Maeve Callan
Simpson College
is the Simpson College Department Chair of Religion and Co-Director of the Interfaith Fellows Program and Professor of Religion. She is the historian in her department, as well as the main "World Religions" professor. Her first book, *The Templars, the Witch, and the Wild Irish* (2015), published by Cornell University Press and Four Courts Press, explores Ireland's handful of heresy trials, their role in the colonization of the island by the English, and their relationship to heresy and witchcraft prosecution in Britain and on the Continent. Her second, *Sacred Sisters* (2020), focuses on gender, sanctity, and power in medieval Ireland, and is the first book in Amsterdam University Press's new "Hagiography Beyond Tradition" series. Her current project examines the intersections between religion, ethnic identity, and racism in the British Isles between 1000 and 1500. She co-directs Simpson's Interfaith Fellows Program, which helps cultivate greater understanding and constructive engagement with religious diversity as it helps students develop leadership skills and abilities.
1 Posts | Website
The Medieval Origins of Religious White Supremacy: English Imperialism, Crusade Defeats, and the Doctrine of Discovery
Callan traces how medieval English myths, crusade defeat, and Irish colonization shaped Christian white supremacy and fed the global Doctrine of Discovery.