Emily Nelms Chastain

American Religious History; Historiography, Long 19th Century, 20th-21st Century, American Methodism; World Christianity, Historiography, Methodology, American Christianity and Mission History, Global and Transnational Evangelicalism, Global/Worldwide Methodism; Women's Religious History, Feminist Methodology and Theology, Feminism and Women in Religion, Women's Ordination, Women and Methodism

:: Book review for Reading Religion, December 2024

:: "Break[ing] the System: How the Methodist Student Movement Motivated a Generation Into Challenging Their Denominational Polity of Segregation." Wesley and Methodist Studies, Forthcoming (Fall 2024)

:: Book review:"The Practice of Mission in Global Methodism: Emerging Trends from Everywhere to Everywhere, Reading Religion", eds. David Scott and Darryl Stephens, January 2024

:: “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories"; General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, 8-part series on newly elected women bishops in the UMC, March 2023

:: “Parity Among Methodist Clergy"; General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, September 13, 2022

:: "Connexionalism Vital to Continued Ministry of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women"; General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, June 9, 2022

:: "Sexual Ethics Remains Vital to the United Methodist Church"; General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, April 29, 2022

:: "Clergywomen Promote Hope and Healing"; General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, March 30, 2022

:: "Laywomen Promote Hope and Healing"; General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, March 18, 2022

:: "Deaconesses Promote Hope and Healing"; General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, March 4, 2022 

:: "The Foremothers of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women"; General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, February 28, 2022

:: "The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women: Advocating for Women for 50 Years"; General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, January 31, 2022

:: "The Multifaceted Nature of Progressive Theology"; Emerging Methodism, Kuan, Jeffrey Kah-Jin, Emily Nelms Chastain, and Erin Grasse; July 30, 2019

Conferences & Presentations

:: Panel: The Perils and Promises of Institutions - Protestant Women, Mission, and Reform in the Guilded Age through the mid-20th Century, American Society of Church History,“Redefining Boundaries: Jeanne Audrey Powers, Inclusivity, and American Methodism”; Presenter, Chicago, IL, January 2025 

:: Wesleyan-Methodist Studies Unit, “The Reception History of the Wesleys,” American Academy of Religion, “Reviving the Radical: The Legacy of the Methodist Student Movement within Wesleyan Tradition”; Presenter, San Diego, CA, November 2024

:: Wesleyan-Methodist Studies Unit, American Academy of Religion, "All the World’s My Syllabus: Necessary Adjustments to Methodist Studies Curriculum in a Globalized Church”; Co-Presenter, San Antonio, TX, November 2023

:: History, Practice, and Theory Roundtable, Wesleyan Theological Society, “Methodical Medical Missions: A Wesleyan Consideration of Global Health Practices in Recent History”; Asbury Theological Seminary, March 2023

:: Historical Studies II Session, Wesleyan Theological Society, “The Francis Burns Effect: How a Transnational Missionary Transformed the Liberian Methodist Mission”; Asbury Theological Seminary, March 2023

:: 2022 Writing Collective, Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Sexuality, “Advancing A New “Woman Question:’ M. Madeline Southard’s Diligent Advocacy for the Ecclesiastical Status of Women Preachers”; University of Rochester, October 2023

:: Podcast Guest, Un-Tied Methodism (General Commission on Archives and History),“Methodist Women in History”; May 2022

:: History III Session, History Graduate Student Association Conference, “Advancing A New “Woman Question:’ M. Madeline Southard’s American Association of Women Preachers and Their Push for Women’s Right to the Pulpit”; University of California, Irvine, April 2022

:: Theology and History Session, Boisi Center’s Graduate Conference; “Three Simple Rules: How Birmingham Methodists Conveyed a Wesleyan Theological Framework and Reframed Their Practices to Save Lives From Both Cholera and Influenza”; Boston College's Boisi Center (Virtual), February 2021

:: Women, Gender, and Religion Session, Southeast Commission on the Study of Religion (AAR Southeast Region); “Shattering the Stained-Glass Ceiling: How Women in the Southeast Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church Reached and Influenced the Region’s Highest Office”; University of Georgia, February 2020

• Member, The North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church (Deacon in Full Connection)
• Board Director, General Commission on the Status and Role of Women (The United Methodist Church)
• Alpha Alpha Alpha Honor Society, Boston University, 2021
• Jeanne Audrey Powers Award, Claremont School of Theology, 2019
• Editorial Board, Vulcan Historical Review, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2007-2008
• Phi Alpha Theta (Chi Omicron), University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2007