Readers Meet the Author
Baylor University faculty are prolific writers, researchers, mentors, and teachers, and we welcome every opportunity to celebrate their accomplishments. Readers Meet the Author, presented by the Office of the President and Office of the Provost and hosted by the University Libraries, encourages opportunities for faculty, staff, students, and others to gather for shared reflection and collegial conversation about big ideas.
Featuring recently published single-authored works by Baylor faculty selected by Baylor Provost Nancy Brickhouse, Ph.D., each opportunity to meet the author consists of an introduction from either the provost or Baylor President Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D., followed by a discussion with the author facilitated by a colleague or contemporary and a question-and-answer session with attendees.
"This series presents a unique opportunity to showcase the exceptional work of our faculty while also celebrating that which is great about the academe — our ability to share perspectives and ideas with each other for the sake of civil academic discourse. These conversations also serve to sharpen our own intellectual sensibilities and make faculty scholarship even more accessible to our peers within the Baylor community,"
President Linda Livingstone
Please help spread the word both on and off-campus about your colleagues and professors whose works have been selected as part of this years Readers Meet the Author Series. Click the button below to access print and digital materials to share about this year's series!
Readers Meet the Author General Publicity Materials
2024-2025 Readers Meet the Author Selections
"Turning Points in American Church History: How Pivotal Events Shaped a Nation and a Faith" (Baker Academic, 2024)
Dr. Elesha J. Coffman, Professor of History
Interviewed by Dr. Elizabeth Flowers, Associate Professor of American Religion
Tuesday, October 22, 2024 • Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Schumacher Flex Commons in Moody Memorial Library and online via Zoom Webinar.
A reception with refreshments and book signing will follow. The Baylor Bookstore will sell copies of the book at the event.
Read E-Book (Login Required) Register for Zoom Webinar
"Forging a Christian Order: South Carolina Baptists, Race, and Slavery, 1696-1860" (University of Tennessee Press, 2023)
Dr. Kimberly R. Kellison, Associate Professor of History & Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
Interviewed by Dr. Robert Elder, Associate Professor of History
Tuesday, November 19, 2024 • Noon-1:00 p.m.
Schumacher Flex Commons in Moody Memorial Library and online via Zoom Webinar.
A reception with refreshments and book signing will follow. The Baylor Bookstore will sell copies of the book at the event.
Read E-Book (Login Required) Register for Zoom Webinar
"Kurt Kaiser: Icon and Conscience of Contemporary Christian Music" (Baylor University Press, 2024)
Dr. Terry York, Retired Professor of Christian Ministry and Church Music
Interviewed by Prof. Bob Darden, Retired Professor of Journalism
Tuesday, February 4, 2025 • 12:15-1:15 p.m.
Schumacher Flex Commons in Moody Memorial Library and online via Zoom Webinar.
A reception with refreshments and book signing will follow. Baylor University Press will sell copies of the book at the event.
Read E-Book (Coming Soon) Register for Zoom Webinar
"Architecture, Theology, and Ethics: Making Architectural Design More Just" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024)
Dr. Elise Edwards, Assistant Professor of Religion
Interviewed by Prof. Ann Theriot, Clinical Assistant Professor of Interior Design
Wednesday, February 26, 2025 • 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Schumacher Flex Commons in Moody Memorial Library and online via Zoom Webinar.
A reception with refreshments and book signing will follow. The Baylor Bookstore will sell copies of the book at the event.
Read E-Book (Login Required) Register for Zoom Webinar
"Pushback: The Political Fallout of Unpopular Supreme Court Decisions" (University of Missouri Press, 2024)
Dr. David Bridge, Associate Professor of Political Science
Interviewed by Jeremy Counseller, Dean of Baylor Law and Abner V. McCall Chair of Evidence Law
Tuesday, March 25, 2025 • 12:30-1:30 p.m.
Schumacher Flex Commons in Moody Memorial Library and online via Zoom Webinar.
A reception with refreshments and book signing will follow. The Baylor Bookstore will sell copies of the book at the event.
