Department of Theology

Lauve Steenhuisen has been a Visiting Assistant Professor and Professorial Lecturer in Theology and Women's Studies at Georgetown since 1995. She is a scholar of American theologies and religious movements, specializing in feminist and sociological analyses.

She was raised in Europe, Canada, and Virginia, and received her BA with honors from Roanoke College in Religion and Philosophy. She pursued graduate work in New Testament Theology at the University of Durham, England, and American Religion at Stanford University. She received her doctorate in Religion and Society from the Graduate Theological Union, jointly administered with the University of California at Berkeley.

Her research interests include feminist theology as a social movement, separation of church and state issues, fundamentalism, new age spiritualities, and American Lutheran theological evolution.

She is the author of "Congregations of One: A Study of Individual Religion", "Autonomy in Religion: A Study of Dimensions and Types" (with Susan Kwilecki),"Deconstructing Bellah's 'Sheilaism'", "Feminist Theology and Backlash Fundamentalism: Re-Imagining Reconsidered", "Sociotheology: A Methodology for the Study of Lived Religion", and numerous book reviews for academic journals and magazines.

Her areas of campus leadership and service include: Chapter Advisor for the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (Distinguished Member), faculty mentor to John Carroll Scholars, and member of the Women's Studies Program Steering Committee. She is the 2004-05 National Co-Coordinator for Lutheran Women in Theological and Religious Studies.

Dr. Steenhuisen is the 1995 recipient of the "Teaching Excellence Award" (George Mason University), and the first woman to receive the Rotary Foundation International Fellowship (1977).