Dr. Joy Palacios
Positions
Associate Professor
Contact information
Web presence
Background
Educational Background
B.A. Comparative History of Ideas , University of Washington, 2001
Ph.D. Performance Studies, University of California, 2012
Biography
My research focuses on the way large organizations, such as churches and businesses, use performance and ritual to foster modes of devotion that generate authority, maintain institutions, and forge communities. Highly interdisciplinary in nature, my research consists of two streams, one historical and the other ethnographic.
In Ceremonial Splendor: Performing Priesthood in Early Modern France (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022), I used archival methods and performance theory to study priestly training and liturgical practice in early modern France (1630-1730) to better understand how the Catholic Church sought to renew its authority by differentiating priests from actors, masses from plays, and the Church from the state. My next early modern projects explore “modesty” as a bodily experience, a mode of religious expression, and a strategy for encountering the unknown in New France, and the organizational structures developed by early modern religious communities.
Prompted by the observation that in a capitalist economy brand affiliation bears a resemblance to religious faith, my second stream of research examines the way big businesses use performance and ritual to help people connect to their mission. Supported by an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, this project, entitled, “Business Ritualization: Religious Performance in Corporate North America,” uses ethnographic observation and interviews to examine how, when, and why North American corporations use rituals to coordinate the behavior of their employees and partners and bind people to the organization.
Research
Participation in university strategic initiatives
Courses
| Course number | Course title | Semester |
|---|---|---|
| RELS 205 LEC 01 01 | Religion and the Good Life | 2021 |
| RELS 309 LEC 01 01 | Religious Experience | 2021 |
| RELS 335 LEC 01 01 | Ritual and Religion | 2020 |
Publications
- Sermonic Performance as Cultural Protest in New France. Joy Palacios. Performance, Religion, and Spirituality. Vol. 1, number 1, pages 43-65. (2017)
- Actors, Christian Burial, and Space in Early Modern Paris. Joy Palacios. Past and Present . Vol. 232, number 1, pages 127-163. (2016)
- Talking with the Religious ‘Other’: Returning to a Concept of the Sacred in Performance Studies.”. Joy Palacios. Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies. Vol. 5, number 1, pages 1-19. (2009)
- Antitheatrical Prejudice: From Parish Priest to Diocesan Rituals in Early Modern France. Joy Palacios. Theatre Survey . 1-33. (2023)
- Ceremonial Splendor: Performing Priesthood in Early Modern France. Joy Palacios. University of Pennsylvania Press. (2022)
- Public Acts of Private Devotion: From Silent Prayer to Ceremonies in France’s Early Seminaries. Joy Palacios. Performing Religion in Public: Acts of Faith in the Public Sphere, eds. Joshua Edelman, Claire Chambers, and Simon du Toit (New York: Palgrave Macmillan). 49-70. (2013)
- Liturgie, théâtralité du zèle et habits ecclésiastiques au XVIIe siècle. Joy Palacios. Critique du zèle: Fidélités et radicalités confessionnelles dans la modernité (France, XVIe – XVIIIe siècles), eds. Chrystel Bernat and Frédéric Gabriel (Paris: Éditions Beauchesne). 109-125. (2013)
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