Beth Stroud received her PhD in the Religion in the Americas subfield in June 2018 and is currently a Guest Professor of Religion at Sarah Lawrence College. Her dissertation, “A Loftier Race: Liberal Protestants and Eugenics, 1870-1930,” focused on ideas about race, class, and reproduction among theologically liberal Protestants in the post-Civil War and Progressive eras. She argued that eugenic ideas drove changes in religious practice, especially in the areas of charity, moral instruction for young people, marriage, and the treatment of the infant body. While completing her dissertation, Beth also worked as a Research Fellow for ACPE, Inc., an organization that provides clinical training programs for spiritual care professionals of any faith and in any setting. As a Research Fellow, she collaborated with principal investigators Wendy Cadge (Brandeis University) and George Fitchett (Rush University Medical Center), and Trace Haythorn (ACPE) on a national study of education and training for health care chaplaincy. Beth has also co-authored a chapter in Faith on the Avenue (Oxford, 2013), Dr. Katie Day’s study of nearly 100 congregations on a single city street in Philadelphia. Formerly a United Methodist pastor, she holds an S.T.M. from The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, and an A.B. from Bryn Mawr College.
Irene Elizabeth Stroud
