I am an Assistant Professor of Mass Communication at the University of North Florida. I specialize in research exploring digital and social media, gender, identity, and body image, and have a long-held interest in interpersonal communication and close relationships. This, of course, creates room for thinking about and interrogating purity culture. My instructional and investigative efforts meet at the intersection of (a) investment in emerging adults' holistic wellbeing and (b) a belief that they are living and learning in an unprecedented online media environment. My work in the classroom and in my research is anchored by a focus on equipping adolescents and young adults with media literacy tools to critically interpret and craft digital and social media. I am fascinated by the real-world impact of communication and media on our lives and passionate about providing practical and theoretical recommendations that improve the holistic lives of all people. In my free time, I enjoy going to the movies, reading, and volunteering with local nonprofits focused on fine arts (education).

I am Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies and Practical Theology and Chair of the Rev. Dr. Lee Barker Professorship of Leadership Studies at Meadville Lombard Theological School. My dissertation, The Afterlife of White Evangelical Purity Culture, engages the legacies of purity culture with preceding campaigns for sexual purity in mind and proposes Christian baptism as a practice of solidarity to counter purity culture's wounding legacies. In addition to purity culture, my research engages prophetic religious leadership, liberationist theological traditions, trauma-informed spiritual care, theologies of vocation, and Baptist theologies and ecclesial communities. I am also a Baptist minister ordained in the American Baptist Churches (USA) and affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists. kathrynhouse.com

I live in sunny Southern California where I’m an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Writing Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. My research interests center on cultural and feminist rhetorics with specific attention to gender, sexuality, reproductive justice, and religious trauma. I earned my PhD in the Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design (RCID) program at Clemson University in 2021. My dissertation, Altared Bodies: Evangelical Purity Rhetorics in the Age of Sexual Politics, won the Victor J. Vitanza Outstanding RCID Dissertation award in April 2022 and was one of three finalists for the Religious Communication Association’s Top Dissertation award in 2022. I am currently working on a book project focusing on the rhetorics of Purity Culture. In addition to my monograph, I recently received a grant to conduct archival research that will support my on-going work on reproductive justice. My research and teaching continue to evolve from my investments in building just, equitable, and communal frameworks for embodied life.

I am a clinical sexologist, Certified Sex Therapist, licensed clinical social worker, researcher, educator, and founder of Pearl in Process Counseling & Coaching. My work sits at the intersection of sexual health, mental health, relationships, and faith, with a particular focus on the effects of purity culture and the renegotiation of sexual scripts during pregnancy, postpartum, and other significant life transitions.

My doctoral research examined the relationships among sexual shame, self-compassion, psychological flexibility, religious coping, and sexual satisfaction in women raised within American Christian purity culture. Psychological flexibility emerged as the strongest positive predictor of sexual satisfaction, while shame was associated with lower satisfaction. My qualitative research on postpartum sexual script renegotiation was published in Culture, Health & Sexuality in 2026.

In my clinical and educational work, I help individuals and couples identify inherited sexual messages, understand how those messages continue to shape the body and relationships, and develop more flexible, compassionate, and values-aligned ways of relating to sexuality. I am especially interested in research that moves beyond simply documenting purity culture’s harms and explores the processes that support meaningful healing and change. www.pearlinprocess.com

I am an associate professor of psychology at Bemidji State University in Bemidji, Minnesota, and the co-founder/co-director of the Northwoods Queer Outreach. As a sex educator and sex researcher, I focus on the ways that attitudes and perceptions of gender and sexuality influence behavior. I'm particularly interested in the ways that purity culture and rape culture feed each other reciprocally and how the messages we receive through religious and popular culture media reinforce harmful ideas about gender and sexuality.

I am passionate about helping individuals find their way back to their bodies. I have been working with primariiy cis white women who grew up in purity culture for over a decade in my private practice. I believe that movement is the most innate thing about being alive, and I work to help individual and collective bodies find freer movements. I currently live in a van and am traveling around North America with my husband and Boxer dog. Some of my favorite things include rolling around on the ground, laughing with friends, and experiencing new places with my family. My research into purity culture focuses on its psycho-somatic impacts on young, white women and how those impacts convinced many of us becoming missionaries. www.indwellmovement.com

Nicole Miller is a doctoral student in the Counseling Psychology Ph.D. program at Arizona State University, currently completing a practicum in Pediatric Neuropsychology at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. She earned her Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Washburn University, with an emphasis on psychological assessment of children, as well as a Master’s in Global Studies from Liberty University and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Morehead State University. Nicole’s research examines religious trauma, purity culture, and the impact of gender norms and roles on mental health and well-being, with a particular focus on LGBTQ+ populations. She integrates her clinical training and research to promote holistic, identity-affirming care.

