A Feminist God: Madelynn McDevitt Selected for McNeil Undergraduate Research Workshop
Posted in: English Department, Homepage News and Events
English undergraduate student Madelynn McDevitt recently presented her research on the redefinition of women’s roles in Shaker music at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies (MCEAS) Consortium Undergraduate Research Workshop, hosted at the University of Pennsylvania.
Selected from a competitive pool of applicants across MCEAS Consortium institutions, McDevitt’s project examines a handwritten Shaker songbook composed by Marcia E. Hastings, a spiritual leader and Eldress of the Canterbury, New Hampshire community, between 1839 and 1842, now housed at the Shaker Museum in Chatham, New York. Placing Hastings’s manuscript alongside other hymnal traditions, McDevitt explores competing ideas of authorship and authenticity in Shaker sacred song, and what they reveal about the community’s radical vision of a dual-gendered God.
Montclair students interested in future MCEAS opportunities are encouraged to contact Steffi Dippold at dippolds@montclair.edu.