K. Christine Pae
Keunjoo Christine Pae is professor of religion and women’s and gender studies and chair of the Department of Religion. Trained as a social ethicist, she specializes in transnational feminist ethics, ethics of peace and war, spiritual activism, sexual ethics, and Asian/Asian American feminist theologies. Many of her publications take U.S. military prostitution in South Korea as a critical site for producing feminist knowledge concerning militarized violence, faith-based popular resistance, and a theology of peace. She has authored A Transpacific Imagination of Theology, Ethics, and Spiritual Activism (2023) and co-edited Embodying Antiracist Christianity (2023) and Searching for the Future in the Past: Renewing Feminist Theological Voices (2024).
Learning & Teaching
- REL 450 Religion Senior Research Colloquium
- REL 302/WGST 321 Ethics of Peace and War
- REL 327/WGST 327 Women and Social Ethics: In the Global Context
- REL 305/WGST 305/QS 305 Ethics of Sex and Love: Moral Reflection on Religion and Sex
- REL 227/WGST 227 Women’s Spiritual Activism
- REL 224 Religion and Social Ethics
- REL 200 Thinking about Religion
- REL 102 Ethics, Society, and the Moral Self
- 2024-Present: Professor of Religion/Ethics and Women’s and Gender Studies
- 2017-Present: Chair, the Department of Religion
- 2014-2024: Associate Professor of Religion/Ethics, and Women’s and Gender Studies
- 2008-2014: Assistant Professor of Religion/Ethics
Research
My scholarly work is highly interdisciplinary, ranging from critical Christian studies and Asian American studies to women of color feminist theories. Specifically, my publications critically analyze transnational militarism through the intersectionality analysis of race, gender, sexuality, class, and religion. U.S. military prostitution in South Korea is often taken as a critical site of producing transnational feminist knowledge of war and peace activism. I further research faith-based popular resistance and transnational feminist solidarity in order to (re)interpret the meanings and practices of spiritual activism (the inseparability between spiritual practice and social changes). Postcolonial discourse on necropolitics or sovereignty's right to kill is one of my theoretical tools in critically analyzing war and militarism. Most of my writings elaborate on feminist spiritual activism, emphasizing the inseparability between inner change and outer political work for social transformation. Another critical piece of my scholarship is transpacific feminist theology and ethics with a focus on Asian women's transpacific experiences. My scholarship takes a unique position in critical Christian studies because I interrogate how the U.S.-Asia relations have affected Asian American women's lives and theological imagination — racial, gendered, sexual, and religious dimensions of the U.S.-Asia relations.
Works
Publications between 2016-2024
- “I Am a Citizen of the Pacific Ocean: A Transpacific Feminist Theology from Jeju Island,” in Transpacific Political Theology: Perspectives, Paradigms, and Proposals, edited by Kwok Pui-lan, 57-72. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2024.
- Co-edited with Kathleen Talvacchia, Searching for Future in the Past: Reclaiming Feminist Theological Visions. London and New York: T&T Clark, 2024.
- Transpacific Imagination of Theology, Ethics, and Spiritual Activism: Doing Feminist Ethics Transnationally. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.
- Co-edited with Boyung Lee, Embodying Antiracist Christianity: Asian American Theological Resources for Just Racial Relations. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.
- “Indecent Resurgence: God’s Solidarity against the Gendered War on COVID,” in Doing Theology in the New Normal, edited by Jione Havea, 179-195. London, UK: SCM, 2021.
- “Introducing Asian Transpacific American Feminist Theology,” in Women’s Studies in Religion, edited by Helen Boursier, 155-167. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.
- “Teaching Ethics of Sex with Tenderness: Religious Literacy and Sexual Literacy in the Undergraduate Classroom,” Religious Education 116 no. 3 (2021): 204-207.
- “Soldiering and Militarized Prostitution: Making A Christian Feminist Ethic of Peace through the Lens of Proletarianized Sexuality,” in Faith, Class, and Labor, edited by Jin Young Choi and Joerg Rieger, 143-163. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2020.
- “A Transnational Feminist Pedagogy of War, Peace, and Sexuality,” in Teaching Sexuality and Religion in Higher Education: Embodied Learning, Trauma-Sensitive Pedagogy, and Perspective Transformation, edited by Darryl Stephens and Kate Ott, 63-74. New York: Routledge, 2020.
- “Spiritual Activism as Interfaith Dialogue: When Military Prostitution Matters,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 36, no. 1 (Spring 2020): 71-84.
- “The Empathetic Power of Suffering: The Memories of Killing and Feminist Interfaith Spiritual Activism,” in Resistance to Empire and Militarization—Reclaiming the Sacred, edited by Jude Lal Fernando, 198-212. Sheffield, UK: Equinox, 2020.
