Kristin Helweg Hanson

Adjunct Professor, Ph.D., Emory University
Eastern and Western Philosophy and Religion, Alaska Native Studies, Women in Religion

ADM - 255
Email: kahanson@uaa.alaska.edu
Phone: 907.786.4438

Kristin Helweg Hanson has a strong interdisciplinary background.  Her key credentials for UAA are a Certificate of Women's Studies and a Ph.D. in religion, both from Emory University.  Hanson is intrigued by "lived religion" or the study of how religious systems find expression and change within particular lives, times, and places.  In her early research, Hanson used feminist ethnography to probe "lived" phenomena such as how Inupiaq cultural understandings potentially transform Protestant practices and theology.  Today her interests include: intersecting spiritualities (with Inupiaq culture-Christian interchange remaining a keen interest); women in religion; religion and education; Chinese thought; and constructions of self. As her students quickly learn, Kristin Helweg Hanson longs for widespread “religious fluency”.  She believes “religious fluency” entails a working knowledge of multiple religious systems and non-Western philosophies, and she hopes this knowledge in turn engenders commitments to fair and respectful discourse about religion(s).  Teaching is one of Hanson’s great passions and her favorite forum is the undergraduate classroom.

Project Updates:
Kristin Helweg Hanson had the privilege of participating in the Confucian Studies Summer Institute in Shandong Province, Nishan, during July of 2011.  During this Institute, Dr. Hanson collaborated with Chinese graduate students to gain stronger understanding of Chinese perspectives on the texts and on the world.  This intensive study workshop was a valuable experience for Dr. Hanson.  She returned home and revised the Chinese philosophy sections of Eastern Philosophy (PHIL 313).  She also included Chinese thought in her new version of Introduction to Philosophy (PHIL 201).  Now she is on to the challenge of developing a PHIL 492 seminar in Confucian thought.  If visa permit is granted, one of the graduate-student collaborators from last summer will come to Alaska to serve as Teaching Intern for Hanson while she prepares the Kongzi/Confucius seminar (PHIL 492).  This “Chinese philosophy super-star” student will infuse “emic” Chinese perspectives into the anticipated course presentations.    

The collaborative preparation and upcoming focus on Kongzi are important to departmental goals and UAA visions.  The Kongzi seminar clearly builds the new Religious Studies track within the Philosophy degree program.  The seminar will provide helpful orientation for topics such as “Confucian Role Ethics” (Roger Ames, Spring 2014) sponsored by the new Ethics Consortium.  Contact with the visiting Intern will also promote student interest in pursuing graduate programs in Chinese philosophy, including English-speaking programs being offered in China.  

Additionally, the Kongzi seminar will assist the “global perspectives” UAA attempts to nurture in students.   The Teaching Intern visit and the collaborative course development instantiate UAA’s stated theme of:  “UAA in the World and the World at UAA”.  The expanded philosophical horizons and anticipated Teaching Intern visit flow to and from key initiatives within the International Studies department.  (The Kongzi seminar will satisfy an upper level requirement for either International Studies or Philosophy.)  Finally, PHIL 492: Kongzi will further enhance UAA’s growing awareness and knowledge of China that the UAA Confucian Institute has so helpfully nurtured, and which the fledgling ASDP (Asian Study and Development Program) at UAA also supports.  

While the exploration of Chinese philosophy grows, another project ‘closer to home’ has completed a chapter.  In 2011, Dr. Hanson and Sheila (Tusaagvik) Seetomona Randazzo, Transition Advisor of Native Student Services at UAA, explored the possible spiritual dimensions of Alaska Native Games.  In a rather strange turn of events, an international conference was cancelled and registered conferees were asked to submit a YouTube video and journal paper instead.  Hanson and Randazzo posted the YouTube presentation thanks to substantial help from media-savvy UAA students and Alaska Native athletes. (Presentation can be found using search phrase  “Urban Youth and Native Games”;  the specific clip is entitled: “Survival Then, Survival Now”.)  The full article, “Survival Then, Survival Now”, is forthcoming in the International Journal of Sport and Society.  (The attached picture captures the celebratory smiles of the authors.)

Recent Publications:
Associate Editor, International Journal of Sport and Society, 2011.

Helweg-Hanson, K. "Not the Words: Hymnody, Enacted Theology, and the Lutheran Inupiat" Dialog: A Journal of Theology. Vol. 48.:4 (Winter 2009) 348-357.

Kristin Helweg Hanson (2006). "Looking In, Looking Out: A Christian Historical Perspective" in Rukhsana Zia (ed), Globalization, Modernization and Education in Muslim Countries. In Bryan T. Peck (series editor) Education: Emerging Goals in the New Millennium, New York Nova Science Publishers, Inc.: 85-97

Recent Presentations:
Participant in 2011 Confucian Studies Summer Institute (Nishan Birthplace of the Sage Academy, Shandong Province, China)

On Wednesday, Oct 13, Philosophy & Religion professor Kristin Helweg Hanson joined Dr. Greg Kimura (Alaska Humanities Forum president) and Teeka B on Hometown-Alaska. Professor Hanson primarily addressed Sheldon Jackson's historical role in the Protestant presence within our state. To listen to the program, please click on "Download Audio".
http://kska.org/2010/10/13/hometown-alaska-god-in-alaska-part-2/

"Colliding Identities", Interdisciplinary Conference, Sponsored by Society for Indian Philosophy & Religion and University of Alaska, Anchorage, June 2008.

Co-Coordinator of "Immortality, Physicalism, and Death of God" Interdisciplinary Conference, Sponsored by Society of Indian Philosophy & Religion and University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska, June 13-14, 2008.