I’m a theorist of religion, culture, and politics in the Americas and an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Skidmore College. During the 2024-25 academic year, I will be in residence at Brown University as a Senior Fellow in Race and Ethnicity and Lecturer in Religious Studies. My core areas of study and teaching include capitalism and labor, histories of social movements, feminist theory, popular culture and media, and other topics in contemporary cultural critique.
My first book, Capitalist Humanitarianism, was published in 2023 with Duke University Press. It won the 2024 Best First Book Prize from the Cultural Studies Association. I’m currently working on two projects: one on the gendered history of youth civic engagement programs and another on the cultures of competitive college debate.
My research has appeared in journals like Public Culture, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, and Journal of Religion and American Culture. I have sometimes written popular pieces for outlets like Jacobin, Religion and Politics, and Immanent Frame.
Alongside my colleague, friend, and mentor Tina Pippin, I co-host Nothing Never Happens: A Radical Pedagogy Podcast.
I received my PhD in Religious Studies from Yale University in 2020. I also hold a Master of Divinity from Harvard and a BA from Agnes Scott College.
You can reach me at lhulseth [at] skidmore [dot] edu.