Read E-Book (Login Required) Register for Zoom Webinar
Media Coverage
Past Readers Meet the Author Sessions
Philip Jenkins, Ph.D.
A Storm of Images: Iconoclasm and Religious Reformation in the Byzantine World (Baylor University Press, 2023)
Thursday, April 11, 2024
David A. Smith, Ph.D.
A New Force at Sea: George Dewey and the Rise of the American Navy
(Naval Institute Press, 2023)
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Devan Stahl, Ph.D.
Disability's Challenge to Theology: Genes, Eugenics, and the Metaphysics of Modern Medicine (University of Notre Dame Press, 2022)
Thursday, February 29, 2024
David Lyle Jeffrey, Ph.D.
We Were a Peculiar People Once: Confession of an Old-Time Baptist
(Baylor Press, 2023)
Thursday, February 15, 2024
Felipe Hinojosa, Ph.D.
Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio (University of Texas Press, 2021)
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
João Chaves, Ph.D.
Migrational Religion: Context and Creativity in the Latinx Diaspora (Baylor Press, 2021)
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
E-Book Access Video
Note: We experienced audio and video issues during the Zoom Webinar for this session. The audio has a definite echo/reverberation and the video repeatedly cuts from our presenters to a Zoom splash screen. The entire session is preserved, but the production values are not to our usual standards. Apologies.
Greg Garrett, Ph.D.
Bastille Day: A Novel (Paraclete Press, 2023)
Thursday, October 12, 2023
Baylor OneSearch Catalog Video
Jessica L. Peck, Ph.D.
Behind Closed Doors: A Guide to Help Parents and Teens Navigate Through Life’s Toughest Issues (Thomas Nelson, 2022)
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Coretta M. Pittman, Ph.D.
Literacy in a Long Blues Note: Black Women's Literature and Music in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (University Press of Mississippi, 2022)
Thursday, March 23, 2023
Baylor OneSearch Catalog Video
Barry Harvey, Ph.D.
Baptists and the Catholic Tradition: Reimagining the Church's Witness in the Modern World, Second Edition (Baker Academic, 2020)
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
George Yancey, Ph.D.
Beyond Racial Division: A Unifying Alternative to Colorblindness and Antiracism (IVP, 2022)
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
J. Lenore Wright, Ph.D.
Athena to Barbie: Bodies, Archetypes, and Women's Search for Self (Fortress Press, 2021)
Thursday, November 10, 2022
Holly Oxhandler, Ph.D.
The Soul of the Helper: Seven Stages to Seeing the Sacred Within Yourself So You Can See It in Others (Templeton Press, 2022)
Thursday, October 20, 2022
Baylor OneSearch Catalog Video
Jonathan Tran, Ph.D.
Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism (Oxford University Press, 2021)
Friday, September 23, 2022
Natalie Carnes, Ph.D.
Motherhood: A Confession (Stanford University Press, 2020)
Thursday, April 7, 2022
Joel Looper, Ph.D.
Bonhoeffer's America: A Land Without Reformation (Baylor University Press, 2021)
Thursday, March 3, 2022
Baylor OneSearch Catalog Video
Philip Jenkins, Ph.D.
Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith: How Changes in Climate Drive Religious Upheaval (Oxford University Press, 2021)
Friday, February 11, 2022
Beth Allison Barr, Ph.D.
The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth (Brazos Press, 2021)
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Baylor OneSearch Catalog Video
Luke Winslow, Ph.D.
American Catastrophe: Fundamentalism, Climate Change, Gun Rights and the Rhetoric of Donald J. Trump (Ohio State University Press, 2020)
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Baylor OneSearch Catalog Video
Perry Glanzer, Ph.D.
Identity in Action: Christian Excellence in All of Life (Abilene Christian University Press, 2021)
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
Baylor OneSearch Catalog Video
Robert Elder, Ph.D.
Calhoun: American Heretic (Basic Books, 2021)
Friday, September 17, 2021