The PCRC Researchers
Dr. Kathryn House (she/her)
Kathryn House is a white scholar and professor at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, an institution situated on Shawnee, Cherokee, Chickasaw and Osage land. Kathryn’s dissertation, The Afterlife of White Evangelical Purity Culture: Wounds, Legacies, and Impacts, investigates the theological legacies of white evangelical purity culture (WEPC) and proposes a constructive practical Baptist theology of baptism in response. Kathryn foregrounds the activism and testimonies of Christian women in the Female Moral Reform movement; in efforts to both support and end racial terror lynchings, and in initiatives to articulate both the enduring wounds of and alternative theological frameworks to WEPC.
“I am constantly impressed by the courage, compassion, and insight of my fellow purity culture researchers.”
-Kathryn
Dr. Victoria Houser (she/her)
Victoria is a white Assistant Professor at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the traditional land of the Sharuhreh and the Tuscarora. Victoria’s work focuses on rhetorics of purity culture, reproductive justice, queer studies, and feminist archival methods. Victoria is currently working on “Virgin Daughters: Bodily Autonomy and Evangelical Women’s Purity Rhetorics,” a manuscript that examines evangelical women’s rhetorical practices concerning bodily autonomy.
“I love the care and attention around embodiment and positionality and I cherish the nature of interdisciplinary work.”
-Victoria
Kat Klement (they/them)
Kat is a white, queer associate professor of psychology at Bemidji State University, located on the current and ancestral homelands of the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples. Their major lines of research examine (1) the connections between transphobia and other systems of oppression, and (2) the bidirectional relationship between white evangelical purity culture and rape culture. As a sexuality educator, they are also interested in the transmission of racist and misogynistic messaging in abstinence-only sex ed.
“My earlier work on purity culture felt isolating at times because I didn’t have colleagues to collaborate with. The PCRC provides space for connection and solidarity among a group of amazing interdisciplinary scholars, who are also dedicated to shining a light on the harms that purity culture (and whiteness) can do.”
-Kat
Jennifer McGrath (she/her)
Jenny is a white Licensed Mental Health Counselor and an independent researcher located in Seattle, Washington, the territory of the Duwamish Tribe. Generally, Jenny’s research focuses on religious sexual shame, religious trauma, white Christian nationalism, somatics and embodiment. As an ex-missionary, Jenny has just begun a new research project: the impacts of transnationalizing purity (find out more here). On top of this, Jenny leads group deconstruction of purity in her embodied sexuality course and leads healing movement classes. Find out more at the links below!
“I have felt validated and encouraged by this community. I have loved connecting with brave, brilliant folks who are engaging with their history in purity culture and working to make the world a more beautiful space. As far as the research aspect goes, it has been liberating finding the language that I didn’t even know I needed to make sense of my experiences.”
-Jenny
Morgan-Allison Moore (she/her)
Morgan-Allison is a Black woman at the University of Cincinnati, the traditional land of the Myaamia, Osage, Shawanwaki/Shawnee and Kaskaskia First Peoples. On top of a Master’s in Divinity, Morgan-Allison is pursuing a Master’s in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her current work focuses on understanding Black female experiences and faith formations in purity culture. In addition, she is the Assistant Director of Sexual and Interpersonal Violence with the Health Equity and Access at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. This work focuses on advocating for sexual assault awareness on Miami’s campus. Her goal is to help change the culture around sexual assault, and to help college students form their sexual ethic during a crucial moment in their development.
“I love the community of support from people who have left purity culture and are shaping and reshaping how to live with God after purity culture, while also learning how to embrace a new version of their faith that embraces sexuality.”
-Morgan-Allison
Dr. Sara Moslener (she/her)
Dr. Sara Moslener is a white researcher, writer, and lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, Anthropology, and Religion at Central Michigan University. Central Michigan University is located on Anishinaabe land, the current home of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe. Sara is the author of Virgin Nation: Sexual Purity and American Adolescence, the founder of the afterpurityproject and the facilitator of the post purity healing and recovery database. Sara’s current research seeks to dive deeper into the white racial supremacy within purity culture movements.
Find Sara on Twitter here
“The academic study of evangelical purity culture has been my own way out of a set of religious and political ideologies that confine, restrict, and control. The freedom of intellectual engagement has worked its way through my body and allowed me to identify other parts of myself that need to flourish. In a similar fashion, my work allows people to situate their stories in the broader historical context of U.S. evangelicalism, sexuality, racism and racial identity, and U.S. politics.”
– Sara
Tessi Muskrat (she/her) – Co-Founder
A native woman of Cherokee and Irish descent, Tessi Muskrat is a Counseling Psychology Ph.D. student and researcher at the University of Missouri where her scholarship and extensive undergraduate research has won numerous accolades. Co-founder of the Purity Culture Research Collective (PCRC), Tessi’s primary area of research is the healing of trauma that occurs at the intersection of gender and religion. She has presented her research on Evangelical Christian purity culture at conferences across the United States and has several articles under review. Her current research project, puritycultureoutcomes.com is exploring the impact and outcomes of purity culture on the sexuality, religion, and relationships of adults who subscribed to evangelical purity in their youth.
“I have been honoured to receive people’s stories and to see how making space for people to tell their stories brings a tiny bit of healing in the bodies of those who share.”
-Tessi.
