Dr. Michelle M. Lelwica

Dr. Michelle Lelwica is a professor of religion at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, where she teaches courses on the intersection of religion, gender, race, culture, and the body.

She did her graduate work at Harvard Divinity School, where she received a Master of Theological Studies in Christianity and culture (1989) and a Doctorate of Theology in religion, gender, and culture (1996). 

She is the author of “Hurting Kids: What Incarcerated Youth Are Teaching Me about Whiteness, Compassion, Accountability, and Healing” (Cascade, 2024); “Shameful Bodies: Religion and the Culture of Physical Improvement” (Bloomsbury, 2017); “The Religion of Thinness: Satisfying the Spiritual Hungers behind Women’s Obsession with Food and Weight” (Gürze Press, 2009); and “Starving for Salvation: The Spiritual Dimensions of Eating Problems among American Girls and Women” (Oxford University Press, 1999), as well as scholarly articles, popular blogs, and podcasts interviews on topics ranging from women’s conflicted relationships with their bodies, to the benefits of mindfulness practice, to the challenges facing justice-involved youth, to the value of embodied pedagogy for deep learning.

Lelwica is the mother of two young adult men and enjoys spending time in the natural world when she is not working.

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