Kathryn Reklis

Kathryn Reklis is an Associate Professor of Theology at Fordham University, serving as Co-Director of the Comparative Literature program and Affiliate Faculty in American Studies. She earned her PhD in Religious Studies from Yale University, MAR from Yale Divinity School, and BA from the University of North Carolina. Her research bridges cultural history, critical theory, and literary studies, focusing on modern Protestant theology, colonialism, aesthetics, and religion’s intersection with literature and digital media. Reklis explores how theological belief is shaped by historical context and material conditions, particularly in colonial settings. She co-edited Protestant Aesthetics and the Arts (2020) and authored Theology and the Kinesthetic Imagination (2014). Currently, she investigates Religion and Literature programs in the 20th century and the relationship between 'World Literature' and 'World Religion.' Reklis is a Contributing Editor for The Christian Century, writing the monthly Screentime column analyzing TV, film, and media through theological and cultural lenses. She also co-founded the Institute for Art, Religion and Social Justice and led a Shaker Art grant project (2018–2020) with the Shaker Museum New Lebanon.

Her teaching spans modern Christian history, colonialism, digital religion, and American Evangelicalism. She advises undergraduates in Theology, Comparative Literature, and American Studies. Reklis has held research roles at the New Media Project at the Christian Theological Seminary and is a 2024 Scholar-in-Residence at Columbia University’s Social and Moral Cognition Lab.