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J. Michelle Molina (PhD, University of Chicago, 2004) studies the Society of Jesus during the early modern period. Her research explores Jesuit spirituality and the efforts to understand how individuals, both elite and commoners, approached and experienced religious transformation. She particularly examines the impact of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises—a meditative retreat aimed at self-reform—on early modern global expansion. Molina’s book, To Overcome Oneself: Jesuit Ethic Spirit Global Expansion published with University of California Press, examines the impact of the Jesuit program of radical self-reflexivity on the formation of early modern selves in Europe and New Spain. This work offers a novel retelling of the emergence of the Western concept of the 'modern self', highlighting the struggle to forge and overcome selves amidst the early modern Catholic missionary expansion. In addition to her book, she has turned her attention to the period of 'contraction' in Catholic missionary evangelicalism, focusing on the expulsion of Jesuits from Mexico in 1767. Her teaching includes graduate seminars on the embodiment, materiality, and affect, along with undergraduate courses covering topics such as refugees, migration, and the intersection of race and religion in Latin America.
Standard PhD requirements for TGS departments including Chemistry, Physics, and Sociology.