Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry

has published a new open-access article in Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture (Cambridge University Press), now available online in FirstView and scheduled to appear in print later this month. The article, “Scandal and the Late Ancient Christian Historian,” develops research from her current book project, Scandalous Christian Histories.

The book, supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities summer fellowship and under advanced contract with the University of Edinburgh Press, examines how late ancient Christian historians used scandal, bodily disruption, and narrative spectacle to shape claims about authority, orthodoxy, and divine action. This publication marks an important milestone in the completion of the project.

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry

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.

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry participated in a Soul Speak Press webinar titled What We Inherit: Gender, Faith, and Violence Across Time on January 15, 2026.

This 90-minute roundtable brought together Barry, a child sex trafficking survivor, and a domestic violence survivor for a wide-ranging conversation about the historical roots and contemporary realities of gender violence. The discussion examined how religion, history, and structures of hegemony shape the ways societies understand — and at times silences — experiences of violence.

Drawing on her scholarship in late antique Christianity and gender studies, Barry explored how narratives of power, silence, sanctity, and suffering were constructed in early Christian texts and how those frameworks continue to reverberate today. The conversation emphasized storytelling as a form of witness and intervention, highlighting how historical analysis can illuminate patterns of repeat victimization while also opening space for critique and transformation.

Hosted by Soul Speak Press, the webinar invited participants from across the United States to consider how faith traditions both challenge and sustain gendered harm, and how revisiting these inherited narratives can deepen contemporary conversations about accountability, healing, and justice.

Barry’s participation reflects her ongoing commitment to public scholarship that bridges academic research and pressing social concerns.

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry was recently featured on the Broadcast Seeding podcast, hosted by Richard Newton (University of Alabama), to discuss her new book, Gender Violence in Late Antiquity: Male Fantasies and the Christian Imagination (University of California Press, 2024).

In the episode, Barry and Newton explore political intrigue in the early church, the concept of “gender transmission diseases,” and the intersections of biblical studies, gender, and theology. Their discussion examines how ancient fantasies of purity and danger shaped Christian thought and continue to inform modern conversations about gender and power.

Listen to the episode: Broadcast Seeding Podcast: “Gender Violence in Late Antiquity”

Barry also recently published a new chapter, “Gender, Violence, and False Friends in the Oratio funebris,” in The City and Its Teacher: The Funerary Oration for John Chrysostom and its Historical Context, edited by Jonathan Stutz (Studies and Texts in Antiquity and Christianity, Mohr Siebeck, 2025). The volume is available through Mohr Siebeck.

Together, these works extend Barry’s research into how narratives of violence, sanctity, and power shaped Christian identity and imagination in late antiquity.

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry was recently featured on the New Books in Late Antiquity podcast, part of the New Books Network, in conversation with host Miranda Melcher of King’s College London.

In this episode, Barry discusses her recent monograph, Gender Violence in Late Antiquity: Male Fantasies and the Christian Imagination (University of California Press, 2025). The conversation explores how early Christian authors used narratives of gendered harm — particularly domestic violence, martyrdom, and sexualized suffering — to shape theology, consolidate authority, and imagine social order.

Barry and Melcher also reflect on how feminist horror theory, trauma studies, and womanist scholarship open new pathways for interpreting ancient texts and understanding their enduring legacies in modern Christian thought. The full episode is available online through the New Books Network: Gender Violence in Late Antiquity

The cover of Barry’s recently published monograph with the University of California Press

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry published her second scholarly monograph, Gender Violence in Late Antiquity: Male Fantasies and the Christian Imagination, with the University of California Press.

Barry’s new book examines how early Christian writers used narratives of gendered harm—especially domestic violence—to shape theology, consolidate authority, and imagine social order.

Later this month, she will give an invited book talk at the University of Pittsburgh highlighting this material and exploring how depictions of violence within the household became central to Christian thought.

Barry was also recently featured on the New Books in Late Antiquity podcast, presented by Ancient Jew Review, to discuss her monograph.

In the interview, Barry explores how early Christian writers used narratives of gendered harm—especially domestic abuse, martyrdom, and sexualized violence—to shape theology, consolidate authority, and imagine social order. She also reflects on how feminist horror theory, trauma studies, and womanist scholarship offer new perspectives on these texts and their enduring impact on the study of gender and power.

Barry joined host Michael Motia (UMass Boston) for the conversation, which is now available online.

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry was recently elected Associate Editor for the Journal of Early Christian Studies (JECS). This prestigious appointment reflects Barry’s national reputation in the field of Late Antiquity and early Christian historiography. The JECS is a leading peer-reviewed publication dedicated to the study of Christianity in the ancient world. In her new role, Barry will help shape the direction of cutting-edge scholarship in the field, bringing her expertise in gender, rhetoric and historical memory to one of the discipline’s most influential journals.