Susan Srigley
Professor

Dr. Susan Srigley

Biography

I love teaching. Some of my favourite courses that I teach at Nipissing are Spiritual Journeys, World Religions, Death, Dying and Spirituality, Religion and Literature as well as a co-taught dialogue course on the Bible as Cultural Text. My research is in the area of religious ethics and literature—I have written a few books on the American novelist Flannery O’Connor and I wrote my first magazine article this summer on Flannery O’Connor’s recently discovered prayer journal (written when she was in her early 20’s and searching to make sense of her felt experience of religion): http://americamagazine.org/issue/far-away-god.
Another research and personal interest of mine is spiritual/meditative practice across religions but especially in Buddhism and early Christianity. As part of my desire to learn more and bring these experiences to my students I regularly seek out retreats of all kinds and share my reflections on these in the classroom.

Positions

Full-time Faculty
Faculty of Arts and Science - Social and Cultural Studies - Sociology
Full-time Faculty
Graduate Studies - Sociology, MA
Full-time Faculty
Graduate Studies - History, MA

Education

PhD, Religious Studies, McMaster University
2001
MA, Religious Studies, McMaster University
1993
BA (Hons), Religious Studies, McGill University
1991
Areas of specialization
Religion
Ethics and Literature
Flannery O'Connor
Death Studies
Palliative Care
Death Awareness Education

Teaching Areas

Undergraduate Programs

  • Sociology

Graduate Studies

  • Sociology, MA
  • History, MA

Research

Open to Media Inquiries

Publications

Books

Flannery O'Connor’s Sacramental Art. University of Notre Dame Press, 2004, 195 pp., Dark Faith: New Essays on Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away. Editor, Susan Srigley. University of Notre Dame Press, 2012, 219 pp.

Book chapters:

“Asceticism and Abundance: The Communion of Saints in The Violent Bear It Away” in Dark Faith: New Essays on Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away. Editor, Susan Srigley, 2012.

“Critical Lens: Flannery O’Connor and the Art of the Story,” in Critical Insights: Flannery O’Connor, EBSCO/Salem Press, 2011.Articles:

“Flannery O’Connor on Stage: Karin Coonrod’s ‘Everything that Rises Must Converge,’” The Flannery O’Connor Review, vol. 11, 2013.

Srigley, S., Guest Editor: Ingraffia, B., Srigley, S., Wood, R.C., “Penance, Violence and the Ending of Wise Blood: Three essays in Conversation” Flannery O’Connor Review, 7. 2009.

“Penance and Love in Wise Blood: Seeing Redemption?” Flannery O’Connor Review, 7. 2009.

“The Violence of Love: Reflections on Self-Sacrifice through Flannery O’Connor and René Girard,” Religion and Literature 39:3, 2007.

“O’Connor and the Mystics: St. Catherine of Genoa’s Purgatorial Vision in ‘Revelation,’” Flannery O’Connor Review, 2, Spring 2004.

Articles

“From Flannery O’Connor’s Front Porch: The Imaginative Vision of Karin Coonrod,”  in Karin Coonrod’s Transnational Theatre. Eds. Jozefina Komporaly and Davina Moss Bloomsbury Publishing - Reflections on Contemporary Performance Process (series) (forthcoming 2025)

“Undisciplined Debate: Coursing through Dialogue,” in From Theory to Co-Practice: Perspectives on Co-Teaching in Higher Education, co-written with Sarah Winters. University of Toronto Press, Editors Daniel Jarvis and Mumbi Kariuki, 2017, Srigley, Susan

“As a Death Doula and Professor Who Teaches About Dying, I See a Need for More Conversations about Death,” The Conversation, November 5, 2023 https://theconversation.com/as-a-death-doula-and-professor-who-teaches-…, *“’Far Away from God’: Flannery O’Connor’s Struggles with a Demanding Faith,” America: The National Catholic Review, vol. 213, no. 1, July 6-13, 2015

Others

Podcast interview about my death courses and article in The Conversation (Nov 2023) with People First Radio: (Listen to Podcast here)