معرفی
Kathryn Barush serves as the Thomas E. Bertelsen Jr. Professor of Art History and Religion at the Graduate Theological Union’s Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University since 2014. Her interdisciplinary work bridges visual arts, religious studies, and community engagement through innovative pilgrimage frameworks.
Her educational background includes:
- DPhil in Art History, University of Oxford (2012)
- MSt/MA, University of Oxford (2007)
- BA, Sarah Lawrence College (2003)
Barush’s research centers on History of Art and Architecture, Material Culture of Religion, and Pilgrimage Studies, with recent expansions into integrative health applications. She examines how art-infused pilgrimages transform sacred landscapes into embodied experiences, incorporating disability studies, plantlore, and multicultural dialogues. Her methodology blends archival analysis with contemporary artistic interventions to explore spiritual expression across historical and modern contexts.
Her publications reveal a consistent focus on pilgrimage as both historical practice and living tradition. Articles traverse medieval iconography (e.g., Becket’s legacy), pandemic-era backyard spirituality, and Ignatian labyrinth rituals, demonstrating how visual culture mediates mortality, healing, and interreligious encounter. The work consistently prioritizes embodied experience over theoretical abstraction.
Scientific recognition includes:
- 2022 Art & Religion Book Prize (American Academy of Religion)
- Borsch-Rast Prize and Lectureship
- Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year (2016)
- British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Digital Resources Award
Barush directs the Berkeley Art and Interreligious Pilgrimage Project, creating artist-curated routes that connect global sacred sites to local neighborhoods. Her grant portfolio features sustained support from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, Luce Foundation, and George Greenia Fellowship. Current initiatives include a Routledge-edited volume on contemporary art as pilgrimage and a monograph tracing plantlore traditions from the Middle Ages to modernity.
She leads virtual pilgrimage collaborations (e.g., Wells Cathedral and Glastonbury projects with the British Pilgrimage Trust) and develops GPX Map applications for experiential learning. Her work with the Mellon Foundation Digital Humanities initiative further establishes her as a pioneer in merging art historical scholarship with digital spatial analysis.
