Nell G. Champoux, Ph.D.

Nell Champoux holds an M.A. in Western Esotericism and Mysticism from the University of Amsterdam and a Ph.D. in Religion from Syracuse University. Nell’s dissertation titled Visionary Architecture: Monastic Magic and Cognition in John of Morigny’s Liber florum, treated the work of fourteenth-century Benedictine monk John of Morigny and his struggle to keep his text from being classified as illicit magic by church authorities, as well as his immersion in the artistically and architecturally rich world of fourteenth-century Chartres and Orleans. A chapter from this dissertation has been published in the journal Medieval Mystical Theology under the title “Blithe Heterodoxy: Reading John of Morigny’s Fourteenth-Century Magic through Michel Foucault and Hélène Cixous.” Nell’s research and teaching highlight topics tied to medieval monasticism, nineteenth-century Spiritualism, religion and art, settler colonialism and Catholicism, and theory and method in the study of religion. Her course offerings include classes in Theology, Religion, and the Core Program, including an Introduction to Catholic Theology (THE 175), Christian Mysticism (THE 284), the Theology of Christian Art (THE 206), Religion, Sex, and Gender (REL/GWS 412), and The Future of Being Human (COR 400).

She also serves as the director of the Sanzone Center for Catholic Studies and Theological Reflection.