Amanda J.G. Napior
Assistant Director of Religious & Spiritual Life (She/Her/Hers)
[email protected]
508-286-3689
Office location: Cole Memorial Chapel R017
Operating hours: Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Amanda Napior supports religious literacy and social justice education, community dialogue, and myriad religious, spiritual, multicultural, and interfaith student groups at Wheaton College. She comes to Wheaton with an eclectic background as a religion scholar working in critical prison studies, as a teacher of writing and spiritual care, and if you go back far enough, as a hairstylist. As a scholar-practitioner, Amanda is passionate about creating inclusive and collaborative learning spaces through reflexivity, ritual, and play and leans on her training in ethnography, conflict mediation, and feminist, antiracist pedagogy to foster curiosity and connection. For inspiration, Amanda draws from the long history of religiously-motivated movements for collective liberation, led most often by directly-impacted people.
Amanda holds a doctorate in religious studies and a certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Boston University, an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School, and a BA in religion from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She has published widely for scholarly and general audiences, for anthropologists and trauma-informed yoga teachers. In her “spare” time, Amanda can be found finishing her book manuscript, painting or tiling something, and trail running with her fearsome, 33-lb Corgi-Jack-Pit.