Skip to content

 

Academic Publishing/Research Interests

Gretchen Koch, Fellow, Aarhus University

Gretchen Koch’s background is in philosophy of religion, and she is analyzing research from developmental and moral psychology to explore possible cognitive foundations for belief in souls, and the role which that belief plays in moral reasoning. She is particularly interested in the conditions under which practice of empathy may be stimulated or inhibited, and the ways in which narratives concerning the soul may be invoked in post hoc moral justification.

Gretchen Koch has a BA in Religious Studies from Texas Christian University, an MA from the Centre for Religion, Culture, and Gender at the University of Manchester and a PhD from the Department of the Study of Religion, Aarhus University.

Koch, G (2013). Care of the Soul: Empathy in a Dualistic Worldview in Geertz, A.W. (Ed.). (2013). Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315728988

Koch, G. (2008). Full of Sound and Fury: The Media Response to Dennett. Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, 20(1), 36-44. https://doi.org/10.1163/157006808X260412

Editorial Blogging

Published Cartoons

Religion Dispatches

The following is concerned only with office politics. It is certainly not a commentary on the impeachment process one might see all over the news. Not even a little. Nope. – eds
This comic is in reference to The Ohio Student Religious Liberties Act of 2019 which, according to the Ohio ACLU is alarmingly vague and unnecessary. Among other things it says that teachers “shall not penalize or reward a student based on the religious content of a student’s work,” though it doesn’t clarify what, exactly, that means in practice. Critics say that a student may be able to claim in a science class that planet Earth is 6,000 years old and not be penalized for it. – eds Related link: https://www.acluohio.org/en/news/ohio-student-religious-liberties-act-explained

Politico

Political cartoon published in Politico

“Stop Protesting Police Brutality” was published on Politico on 6/12/20.

Kansas City Star

Political cartoon published in the Kansas City Star
Police in Overland Park, Kansas, arrested a 13-year-old girl in 2019 on felony charges of “violent threats” for making finger gun gestures in school.

 

No alternative text description for this image
Kansas State Senator Susan Wagle allegedly swapped her vote on casino slot machines in 2018 to win the friendship of Wichita native billionaire and Trump business partner Phil Ruffin, and then cited Ruffin as a reference on her application to Trump’s administration to become an ambassador to “a Catholic country.”

Wichita Eagle

No alternative text description for this image
Kansas State Senator Susan Wagle attempted to block Medicaid expansion in Kansas as retribution for the failure of a proposed anti-abortion amendment to the constitution in the state house.