Skip to main content

Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Adjunct Associate Professor of History & Women's and Gender Studies
113 Carolina Hall
jboon@email.unc.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Education

Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, Religious Studies, 2004
B.A., Yale University, Humanities, 1998

Research Interests

  • Christian thought and culture in late medieval and early modern Europe
  • Religion in Spain, particularly Christian mysticism, Passion spirituality, and Marian devotion
  • History of Medicine; History of Gender and Sexuality; Materiality; History of Emotion
  • Queer and trans theory; disability theory; theories of race, religion, and anti-Semitism in the Iberian World

I study medieval and Renaissance Catholicism, particularly spirituality and mysticism in Spain 1450-1550 during its transition from a pluri-religious society to a Catholic global empire. My theoretical interests focus on the study of embodiment in mystical texts and guides to meditation, including the body’s physiological and cognitive elements as understood in premodern medical theory, the impact of embodied emotion on mystical methods, the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, and disability in visionary texts, and the body’s configuration through material culture in the process of spiritual practices.

Some Notable Publications

Books (Authored and Co-edited):

  • The End of the World in Medieval Thought and Spirituality, ed. Eric Knibbs, Jessica A. Boon, and Erica Gelser. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2019.
  • Mother Juana de la Cruz, 1481–1534: Visionary Sermons. Ed. Jessica A. Boon and Ronald E. Surtz. Introductory material and notes by Jessica A. Boon. Trans. Ronald E. Surtz and Nora Weinerth. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series. Toronto: Iter Academic Press; Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2016.
  • The Mystical Science of the Soul: Medieval Cognition in Bernardino de Laredo’s Recollection Method. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012.

Articles/Chapters:

  • “The Body-and-Soul in Pain: Medico-Theological Debates in Late Medieval Castilian Passion Treatises.” Viator 50.1 (2019): 249-87.
  • “At the Limits of (Trans)Gender: Jesus, Mary, and the Angels in the Visionary Sermons of Juana de la Cruz, 1481-1534.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 48.2 (2018): 261-300.
  • “Gender and Materiality: Caroline Walker Bynum.” Cultural Approaches to Studying Religion: An Introduction to Theories and Methods, ed. Sarah J. Bloesch and Meredith Minister, 111-26. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.
  • “Violence and the ‘Virtual Jew’ in Castilian Passion Narratives, 1490s-1510s.” Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 8.1 (2016): 1-20.

Courses Offered

RELI 266 Medieval and Renaissance Christian Cultures
RELI 362 Mary in the Christian Tradition
RELI 368 Race, Sexuality, and Disability in the History of Western Christianity
RELI 668 Religion and the Spanish Inquisition: Abrahamic Religions, Indigenous Traditions, and Empire


554A Pauli Murray Hall*
102 Emerson Dr., CB #3195
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3195

*Though the History Department uses the name Pauli Murray Hall for our building, on official maps you will find it as Hamilton Hall. Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton’s intellectually dishonest historical and archival work promoted white supremacy. In contrast, Pauli Murray marshaled unassailable evidence and analysis in the service of racial and gender equality. In July 2020, all of the departments housed in the building agreed to adopt the name Pauli Murray Hall in place of Hamilton Hall. An official request with the Chancellor is pending. For more information, please see here.
phone: 919.962.2115
fax: 919.962.1403
email: history@unc.edu
For general questions, please email before calling. The History Department thanks you.
Black and White   Black and White   Black and White   Black and White