Kathryn Lum

Bio

Kathryn Gin Lum specializes in American religious history. Her research and teaching interests focus on the lived ramifications of religious beliefs, and particularly on the relationship between religious and racial othering in the United States. She is author of Damned Nation: Hell in America from the Revolution to Reconstruction (Oxford University Press 2014) and Heathen: Religion and Race in American History (Harvard University Press 2022). She is co-editor, with Paul Harvey, of The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History (Oxford University Press 2018). She is affiliated with the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) and is Director of the American Religions in a Global Context Initiative (argc.stanford.edu) at Stanford.

Professor Gin Lum received her B.A. in History from Stanford and her Ph.D. in History from Yale.

Academic Appointments

• Professor, Religious Studies

Administrative Appointments

• Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University (2023 - Present)
• Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University (2018 - 2023)
• Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University (2012 - 2018)
• Assistant Professor, Department of Religion, Princeton University (2011 - 2012)
• Instructor, Department of Religion, Princeton University (2010 - 2010)

Honors & Awards

• Annenberg Faculty Fellow, awarded to outstanding junior faculty in the Humanities and Arts, Stanford University (2012 - 2014)
• Edwin W. Small Prize, for outstanding dissertation in American History, Yale University (2011)
• Howard R Lamar Center for the Study of the American West Research Fellowship, Yale University (2009 - 2010)
• Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow, The Huntington Library (2009)
• Research Fellowship, The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (2008)
• Summer Pre-Prospectus Fellowship, The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (2007)
• Richard J. Franke Fellowship for academic potential in the humanities, Yale University (2005 - 2009)
• History Department Commencement Student Speaker, Stanford University (2004)
• John & Marjorie Hines Prize for Undergraduate Thesis Research in American History, Stanford University (2004)
• Co-winner, Stanford Essay Contest (2003)
• History Scholar, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (2003)
• John & Marjorie Hines Prizes for best papers in Colonial and Revolutionary America, Stanford University (2003)
• Lindsay Peters, Jr. Prize in Political Science, Stanford University (2003)
• Detur Book Prize for Excellence in flrst year, Harvard University (2002)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

• Founder/Organizer, American Religions Workshop, Stanford University (2012)
• Member, American Studies Committee-in-Charge, Stanford University (2012)
• Affiliate of Asian American Studies, Stanford University (2012)
• Member, Executive Committee, Center for the Study of Religion, Princeton University (2011 - 2012)
• Organizer, Religion in the Americas Workshop, Princeton University (2011 - 2012)
• Computer Assistant, History Department, Yale University (2008 - 2009)
• Research Assistant to Koichi Shinohara and Phyllis Granoff, Yale Department of Religious Studies (2006 - 2006)
• Assisted in editing conference papers for publication, Heroes and Saints: The Moment of Death in Cross-Cultural Perspectives (2006 - 2006)
• Paralegal Intern, Elliot & Mayock LLP. Focus: Immigration law (2004 - 2004)
• Member, American Historical Association
• Member, American Academy of Religion
• Member, American Studies Association

Program Affiliations

• American Studies

Professional Education

• Ph.D., Yale University, History (2010)
• M.Phil., Yale University, History (2008)
• B.A., Stanford University, History, with Honors and with Distinction (2004)