Communication Department Faculty

Kristin Peterson

Associate Professor

Photo of Kristin Peterson

Kristin Peterson

Ph.D.

Contact

St Mary's Hall S481

Telephone: 617-552-4210

Email: kristin.peterson.2@bc.edu

Education

  • B.A., Dominican University
  • M.A., University of Colorado
  • Ph.D., University of Colorado

Courses

Seeing God, Hearing Ghosts: Media & Religion in American Life
Religious Expression in the Digital Age
Social Media
Media Ethics in the Digital Age
Influencer Culture
Introduction to Feminisms
Spiritual, but not Religious: Meaning Making in Media and Culture

Research Interests

Religion and digital media, feminist activism, Muslim American representation in media, Evangelical Christianity and media, social media influencers

Curriculum Vitae

Department

Communication

Profile

Kristin Peterson is an associate professor in the Department of Communication, teaching courses related to the intersections of media and religion. Her book, Unruly Souls: The Digital Activism of Muslim and Christian Feminists (Rutgers University Press, 2022), examines how digital spaces facilitate intersectional feminist activism within Evangelical Christian and Muslim American communities. She has published articles and book chapters on Muslim Instagram influencers, the digital mourning after the murder of three Muslim college students in Chapel Hill, hijab tutorial videos on YouTube, the Ms. Marvel comic series, the Mipsterz art collective, the #ChurchToo and #MosqueMeToo movements, and podcasts as space to address grief.

Peterson is a board member of the International Society for Media, Religion, and Culture, and member of the Board of Representatives for the Boston Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women & Sexuality

Publications

“‘Smarties, you know what’s up!’ Curating a Community and Cultivating Pleasure as a Social Justice Influencer,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies (2024)

“Bland Christianity: The Secular Marketing Strategies of Urban Church Plants,” Journal of Media and Religion 21, no. 3 (July 2022).

“‘The Bad Things are Just Too Close Right Now’: Podcasts Cultivate Spaces to Sit with the Messiness of Grief,” Mortality (February 2022).

“Aesthetic Styles and the Occupation of Space in the ‘Places You’ll Pray’ Photo Series,” Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture 10, no. 1 (August 2021).

“Cultivating Empathy and Resonance for Muslim Lives through Affective Images of the Chapel Hill Victims.” Communication, Culture and Critique 13, no. 4 (December 2020).

“Hybrid Styles, Interstitial Spaces, and the Digital Advocacy of the Salafi Feminist,” Critical Studies in Media Communication 37, no. 3 (July 2020).

“The Unruly, Loud and Intersectional Muslim Woman: Interrupting the Aesthetics Styles of Islamic Fashion Images on Instagram,” International Journal of Communication 14 (February 2020).

“Pushing Boundaries and Blurring Categories in Digital Media and Religion Research,” Sociology Compass. Invited submission. (January 2020).

“Selling to ‘Smarties’: The Marketing Strategies of a Social Justice Influencer,” Selling the Sacred: Religion and Marketing from Crossfit to QAnon, edited by Mara Einstein and Sarah McFarland Taylor, forthcoming.

“More than a Mask, Burkini and Tights: Fighting Misrepresentations through Ms. Marvel’s Costume.” In Ms. Marvel’s America: No Normal, edited by Jessica Baldanzi and Hussein Rashid. University Press of Mississippi, 2020.

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