research overview
- Dr. Whitehead's research engages two primary areas: 1) the philosophical tradition of American pragmatism, its history and contemporary implications, particularly the work of William James and the late twentieth century revival of pragmatism; 2) religion and media studies, with a current project underway on contemporary U.S. evangelicals’ adoption of various new media forms. Within the field of religious studies, she works in the broad area of religion and American culture, using textual analysis to explore ways that religious and cultural discourses intersect and the kinds of public claims that these discourses make, in contexts ranging from philosophical texts, historical documents, legal texts, and popular culture, to media and new technologies. She specializes in the history of Protestant thought in the U.S. from the post-Civil War era to the present.