Resume

Publications

Katherine R. Ranum. Hearing the Gospel in a Silent World: Faith, Disability, and Anomalous Bodies in the British Atlantic, 1680-1860. University of Illinois Press (under contract).

Katherine R. Ranum, “Hearing the Gospel in a Silent World: Understanding the Intersection of Theology, Disability and Religious Practice in the Early Modern British Atlantic,” 2021 Annual Proceedings of the Dublin Folklife Seminar, 2021: ­­­­­­­­­­­­­Living with Disabilities in New England, 1630-1930 (Deerfield, MA: Deerfield Seminar for New England Folklife) 2024.

 Katherine R. Ranum, “Accepting Hospitality.” Fides et Historia 54.2 (Summer/ Fall 2022): 125-126.

Katherine R. Ranum, “The Jews of Eighteenth-Century Jamaica: Review,” American Jewish Archives Journal 74.1&2 (2022): 147-150.

Katherine R. Ranum, “Bosom Friends: Review,” Ohio Valley Journal (Winter, 2022).

Awards and Honors

Dissertation Award, Ohio Academy of History, 2024

Outstanding Dissertation in Disability History Prize, University of Illinois Press,  2023.

Dean’s Dissertation Completion Fellowship, University of Cincinnati, 2021-2022

Taft Competitive Dissertation Fellowship, Taft Research Center, UC, 2020-2021

John K. Alexander Teaching Award, UC, 2020

Zane Miller Award: First Prize for Original Graduate Research, UC, 2018

Niehoff Fellowship, UC, 2017-2018

Zane Miller Award: First Prize for Original Graduate Research, UC, 2017

Phi Alpha Theta: History Honor Society, 2016

Conferences and Roundtable Presentations

North American Conference on British Studies Baltimore, MD (November 2023) Presenter: “Paid Labor and Religious Work in the New York Hospital and Almshouse, 1811-1813.”

North American Conference on British Studies, Chicago, IL (November 2022) Presenter: “Dialectics of Hearing and Seeing in the Journals of Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely, 1811-1813.”

Conference on Faith and History, Baylor University, Waco, TX – Invited (March 2022) Panelist: "Faith at State? Combining Faith, Teaching, and Scholarship at Public Universities and Other Secular Institutions."

Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife “Living with Disabilities, 1600-1900,” Historic Deerfield, Inc., Deerfield, MA (June 2021) Presenter: “Hearing the Gospel in a Silent Word: Disability, Gender and Religion in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1630-1684.”

Remains of the Body: Legacy and Memory of Bodies in World Culture, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK (May 2021) Presenter: “Turning Faces Away from Heaven: The Religious Meaning and Cultural Uses of Prone Burial and Iron Grave Goods in Christian North America.”

Midwest American Academy of Religion, Ball State University, Muncie, IN – Invited (May 2021) Round table member, “How do Scholars Change Institutions that Normalize Inequality?”

Conference on Faith and History Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI (October 2018) “Hearing the Gospel in a Silent Word: Disability, Gender and Religion in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1630-1684.”

Photo by Stephen Michael Hanna, 2022.

Public History Work

Ohio History Connection, Speaker, “The ‘Ghost’ Hospital of Rohs Hill,” Fright at the Museum (October 25, 2025), Columbus, Ohio.

University Christian Church, Host, “The ‘Ghost’ Hospital of Rohs Hill: Panel on Local History, Medical Ethics and Power” (November 1, 2024) Cincinnati, Ohio. Link to audio.

Ohio History Connection, Speaker, “The ‘Ghost’ Hospital of Rohs Hill,” Fright at the Museum (October 19, 2024) Columbus, Ohio.

Shaker Historical Society, Tour Guide of Warrensville West Historic Cemetery (October 14, 2023) Cleveland, Ohio.

Shaker Historical Society, Speaker, “The Afterlife of Cemeteries: Understanding the Shakers, the Victorians, and American Death Culture,” (March 15, 2023) Cleveland, Ohio. Link to video.

Defiance College, Krieger Visiting Scholar on Religious Studies, Speaker, “Circumcising the Dead: Post-Mortem Circumcision, Jewish Identity, and Authority in the British Atlantic in the 1830s” (February 27, 2023) Defiance, Ohio.

Ohio History Connection, Speaker, “Faces Turned Away from Heaven: A Strange Case of Deviant Burial in Antebellum Ohio” (October 29, 2022) Columbus, Ohio.

Interviews

Alyssa Babajas, “How a Baby Boy Divided a Prominant Synagogue in 1830s Philadelphia,” The Crescent-News (March 9, 2023).

Erin Michel, “Katherine Ranum Uncovers the Past in Cincinnati and Beyond,” GradCurrents, University of Cincinnati (2022).

Joseph Frey, “UC Research Sheds Light on Historically Marginalized Communities,” (May 12, 2022).