Madison Natarajan (she/her)
Madison is a bi-racial South Asian and white American woman studying at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, which was originally home to the Massachusetts Indigenous tribe. Madison is currently a Ph.D. candidate in counselling psychology focusing on purity culture, racial identity formation, intersectionality, and religious trauma. Madison’s current qualitative research is interrogating the experience of women of colour in purity culture with a critical race feminist lens. Be on the lookout – Madison has some amazing upcoming work to be published!
“Conducting this type of research has put me on a path in which I’ve had to interrogate my own complex, intersecting identities as a biracial woman of color, and how my reality has been shaped by broader sociopolitical systems and institutions such as that of the religious right and purity culture. It has led to an ongoing process of decolonizing my own identity, and impassioned me to facilitate this type of healing and consciousness-raising for others.”
-Madison
Melissa Payne (she/her)
Melissa is a white registered Psychotherapist in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, the unceded territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation. Melissa has a Master’s in Psychotherapy and Spirituality where she conducted qualitative research on the impacts that purity culture had on the embodiment and disembodiment of women. She has since brought her findings to be transformatively applied to her clinical work. Although Melissa is currently in a season of being a full-time practitioner, she is working toward publishing some of her Master’s research findings.
“I have loved learning alongside the other purity culture researchers. Understanding how our social contexts and ideology live inside of our bodies and psyches is knowledge I am continually grateful for, and am honoured to share.”
-Melissa
Karly Poyner-Smith (she/her)
Karly is a white doctoral candidate at the University of Memphis’ Communication and Film program located on both the Chikashsha I̠yaakni’ (Chickasaw) and O-ga-xpa Ma-zhoⁿ (O-ga-xpa) (Quapaw) lands. Karly’s research centers on identity and communicative tensions regarding rhetorics of identification. Using mixed methodological approaches, she examines how gender, sexuality, and purity play a role in counter-religious movements, social media, apology/apologia, and patient-provider communication. Karly’s dissertation focuses on US purity discourse and ExVangelicalism.
“The PCRC keeps reminding me why this research is important. Each member in this interdisciplinary group of scholarship explores purity culture from their specific area; they always travel further and offer connections between purity and our social world.”
-Karly
Dr. Lauren Sawyer (she/her)
Lauren is a white researcher living in Seattle, Washington, which is located on the territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, specifically the Duwamish Tribe. In April 2022, Lauren successfully defended her dissertation at Drew University (Madison, NJ, Lenape land), entitled, “I Stumbled/I Caused You to Stumble: White Girls and Queer Youth as Sexual Agents in Evangelical Purity Culture.” Currently, Lauren works as an educator teaching courses at the Seattle School of Theology & Psychology and leading trainings through FaithTrust Institute in clergy ethics and abuse prevention.
“My research has very much felt like nurturing and caring for my younger self in a way I could not do while growing up in purity culture. I have grown to really delight in my younger self for how she creatively resisted certain norms that were imposed upon her—while also not letting her ‘off the hook’ when it comes to her own complicity in white supremacist purity culture.”
-Lauren
Liv Schultz (she/they) – Co-Founder
Liv is a white independent researcher living in Ottawa, Canada’s capital (Anishinabe Algonquin Nation). As someone who lives with disability and chronic pain, Olivia is interested in somatics, (dis)embodiment, and affect of Christian spaces and purity culture, and how that impacts the body.
She did their SSHRC-funded Master’s in Religions and Cultures at Concordia University focusing on how evangelical purity movements utilize affective mechanisms to convince adherents, such as themselves and Joshua Harris of evangelicalism’s inherent goodness whilst covering over the racialized, gendered, and sexualized violence of purity culture.
Liv also worked with Dr. Sara Moslener on the Post-Purity Healing Database.
“Understanding how affective rhetoric compels our nervous systems and bodies into action has been completely transformative for me, and it is beautiful to share that with others.”
-Olivia
Elle Thwaites (she/her)
Elle is a white British PhD candidate in sociology. She brings unique research to this group, as the majority of us focus on the North American impact of purity culture – Elle is beginning the work in the UK! She has a Master’s in religious studies and a Bachelor’s in ancient history and religion. Her PhD research is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and uses qualitative methods to explore the impact of purity culture on women in Britain.
“In my research with purity culture, I have loved the opportunity to amplify and listen to the voices and experiences of women who’ve been ignored, marginalized, or silenced in religious communities. It feels like important work, especially in highlighting the presence of purity culture in Britain as this often goes unacknowledged!”
– Elle
Leslie Weber (she/her)
Leslie is a white doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at Oklahoma State University, located on original ancestral homelands of the Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), Gáuigú (Kiowa), Osage, Pawnee, O-ga-xpa Ma-zhoⁿ (Quapaw) peoples. Her research focuses on purity culture and its intersections with sex and sexualities, body image, and disordered eating. She is currently working on her dissertation that qualitatively explores the relationship between purity culture and body image. Leslie has some exciting work soon to be published!
“I love the intersectional and interdisciplinary perspectives in this group. I love hearing about the diversity of research approaches and ideas that have allowed me to further grow as a human and have supported my work in decolonizing my identity and work.”
-Leslie
Rebecca Wolfe (she/her)
Rebecca is a white Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, which is located on the unceded Ohlone territory. Rebecca’s current qualitative, sociological research focuses on Church Experiences and Eating Disorders (CEED). Utilizing Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology and in-depth interviews, this work more specifically examines the intersection between purity culture and eating disorders in people assigned female at birth who grew up within the movement. Overall, Rebecca’s work critically examines concepts of gender, power, white supremacy, and embodiment. You can find out more about this work through the study Instagram or by reaching out via email.