David Morgan
Professor of Art, Art History and Visual Studies
Education
Ph.D., University of Chicago 1990
M.A., University of Arizona 1984
B.A., Concordia College 1980
Overview
David Morgan is Professor of Religious Studies with a secondary appointment in the Department of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies at Duke. He chaired the Department of Religious Studies from 2013 to 2019. Morgan received the Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1990. He has published several books and dozens of essays on the history of religious visual culture, on art history and critical theory, and on religion and media. Images at Work: The Material Culture of Enchantment, was published in 2018 by Oxford University Press. The Forge of Vision: A Visual History of Modern Christianity, based on the 2012 Cadbury Lectures delivered at the University of Birmingham, UK, appeared in 2015 from the University of California Press. Previous books include The Embodied Eye: Religious Visual Culture and the Social Life of Feeling (California, 2012), The Lure of Images: A History of Religion and Visual Media in America (Routledge, 2007) and two that he edited and contributed to: Religion and Material Culture: The Matter of Belief (Routledge, 2010) and Key Words in Religion, Media, and Culture (Routledge, 2008). Earlier works: The Sacred Gaze (California, 2005), Protestants and Pictures (Oxford, 1999), and Visual Piety (University of California Press, 1998). Morgan is co-founder and co-editor of the international scholarly journal, Material Religion, and co-editor of a book series entitled "Bloomsbury Studies in Material Religion," published by Bloomsbury, London. He is currently at work on a new book under contract with the University of North Carolina Press, entitled "The Thing about Religion: An Introduction to Studying the Materiality of Belief."
Expertise
History of religious visual culture, art history and critical theory, religion and mediaContact Information
Department of Religious Studies, Durham, NC 27708
Box 90964, Durham, NC 27708-0964
(919) 660-3555
Links
Projects
Morgan, D. “The Study of Religion and Popular Culture: Prospects, Presuppositions, Procedures.” Between Sacred and Profane: Researching Religion and Popular Culture, edited by G. Lynch, IB Tauris, 2007, pp. 21–33.
Morgan, D. “The Visual Construction of the Sacred.” Images and Communities The Visual Construction of the Social, edited by M. Stocchetti and J. Sumiala-Seppänen, Gaudeamus-Helsinki University Press, 2007, pp. 53–74.
Holloway, D., and J. Beck, editors. “Absent Fathers and Women with Beards: Religion and Gender in Popular Imagery of the Nineteenth Century.” American Visual Cultures, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005, pp. 39–47.
Morgan, D. L. “Focus Groups.” Encyclopedia of Social Measurement, 2004, pp. 51–57. Scopus, doi:10.1016/B0-12-369398-5/00039-6. Full Text
Morgan, D. “Manly Pain and Motherly Love: Mel Gibson’s Big Picture.” After The Passion Is Gone: American Religious Consequences, edited by J. S. Landres and M. Berenbaum, AltaMira Press/Rowman & Littlefield, 2004, pp. 149–57.
Morgan, D. “Catholic Visual Piety and The Passion of the Christ.” Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson’s Film and Its Critics, edited by S. Brent, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, pp. 85–96.
Morgan, D. “Toward a Modern Historiography of Art and Religion.” Reluctant Partners: Art and Religion in Dialogue, edited by E. Heller, The Gallery at the American Bible Society, 2004, pp. 16–47.
Morgan, D. “Visual Media and the Case of Ethiopian Protestantism.” =Belief in Media: Media and Christianity in a Cultural Perspective, edited by M. Hess et al., Ashgate Publishing, 2004, pp. 91–106.
Morgan, D. “Protestant Visual Piety and the Aesthetics of American Mass Culture.” Mediating Religion: Conversations in Media, Religion and Culture, edited by J. Mitchell and S. Marriage, T&T Clark, 2003, pp. 107–20.
Morgan, D. “Protestant Visual Practice and American Mass Culture.” Practicing Religion in the Age of the Media: Explorations in Media, Religion and Culture, edited by S. Hoover and L. Schofield Clark, Columbia University Press, 2002, pp. 37–62.
Pages
Morgan, D. “The materiality of cultural construction.” Material Religion, vol. 4, no. 2, Dec. 2008, pp. 228–29. Scopus, doi:10.2752/175183408X328334. Full Text
Morgan, D. “Exhibition review: The critical view.” Material Religion, vol. 3, no. 1, Dec. 2007, pp. 135–43. Scopus, doi:10.2752/174322007780095753. Full Text
Corrigan, J., et al. “Forum: Electronic media and the study of American religion.” Religion and American Culture, vol. 16, no. 1, Jan. 2006, pp. 1–24. Scopus, doi:10.1525/rac.2006.16.1.1. Full Text
Morgan, D. “Response to spackman, "reconsidering 'kitsch'".” Material Religion, vol. 1, no. 3, Dec. 2005, pp. 417–19.
Hunt, Richard H., et al. “Recommendations for the appropriate use of anti-inflammatory drugs in the era of the coxibs: defining the role of gastroprotective agents..” Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology, vol. 16, no. 4, Apr. 2002, pp. 231–40. Epmc, doi:10.1155/2002/516092. Full Text
Morgan, D. “Visual religion.” Religion, vol. 30, no. 1, Jan. 2000, pp. 41–53. Scopus, doi:10.1006/reli.1999.0228. Full Text
Morgan, D. “Arthrotec: the evidence speaks for itself..” Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology. Supplement, vol. 109, Jan. 1999, pp. 13–18.
Tennenbaum, T., et al. “Topical retinoic acid reduces skin papilloma formation but resistant papillomas are at high risk for malignant conversion..” Cancer Research, vol. 58, no. 7, Apr. 1998, pp. 1435–43.
Azzoli, C. G., et al. “Cooperation of p53 loss of function and v-Ha-ras in transformation of mouse keratinocyte cell lines..” Molecular Carcinogenesis, vol. 21, no. 1, Jan. 1998, pp. 50–61. Epmc, doi:10.1002/(sici)1098-2744(199801)21:1<50::aid-mc7>3.0.co;2-t. Full Text
Morgan, D. “German character and artistic form: The cultural politics of German art theory, 1773-1814.” European Romantic Review, vol. 6, no. 2, Dec. 1996, pp. 183–212. Scopus, doi:10.1080/10509589608570006. Full Text
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Fellowships, Supported Research, & Other Grants
Research & Travel Grant awarded by Stichting Porticus, Amsterdam (2004 to 2005)
NEH Humanities Fellowship awarded by National Endowment for the Humanities (2001 to 2002)
Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Art and Humanities awarded by J. Paul Getty (1996 to 1997)
Pew Postdoctoral Fellowship in Religion and American History awarded by Yale University (1994 to 1995)