: Jansenism: An International Anthology (under contract, CUA Press). Editor (with Shaun Blanchard), French Translator.
“From the Dove to the Eagle: Jansenist Visual Culture Between Piety and Polemic.” The Catholic Historical Review, 107, no. 4 (Fall 2021). Recipient of the 2021 Peter Guilday Prize from the American Catholic Historical Association.
Awards and Service:
2023 — President, History Graduate Student Association (HGSA)
2023 — Mother Theodore Guerin Research Travel Grant, The Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dame
2023 — PSU Committee on Early Modern Studies (CEMS) Grad Student Award, 2nd Place
2022 — John Tracy Ellis Dissertation Award, American Catholic Historical Association
2022 — PSU Liberal Arts Research and Graduate Studies (RGSO) Research Grant
2022 — Bernadotte E. Schmitt Grant for Research in European, African, or Asian History, American Historical Association (AHA)
2022 — Knight Fellowship, Pennsylvania State University
2021 — Charles and Harriet Pencak Endowment, Penn State University
2019 — Ted H. and Tracy Winfree McCourtney Family Distinguished Graduate Fellowship in American History, Pennsylvania State University
Recent Courses:
HIST 10: World History to 1500
HIST 103: The History of Madness, Mental Illness, and Psychiatry [online]
Advisor:
Ronne Po-chia Hsia