- “The Remains of the War Ruins: A Palimpsest of Necropolitics—America’s Genocide and Military Prostitution in South Korea,” in Feminist Praxis Against U.S. Militarism, edited by Nami Kim and Wonhee Anne Joh, 105-123. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2019.
- “The Prostituted Body of War: U.S. Military Prostitution in South Korea As a Site of Spiritual Activism,” in Transformational Embodiment in Asian Religions: Subtle Bodies, Spatial Bodies, edited by George Pati and Katherine C. Zubko, 187-205. New York: Routledge, 2019.
- “Factory Girls and ‘Comfort’ Girls: A Feminist Theo-Ethical Reflection on Korean Girl Soldiers in Japanese Empire’s War,” in Female Child Soldiers, Gender Violence, and Feminist Theology, edited by Susan Willhauk, 109-122. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
- “Three Tales of Wisdom: Leadership of PANAAWTM,” in Leading Wisdom: Asian and Asian North American Women Leaders, edited by Su Yon Pak and Jung Ha Kim, 125-138. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017.
- “A Politics of Empathy: Christianity and Women’s Peace Activism in U.S. Military Prostitution in South Korea,” in Women and Asian Religions, edited by Zayn Kassam, 223-239. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2017.
- “Faith-Based Popular Resistance to the Naval Base at Gangjeong of Jeju: Transforming the U.S.-Korea Relations for Peace and Justice,” in Critical Theology against U.S. Militarism in Asia: Decolonization and Deimperialization, edited by Nami Kim and Wohnee Anne Joh, 199-226. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2016.
Service
- American Academy of Religion (AAR)
Co-Chair, The Liberation Theologies Unit at the AAR
Chair, The Status of Women and Gender Minoritized Persons in the Profession Committee at the AAR
The AAR Program Committee - Society of Christian Ethics
Former co-convenor, Asian American Ethics Working Group - ASIANetwork, Board Member (2022-2024)
- International Academy of Practical Theology
- Pacific Asian North Asian American Women in Theology and Ministry
- Association of Asian/North American Theological Educators
- National Women’s Studies Association
- 2020-Present: Board Member, Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion
- 2019-Present: Secretary, Pacific Asian North Asian American Women in Theology and Ministry
- 2019-Present: Steering Committee Member, Religion, Genocide, and Holocaust Unit, American Academy of Religion
- 2017-Present: Co-chair of the Steering Committee, Women and Religion Unit, American Academy of Religion
- 2015-Present: Steering Committee Member, Women and Religion Unit, American Academy of Religion
- 2015-Present: Founding Member and Editorial Board, Feminist Studies in Religion Forum
- 2015-2019: Board Member, Feminist Studies in Religion Book Series
- 2013-2017: Secretary, Association of Asian/North American Theological Educators
- 2012- Present: Steering Committee and Board, Pacific Asian North Asian American Women in Theology and Ministry
- 2011-2013: Co-Convener, Asian and Asian American Ethics Working Group, Society of Christian Ethics
- 2009-2010: Program Committee, Peace for Life: World without Empire International Conference in New York City
- 2009: National Women’s Studies Association Women of Color Leadership Project
- 2009: Great Lakes Colleges Association Academic Leadership and Innovation Institute
- 2008: Women’s Association for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual, Feminist Theology and Ethics Conference for Doctoral Students and Junior Faculty
- 2007: Asian Theological Summer Institute
Other
- 2024 Denison University Research Fund, Bodies of War Project ($4,774)
- 2024 Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning Theology and Religion, “Design Thinking Workshop for Religious and Theological Educators” ($3,000)
- 2021-2023 Louisville Institute, Grant for Research Projects, “Antiracist Work in Asian American Christian Communities” ($30,000)
- 2020-2024 External Scholars Grant, Religion and Sexual Abuse—Henry Luce Foundation Grant ($20,000)
- 2020: Denison University Research Fund ($3,500), “Religion and Transnational Feminist Reading of Diaspora Stories of Resistance: Between Palestine and the Transpacific”
- 2016-2018: The Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning Theology and Religion, Peer Mentoring Grant for the Mid-Career Faculty ($7,500 per year/$15,000 in total)
- 2014-2015: Denison University Research Fund, “Transnational Feminist Ethics of War and Peace” ($6,800)
- 2012: The Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning Theology and Religion Summer Research Grant ($8,400)
- COVID-19 and Anti-Asian Racism Forum: Spring 2021
- Denison Dialogue on Sexual Respect: Fall 2020