I am Associate Professor of Feminist Theology and Gender Studies at the University of Oslo. Originally from Canada, I earned a PhD in Theological Studies from the University of Toronto in 2021. My research focuses on the history of gender in the Christian tradition, with specific expertise in anti-feminist theologies amongst American evangelicals in the 20th century.

I am passionate about supporting healing for people who have had harmful experiences with purity culture. A trained spiritual director and post-traumatic growth coach, I see clients locally as well as via telehealth. I have a MA in counseling psychology and am a doctoral student at the University of Missouri, where I study the various manifestations of adverse religious experiences and their healing. Co-founder of PCRC, my research centers the voices of those who have experienced sexual and gender-based trauma in religious contexts. Upcoming projects examine the impact of purity culture's gender binary on persons assigned male at birth, as well as on trans and nonbinary folks. I am especially interested in the ways that post-purity culture adults achieve empowerment through healing from oppressive systems in religious spaces. When I'm not working or researching, I enjoy snuggling my cats, watching trees dance in the wind, and playing complex tabletop board games with friends.

I am an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Columbia College of Missouri. I teach courses relating to culture, identity, and politics within the Communication and Women's Studies disciplines such as Argumentation, Political Communication, Gender Communication, Health Communication, and Interpersonal Communication. I earned my Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Memphis and my M.A. in Communication Studies from Ball State University with an emphasis in Liberal Arts and Sciences Scholarship. My research focuses on using critical mixed methods to explore political, religious/spiritual, and health communication. Topics of interest include American evangelical politicism, purity discourse, and media and religion. Outside of my research and teaching, I am a fan of triathlons, trail running, and reality T.V. ORCID | Faculty Profile

I am affiliate faculty at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology where I teach graduate courses in theology and develop trauma-sensitive curricula for one of its non-degree programs. I earned my Ph.D. in Christian Social Ethics from Drew University, and as a doctoral student, I served as submissions editor for the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. My debut book, Growing Up Pure: White Girls, Queer Teens, and the Racial Foundations of Purity Culture, was published with New York University Press. Living in the North Beacon Hill neighborhood of Seattle, I enjoy a well-brewed cup of coffee and chilly swims in Puget Sound. ORCID | laurendsawyer.com

I am a public health professional with a focus in health promotion and global health. My expertise as a practictioner sits within public health interventions, project and program management, capacity building & training, monitoring and evaluation, and qualitative research and anthropology. I have over 10 years of experience managing programs within the social impact/charity sector and in low resource environments alongside and for marginalised populations such as: women and children (maternal newborn child health), rural healthcare workers, people with mobility disabilities in LREs, children with disabilities, immigrants and people living with chronic disease.

With a history working in mostly women’s health programs, I am now working on PhD in medical anthropology focusing on the health impacts on women related to the purity culture movement. ORCID | LinkedIn

I am a couples and individual relationship therapist. My private practice is located in person in Show Low, AZ as well as virtual throughout the states of Arizona and Missouri. I am currently completing my PhD in Clinical Sexology intersecting both Somatic (body based) experiences with desire. I am a student at MSTI where I had the privilege of receiving direct supervision through Dr. Holly Richmond who is also a Somatic Sexologist.

My PhD project is titled: The State-Dependent Model of Sexual Desire: A Neurophysiological and Somatic Framework for Clinical Application.
I am passionate about looking deeper into healing through not only talk therapy but also body based modalities and interpersonal neurobiology. I believe knowing our bodies more allows for more freedom from shame.

I received my BSW (2015) and MSW (2017) both from Arizona State University where I also student taught LGBT studies. I earned my LCSW and opened my own private practice in 2024. erosrelationship.com

I am a psychologist who specializes in trauma, and I love working with clients recovering from religious trauma and purity culture. I recently made the pivot to full time academia, and am now the director of the MA programs in General Psychology and Clinical Psychology Counseling Practice at Roosevelt University in Chicago, IL. I still have a small private practice, Hearthstone Psychology, where I work with clients in most states across the country. My colleague and I have been leading purity culture recovery groups since 2020, and our book Surviving Purity Culture (coming Spring 2027) shares what we have learned over the years from leading those groups. I am also the founder and volunteer president of Agave Center for Justice in Mental Health, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance equity and justice in the acquisition of mental health services and supports for vulnerable and traditionally underserved populations. ORCID | hearthstonechicago.com