Institute for Thealogy & Deasophy

Angela Hope
M.T.S. PhD Candidate
Contact: angelah@oceanseminarycollege.org


Angela Hope is the director and founder of the Institute for Thealogy and Deasophy. She founded the research center because she believes it is important to provide a centralized hub where all interested in feminist spirituality can come and dialogue about ideas and beliefs of the Divine Feminine, and she sees that it is important to promote and advance scholarship in the fields of feminist thealogy and deasophy. As an adherent of Goddess, she believes that social justice and the transformation of patriarchy comes about when the sacred sphere of society accepts and embraces female sacrality. She believes that the recognition of the full humanity of women and marginalized others does not come about through secular activist approaches, but rather through a refashioning of the religious realm as it is the sacred, not the profane, that is the framework or the seed of patriarchy. As Merlin Stone once said: "Women's rights are a matter of women's rites."

Angela is both an academic and an activist who is devoting her life to doing whatever promotes the full agency, political subjectivity, and full humanity of people who live on the margins. She is a feminist thealogian and a social scientist in the Religious and Organization Studies fields. Angela currently teaches in the Department of Traditional Religions and the Department of Neopagan Studies at Ocean Seminary College. She also teaches part-time in the Theology and Religious Studies Departments at Saint Mary's University and University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. Additionally, she is training to become a High Priestess in the Dianic tradition.

As a thealogian, Angela's research interests are in constructive theology, feminist theology, Goddess thealogy and deasophy, and process philosophy. As a social scientist, her research interests are in critical social theory, feminist theory, women and religion, and the study of organizations-particularly how dominant religion impacts secular organizations. She received her Masters of Theological Studies from Boston University School of Theology. She will be receiving her Doctorate of Philosophy in Management/ Organization Studies in another year from Saint Mary's University, and she hopes to pursue a Doctorate in Theology focusing on women and religion after completing her current graduate training.

Angela was recently awarded the honor of being included in the Who's Who in America 2011 edition. Aside from I4TD, Angela is a member of the following professional affiliations: Academy of Religion, Academy of Management, The Minerva Society for the Study of Women and War, The Society for Military History, and the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology. She is currently on the editorial boards for the journals Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion and Restoration Earth: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Nature and Civilization, and is Associate Editor for the journal Gender, Work, and Organization. She will be the Chief Editor for the new online journal Goddess Thealogy: An International Journal for the Study of Feminism and Religion.

Angela is married to her husband Jason , and together, they have six cats, a whole bunch of fish, and several pet snails. They love their nonhuman children very much.



Publications:

Hope, A. (forthcoming, 2011). Toward a Corporeal Feminist Ontology: Overcoming the Mind/Body Dualism. Body & Society.
Hope, A. (forthcoming, 2011). A Postsecular Feminist Encounter with Organization Studies: Exploring New Directions for the Social Sciences and Religion. In P. Case, H. Hopfl, & H. Letiche (Eds), Belief and Organization. London: Palgrave Macmillan
Hope, A. (forthcoming, 2011). The Issue of Creed in Diversity Management: A Feminist Postsecular Response. In M. Ozbligin (Ed), Handbook of Research in Religion and Spirituality at Work.
Hope, A (2010). The Body: A Review and a Theoretical Perspective. In E. Jeanes, D. Knights, & P. Martin (Ed), Handbook of Gender, Work, and Organization. London: Blackwell/Wiley Publishing.
Hope, A & Eriksen, M. (2009). From Military Sexual Trauma to ‘Organization-Trauma’: Practicing ‘Poetics of Testimony’. Culture & Organization, (15)1.
Hope, A & LeCoure, J. (2009). Dramaturgy. In A. Mills, G. Durepos, & E. Wiebe.(Eds), Encyclopedia for Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Hope, A & LeCoure, J. (2009). Hermeneutics. In A Mills, G. Durepos, & E. Wiebe. (Eds), Encyclopedia for Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Eriksen, M., Chaves, W., Hope, A., & Dugal, S.. (2007). Creating a Community of Critically Reflexive Feminist Scholars. Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry, (6)4.
Hope, A. (2007). Restructuring God Ideologies in Work Spaces: A Critical Catholic Perspective. Journal of Management, Spirituality, and Religion,(4)4.
Hope, A. (2006). Fully Warrior: Cooperative Unity. Tamara: Journal for Critical Postmodern Organization Science, (5)1.