Margaret Kamitsuka ’88 M.A.R., ’94 M.Phil, ’99 Ph.D.

Dr. Margaret Kamitsuka is the Francis W. and Lydia L. Davis Professor Emeritus of Religion at Oberlin College, where she taught courses in gender and religion for over 20 years. She is the author of three books: Feminist Theology and the Challenge of Difference and Abortion and the Christian Tradition: A Prochoice Theological Proposal. Her newest book, Unborn Bodies: Resurrection and Reproductive Agency (Fortress 2023) addresses eschatology and reproductive endings. She also edited The Embrace of Eros: Bodies, Desires, and Sexuality in Christianity and has published essays in The Oxford Handbook of Theology, Sexuality and Gender and a variety of scholarly journals including Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Religion and Gender and Journal of Religion. Her current area of research focuses on theological ethics related to abortion rights and reproductive justice.

 

At Oberlin College she was appointed in the Religion Department to develop a curriculum in gender and religion. Over her career she developed courses that address topics including the diversity of women’s experiences in world religions; the impact of new theories of gender and sexuality on the academic study of religion; and the historical roots of religious feminism in North America as well as advanced seminars addressing embodiment, feminist approaches to evil, abortion, and motherhood.  Her course Theologies of Abortion was recently included in the Elle magazine article “63 College Classes That Give Us Hope for the Next Generation.”  In addition to teaching in the Religion Department, Kamitsuka was active as an affiliate faculty member of Oberlin’s Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies Program and was director of that program from 2012 to 2014. She currently serves as the editor for the American Academy of Religion’s Academy Series, which partners with Oxford University Press to publish promising new dissertations in religious studies.