Susan Pitchford

Susan Pitchford is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology. She received her BA, MA and PhD in sociology from the University of Washington, as well as an ASN in nursing from Oakwood College. Her courses include Introduction to Sociology, American Race and Ethnic Relations, Public Schooling in America and Comparative Social Problems. Additional, she leads study abroad programs: She currently teaches a sociology of religion program in Rome ("Christianity in Rome: Church vs. Empire, Church as Empire") every other year. She has also taught programs in Zimbabwe and South Africa (on sustainable development), and Belfast (on conflict and conflict resolution). 

Pitchford's research has focused on how subordinated and stigmatized peoples use museums and other tourist attractions to tell their stories. Identity Tourism: Imaging and Imagining the Nation (Emerald 2008) examines the use of these attractions to create and project a revalued national identity. Her other, nonacademic books (Following Francis [Morehouse 2006] and God in the Dark [Liturgical Press 2011]) focus on spirituality. Her current project (The Sacred Gaze: Contemplation and the Healing of the Self [Liturgical Press 2014]) links the social psychology of identity to the Christian contemplative tradition. Pitchford is also a regular contributor to Give Us This Day, a Catholic periodical.