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Gina Messina-Dysert (born September 6, 1975) is an American feminist scholar, Catholic theologian, author, and activist. She gives particular attention to gender issues in religion.
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Messina-Dysert is co-founder of Feminism and Religion, which she founded in 2011 with Caroline Kline, Xochitl Alvizo and Cynthia Garrity Bond. Feminism and Religion is a project that explores the intersection between scholarship and the feminism (the "F-word") in religion, community and activism.
Messina-Dysert is also founder and Editor in Chief of The Far Press, an indie feminist publisher which publishes books that explore feminism and gender, religion and spirituality, politics, and social change.
She is the Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Ursuline College in Pepper Pike, Ohio where she formerly served as Dean of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies. Prior to her time at Ursuline College, Messina-Dysert served as the Director of the Center for Women's Interdisciplinary Research and Education (WIRE) at Claremont Graduate University and as a Visiting Professor of Theological Ethics at Loyola Marymount University.
Biography
Messina-Dysert grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, where she moved after her parent's divorce when she was 12. She earned her GED "while working double shifts at the local Dairy Queen".
Messina-Dysert earned her doctorate at Claremont Graduate University, focussing on women studies in religion, theology, ethics, and culture. Her advisor was Rosemary Radford Ruether. She completed a Master of Arts in religious studies at John Carroll University. She also earned a Master of Business Administration with a dual focus in organizational leadership and marketing at the University of Findlay and completed her undergraduate degree at Cleveland State University.
Publications
Messina-Dysert has authored articles in a variety of publications and regularly writes for The Huffington Post. She is the author of Rape Culture and Spiritual Violence (Routledge, 2014), and If Jesus Ran for President (The Far Press, 2016). She is also co-editor of Faithfully Feminist: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Feminists on Why We Stay (with Jennifer Zobair and Amy Levin, White Cloud Press, 2015) and Feminism and Religion in the 21st Century (with Rosemary Radford Ruether, Routledge, 2014).
Messina-Dysert is a regular speaker around the US at universities, organizations, conferences, and in the national news circuit. She has appeared on Tavis Smiley, MSNBC, and NPR and gave the TEDx Talk "The New Feminist Revolution in Religion". She has also spoken at the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations.