Dr. Wesley N. Barker

Education

• B.A., Emory University
• M.T.S., Duke University
• Ph.D., Religion, Emory University

Dr. Barker joined Mercer University’s College of Professional Advancement in 2013. Dr. Barker earned a Ph.D. with a concentration on Comparative Literature and Religion from Emory University. She holds a Master of Theological Studies degree from Duke University and graduate certificates in Women’s and Gender Studies from both Emory and Duke. Dr. Barker’s love for teaching is evident in the energy she brings to a classroom; her intensity and expressiveness in the classroom are balanced by her sense of humor, approachability, and genuine concerns for her students.

Courses taught

Dr. Barker teaches a wide range of courses in gender studies, liberal studies, literary studies, and religious studies. She has also lead students in service-learning trips abroad to India and Morocco.

Research and professional interests

Dr. Barker’s scholarship examines the intersections of feminist literary theory, Continental philosophy, and religious ethics. Her monograph, Desire Beyond Identity: Irigaray and the Ethics of Embodiment is forthcoming with SUNY Press. She has multiple forthcoming and ongoing projects, including a second co-edited volume under review. Dr. Barker also presents and publishes in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and served as STIRS Fellow for the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). As part of her commitment to the profession, Dr. Barker has held multiple leadership roles within scholarly organizations, including serving as President of the Southeast Region of the American Academy of Religion. She currently serves as a member of the Executive Committee for the Luce Irigaray Circle philosophical society and as a unit co-chair for the American Academy of Religion.

Areas of Specialization

• Philosophy of Religion
• Continental Philosophy and Ethics
• Feminist Philosophy
• Critical Theory
• Political Theology

Recent publications

Dr. Barker recently submitted her monograph, Desire Beyond Sexual Difference: Ethics, Politics, and the “Anatomy” of Alterity in Irigaray, for publication.  Dr. Barker is currently co-editing a special issue of the journal of Body and Religion that focuses on embodiment in Irigaray’s work and its significance for religious studies. As part of her ongoing work with the Irigaray Circle, Dr. Barker is also co-editing a collection of essays, Thresholds of Difference: Irigaray and Beyond. In addition to the peer reviewed publications listed below, Dr. Barker contributed multiple entries and a lead-in article to editors George Thomas Kurian and Mark A. Lamport’s Encyclopedia of Christian Education (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).

• Barker, Wesley N. “An Ethic of Lips: Beyond the Wounding of Desire” in Ruthanne Crapo Kim, Yvette Russell, and Brenda Sharp, eds. Horizons of Difference: Rethinking Space, Place and Identity with Irigaray (SUNY, 2022).
• Barker, Wesley N. “Thresholds of Touch: Revisiting the Mat(t)er of the Body in the Work of Luce Irigaray.” Journal of Body and Religion Vol. 4., No. 1 (2020).
• Bobby Jacob, Tuong-Vi Huynh, Annesha White, Angela Shogbon Nwaesei, Robyn Lorys, Wesley Barker, Jeffrey Hall, Lucy Bush and W. Loyd Allen. “A Comparison of First Year Student Pharmacists and Nursing Students on Spirituality and Perceptions Regarding the Role of Spirituality in Professional Education.” American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education84.9 (2020).
•  Barker, Wesley N. “Is the Mother Other? Desire and the Ethics of Maternality.” Theology & Sexuality, 19.3 (2013).

Contact Dr. Barker

678.547.6029
barker_wn@mercer.edu