Kathleen McPhillips | |
---|---|
Nationality | Australian |
Occupation(s) | Sociologist, academic |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | (Hons) |
Thesis | Feminism, religion and modernity |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Sociology |
Sub-discipline | Sociology of religion |
Institutions | University of Newcastle |
Main interests | sociology of religion and gender |
Website | www |
Kathleen McPhillips is an Australian sociologist of religion and gender in the School of Humanities,Creative Industries and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle,Australia and the current vice-president of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion.
McPhillips completed a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) at Macquarie University and a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Newcastle. [1] Her doctoral thesis,titled Feminism,religion and modernity,was completed in 1995. [2]
McPhillips is an Australian sociologist of religion,gender and trauma. Her academic appointments have included roles at the Australian National University,the University of Western Sydney and the University of Newcastle. She is currently in the School of Humanities,Creative Industries and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle,Australia. [3] McPhillips is also a researcher at the Centre for the History of Violence [4] and leads the Interdisciplinary Trauma Research Group at the University of Newcastle. [5]
McPhillips contributed multiple articles to Women-Church:an Australian journal of feminist studies in religion over its 20-year history as well as writing annotated bibliographies of texts related to religion and feminism. [6] [7]
McPhillips has written and published extensively in the field of gender-based violence and institutional child sexual abuse. Her work considers the social and gender impacts of institutional violence in religious organisations,particularly in the Catholic Church. [8] McPhillips attended the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into matters relating to the police investigation of certain child sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in 2013. [9] [10] Between 2014 and 2017 she attended many public hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and in 2017 the trial of Archbishop Philip Wilson,who had been charged with failing to report incidents of child sexual abuse. [9] The Australian Royal Commission was a landmark enquiry into the causes and impacts of child sexual abuse with the commission's final report being made public in December 2017. [11] McPhillips and colleague Jodi Death from Queensland University of Technology,are currently working on a mapping project in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese that will explore the relationships between perpetrators of child sexual abuse and managers in Catholic institutions. [12]
McPhillips is the current vice-president of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion (AASR). [13] In 2000 the AASR Women's Caucus selected her to give the annual Penny Magee Memorial Lecture. [14]
McPhillips is an associate editor for the Australian Religion Studies Review. [15] She is on the International Advisory Board for the UK journal Feminist Dissent [16] and managing editor of the Seachanges journal. [17]
She has been on the international editorial board of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion since 2000. [1] [18]
In 2018 McPhillips received the John Barrett Award for Australian Studies from the International Australian Studies Association (InASA) Executive. In 2019 she received the Dean's Excellence Award for Teaching and Learning at the University of Newcastle. [1]
McPhillips is regularly called upon to comment in her fields of expertise in the media. She has been a guest on ABC Radio National's Religion and Ethics program [19] and written for The Conversation, particularly about issues to do with sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. [20] [21] [22] [23] In 2020 McPhillips contributed to the Religious Studies Project,a UK organisation that explores contemporary issues in the academic study of religion through podcasts. [8]
In 2021 McPhillips edited a volume with Naomi Goldberg,The End of Religion:Feminist Reappraisals of the State with one reviewer noting,"This volume offers new insights into the whole enterprise,inviting foundational changes to the field if scholars are courageous enough to be sufficiently critical". [24]
In 2022 McPhillips is co-leader of the research team designing,implementing,and analysing the International Survey of Catholic Women in preparation for a submission for the 2023 Vatican meeting on the Synodal Church. [25]
Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other social divisions such as in race, class, and sexual orientation. The ideology and movement emerged in the 1960s.
Sexual violence is any harmful or unwanted sexual act—or attempt to obtain a sexual act through violence or coercion—or an act directed against a person's sexuality without their consent, by any individual regardless of their relationship to the victim. This includes forced engagement in sexual acts, attempted or completed, and may be physical, psychological, or verbal. It occurs in times of peace and armed conflict situations, is widespread, and is considered to be one of the most traumatic, pervasive, and most common human rights violations.
Michael G. Flood is an Australian sociologist and a professor at the Queensland University of Technology School of Justice. Flood gained his doctorate in gender and sexuality studies from the Australian National University. His areas of research are on violence against women, fathering, pro-feminism, domestic violence, the effects of pornography on young people, safe sex among heterosexual men, men's movements as a backlash to the feminist movement, men's relationships with each other and with women, homophobia, men's health, and gender justice. He is a regular contributor to and is regularly quoted in the media on these and other issues.
