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Dr. Heather Martin
Dr. Heather Martin

Associate Professor of Religious Studies
Chair of the Religious Studies Department

Center for Narrative, Meaning, and Media

Education

  • PhD, Religion and Literature, Baylor University
  • MDiv, Boston University
  • BS, Skidmore College

Contact

Dr. Martin received her MDiv from Boston University and then spent time researching her dissertation in the archives of the University of Exeter, Cornwall, graduating with a PhD focusing on Religion and Literature from Baylor University. In 2023 Dr. Martin was awarded a grant from Interfaith America to develop and implement a pilot program equipping students with practical skills for bridging divides across difference and fostering collaborative problem-solving, which was later adopted for freshman orientation at the college.  Her current teaching includes biblical studies and religion and culture, including courses such as "New Testament,” “Faith & Film,” and "Spiritual Autobiographies.”

Scholarly Interests

  • Dr. Martin scholarly interests include the Gospels, Christian spirituality, and the intersection of religion and culture, with a recent focus on Christian Nationalism and apocalypticism in the United States.   

Contributions to Field

  • Presentations for the American Academy of Religion in the following sections: Arts, Literature and Religion; Study of the Qur’an
  • Presentations for Popular Culture Association for the following sections: Religion and Culture; Film 
  • Presentations for southwest and south-central Conference on Christianity & Literature 
  • Martin's dissertation on the poet Jack Clemo filled a current gap in the scholarship on the poetics of nonconformity over and against the dominant Anglican tradition.

Awards & Grants

  • “Bridging the Gap” Funding Agency: Interfaith America, Principal Investigator (PI): Heather Martin (2023-2024)
  • Horace Edwin Harper Jr. and Evelyn Wright Harper Award for Teaching Excellence –Principia College, 2022

Memberships and Affiliations

  • American Academy of Religion
  • Popular Culture Association
  • Theta Kappa Alpha – (national honor society for religious studies and theology)
  • Society of Biblical Literature

Publications and Presentations

  • “What is Christian Nationalism?” Faith & Action Series, Principia College, Elsah, IL, 2025.
  • “Prayer in the New Testament,” Lifelong Learning Summer Session, Principia College, Elsah, IL, 2018.
  • “Clemo’s Theopoetics: A Call to Community from the Margins, American Academy of Religion National Meeting, Boston, MA, 2017.
  • “An Orthodox Carnival: The Devil and Ivan Karamazov,” Midwest American Academy of Religion, Ada, OH, 2014.
  • “‘Priest and Lover’: Jack Clemo’s Vocation to Erotic Christian Marriage,” Kindling the Scarp: A Jack Clemo Conference, Cornwall, U.K., 2013.

For additional publications and presentations, please see the CV below.

Dr. Heather Martin CV