Barry Delivers Invited Book Talks on Gender Violence in Late Antiquity

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry presented two invited talks this week on her recent book, Gender Violence in Late Antiquity: Male Fantasies and the Christian Imagination (2025).

The first lecture was hosted by the Department of Religious Studies at Towson University, where Barry spoke about how late ancient Christian authors used narratives of gendered violence to construct authority, shape theological arguments and influence communal memory.

Barry also delivered a book talk for the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins (PSCO) at the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Religious Studies. In this talk, she explored how stories of suffering bodies function within early Christian literature and demonstrated how close readings of these texts reveal patterns of power, interpretation, and narrative control.

These invited presentations highlight the growing scholarly and public interest in Barry’s work and its contribution to ongoing conversations about gender, violence and the historical imagination in early Christianity.