Christian feminism is a school of Christian theology which uses the viewpoint of a Christian to promote and understand morally, socially, and spiritually the equality of men and women. Christian theologians argue that contributions by women and acknowledging women's value are necessary for a complete understanding of Christianity. Christian feminists are driven by the belief that God does not discriminate on the basis of biologically determined characteristics such as sex and race, but created all humans to exist in harmony and equality regardless of those factors. On the other hand, Christian egalitarianism is used for those advocating gender equality and equity among Christians but do not wish to associate themselves with the feminist movement.
The Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle is a suffragan Latin Church diocese of the Archdiocese of Sydney, established in 1847 initially as the Diocese of Maitland and changed to the current name in 1995. The diocese covers the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions of New South Wales in Australia. The bishop of the diocese is Michael Kennedy.
Marie Tulip was an Australian feminist writer, academic and proponent for the ordination of women as priests.
Christianity and domestic violence deals with the debate in Christian communities about the recognition and response to domestic violence, which is complicated by a culture of silence and acceptance among abuse victims. There are some Bible verses that abusers use to justify discipline of their wives.
Religious abuse is abuse administered through religion, including harassment or humiliation that may result in psychological trauma. Religious abuse may also include the misuse of religion for selfish, secular, or ideological ends, such as the abuse of a clerical position.
Catholic sexual abuse cases in Australia, like Catholic Church sexual abuse cases elsewhere, have involved convictions, trials and ongoing investigations into allegations of sex crimes committed by Catholic priests, members of religious orders and other personnel which have come to light in recent decades, along with the growing awareness of sexual abuse within other religious and secular institutions.
The feminist movement has affected change in Western society, including women's suffrage; greater access to education; more equitable pay with men; the right to initiate divorce proceedings; the right of women to make individual decisions regarding pregnancy ; and the right to own property.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was a royal commission announced in November 2012 and established in 2013 by the Australian government pursuant to the Royal Commissions Act 1902 to inquire into and report upon responses by institutions to instances and allegations of child sexual abuse in Australia. The establishment of the commission followed revelations of child abusers being moved from place to place instead of their abuse and crimes being reported. There were also revelations that adults failed to try to stop further acts of child abuse. The commission examined the history of abuse in educational institutions, religious groups, sporting organisations, state institutions and youth organisations. The final report of the commission was made public on 15 December 2017.
Maddy Coy is the deputy director of the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU), London Metropolitan University and has collaborated with the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW).
Carolyn Marie West is associate professor of psychology, at the University of Washington Tacoma, and was the first holder of the Bartley Dobb Professorship for the Study and Prevention of Violence (2005-2008).
Joanne Elizabeth Belknap is an American criminologist and Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Revelation is a 2020 Australian documentary series directed by Nial Fulton and Sarah Ferguson. The series follows the criminal trials of three Catholic priests accused of child sexual abuse.
Elaine Stuart Lindsay is an Australian academic whose work has focussed on literature and feminist theology. She was instrumental in the development of the Women-Church journal which provided publishing opportunities in feminist theology for Australian women.
Erin Gabrielle White is a feminist philosopher and theologian. As an author she contributed significantly to feminist scholarship in Australia. She was the founder of the Sydney Women-Church Group and one of the founding editors of Women-Church: an Australian journal of feminist studies in religion.
Women-Church: An Australian journal of feminist studies in religion was an Australian journal published by the Women-Church Collective. It was established in 1987 and ceased publication in 2007, with a total of 40 issues published over that time. The journal covered a broad range of topics in the fields of feminist theology, religion and spirituality.
Magdalene: A Christian Newsletter for Women was an Australian Christian feminist magazine published by the Sydney group Christian Women Concerned.
Christian Women Concerned was the first explicitly religious feminist organisation in Australia. It was founded in 1968 by a small ecumenical group of feminist scholars that included Marie Tulip, Dorothy McRae-McMahon and Jean Skuse. The organisation played a significant role in the establishment of the Commission on the Status of Women in the Church by the Australian Council of Churches and published the Christian feminist magazine Magdalene from 1973 to 1987.