Dr. Susan Srigley

Susan Srigley portrait
Professor / Faculty of Arts and Science - Gender Equality and Social Justice, Religion and Cultures and Indigenous Studies - Religions and Cultures
Position
Chair
Extension
4154
Website
About
I love teaching. Some of my favourite courses that I teach at Nipissing are Spiritual Journeys, World Religions, Death, Dying and Spirituality, Religion and Literature as well as a co-taught dialogue course on the Bible as Cultural Text. My research is in the area of religious ethics and literature—I have written a few books on the American novelist Flannery O’Connor and I wrote my first magazine article this summer on Flannery O’Connor’s recently discovered prayer journal (written when she was in her early 20’s and searching to make sense of her felt experience of religion): http://americamagazine.org/issue/far-away-god.
Another research and personal interest of mine is spiritual/meditative practice across religions but especially in Buddhism and early Christianity. As part of my desire to learn more and bring these experiences to my students I regularly seek out retreats of all kinds and share my reflections on these in the classroom.
Education
BA (Honours), McGill University
MA, McMaster University
PhD, McMaster University
Research
Research Interests:

Religious ethics and literature, ancient and modern forms of spiritual practice, women and religion, religious attitudes towards death, dying and immortalityAwards/Honours:2012-13 Research Achievement Award, Nipissing University2010-11 Senior O’Connor Fellowship, Georgia College and State University2007-08 The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Nipissing University

Death Ambassadors
Publications
Books:

Flannery O'Connor’s Sacramental Art. University of Notre Dame Press, 2004.

Dark Faith: New Essays on Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away. Editor, Susan Srigley. University of Notre Dame Press, 2012

Press release: http://undpress.nd.edu/book/P01519

Book chapters:

“Asceticism and Abundance: The Communion of Saints in The Violent Bear It Away” in Dark Faith: New Essays on Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away. Editor, Susan Srigley, 2012.

“Critical Lens: Flannery O’Connor and the Art of the Story,” in Critical Insights: Flannery O’Connor, EBSCO/Salem Press, 2011.Articles:

“Flannery O’Connor on Stage: Karin Coonrod’s ‘Everything that Rises Must Converge,’” The Flannery O’Connor Review, vol. 11, 2013.

Srigley, S., Guest Editor: Ingraffia, B., Srigley, S., Wood, R.C., “Penance, Violence and the Ending of Wise Blood: Three essays in Conversation” Flannery O’Connor Review, 7. 2009.

“Penance and Love in Wise Blood: Seeing Redemption?” Flannery O’Connor Review, 7. 2009.

“The Violence of Love: Reflections on Self-Sacrifice through Flannery O’Connor and René Girard,” Religion and Literature 39:3, 2007.

“O’Connor and the Mystics: St. Catherine of Genoa’s Purgatorial Vision in ‘Revelation,’” Flannery O’Connor Review, 2, Spring 2004.