Skylar Ray
Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in History
Education
Ph.D., History, Baylor University
M.A., History, Baylor University
B.A., summa cum laude in History and Spanish, Oral Roberts University
Academic Interests & Research Narratives
Broadly, I specialize in the religious and cultural history of the 20th century United States. My dissertation—“Healing Minds, Saving Souls: Evangelicals and Mental Health in the Age of the Therapeutic"—examined the evangelical relationship to modern psychology and its therapeutic function in treating issues of mental health.
Exam Fields: American religious history; United States since 1877; Christianity in Latin America (minor teaching field).
Selected Publications
Book Chapters
“‘Wonderfully Ecumenical’?: The Southern Baptist Convention, the Mainline, and 1960s Social Concern.” Baptists and the Kingdom of God: Global Perspectives through Four Interpretive Lenses, eds. T. Laine Scales and Beth Allison Barr, Baylor University Press [forthcoming 2023]
“motive Magazine and the Ambiguity of Denominational Journalism in the Twentieth Century United States,” Protestant Periodicals in Transition: From the Twentieth Century to the Digital Age, edited by Anja-Maria Bassimir and Stefan Gelfgren Brill’s Studies in Periodical Culture Series [forthcoming 2023]
Co-author, “Protestantism and American Culture from the Vietnam War to 9/11,” Cambridge Companion to American Protestantism, edited by Jason Vickers, Cambridge University Press, 2022.
Encyclopedia Entries
“Renewal Movements in Mainline Protestantism.” In American Religious History: Belief and Society Through Time, edited by Gary Scott Smith. Vol. 3. ABC-CLIO, 2020.
Book Reviews
“The World Come of Age,” Book Reviews, Society for United States Intellectual History, November 2018.
“The Future of Mainline Protestantism in America,” Reading Religion, American Academy of Religion Book Forum, July 2018.
Selected Online and Trade Publications
“Arvizu v. Waco Independent School District,” Waco History app and website, June 2018.
“Marvin C. Griffin,” Waco History app and website, August 2019.
Additional Waco History posts, including oral history interviews and visual source material, can be found at wacohistory.org.
“The Pulse of Waco Medicine: On the 150th anniversary of the McLennan County Medical Society, local doctors reflect on their careers and changes in the field.” Waco Heritage and History. Volume 42 (Spring 2016): 5-8.
Selected Activities
Awards
Fall 2022 Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award Nominee
2019 Scholar, Baptist Scholars International Roundtable, Regents Park College, Oxford University, July 1-4, 2019
Second place, Modern and Contemporary Research Seminar Graduate Student Paper Contest, Baylor University, September 2018
Outstanding Senior Paper, Oral Roberts University Department of History, 2014
Fellowships
Recipient of the Baylor University Graduate School’s Summer Dissertation Fellowship, 2021
Graduate School Fellowship, Baylor University, 2017-2022
Grants
Recipient of the Lynn E. May, Jr. Study Grant, Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, 2021
Courses Taught
Adjunct Faculty for BIC 2344 | World Cultures IV, Baylor Interdiciplinary Core, Baylor Honors College, Spring 2023
Teacher of Record for HIS 1300 | U.S. in Global Perspective, Fall 2021 - Fall 2022
Teacher of Record for HIS 1366 | U.S. History Since 1877, Spring 2021