Jill DeTemple, PhD

Essential Partners Academic Associate Dr. Jill DeTemple is Chair of Religious Studies, Professor of Religious Studies, and, by courtesy, Professor of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

Her research focuses on religiously sponsored development in Latin America and on the uses of dialogue for teaching in higher education.  She is currently working on two projects. The first is a book that examines the risks of social capital approaches to development, especially when they are based in religious and gendered identities, due to release with the University of Notre Dame Press in March, 2020. The second is an edited volume that introduces Reflective Structured Dialogue and attendant approaches to dialogic classrooms in postsecondary contexts.

Dr. DeTemple's research has been supported by the John Templeton Foundation, the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, the American Academy of Religion, the Tinker Foundation, and the General Board for Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church.

She has taught courses on Religious Literacy; Social Scientific Approaches to the Study of Religion; Identity and the Sacred in the Southwest; and Religion, Gender, and International Economic Development, among other topics. 

Dr. DeTemple is also the winner of the 2018 Award for Teaching Excellence from the American Academy of Religion.