Dr. Bettina Tate Pedersen is professor of literature at PLNU, where she teaches British and world literature, women writers, literary theory, and academic writing. She also teaches in the interdisciplinary women’s studies minor program and the honors program. She served as LJWL Department chair from 2011 – 2014 and as literature section head for many years. Pedersen completed her doctorate at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1997. She is co-author/editor, with Allyson Jule, of Being Feminist, Being Christian (Palgrave 2006, pbk. 2008) and Facing Challenges: Feminism in Christian Higher Education and Other Places (Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2015). She has published essays on 19th century British and Canadian women writers, teaching and the liberal arts, and feminism. Her research interests are focused on the relationship between feminism and Christianity in contemporary America evangelical contexts and on British women writers from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. She is currently at work on a book, Feminism Christianity and Me, and a chapbook of poems about grief. She was a professional choral and solo musician for many years. Her spouse, Keith, is on faculty in the Department of Music at PLNU. They have two sons: Kai, who graduated from PLNU in political science in 2016, and Soren, who graduated in 2022 in music and psychology.
Education
- Ph.D., English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- M.A., English, Temple University
- B.A., English-Education, Northwest Nazarene College
Courses Taught
- Literary Theory and Scholarship – LIT 4095
- The English Novel – LIT 449/4050
- Victorian Literature – LIT 4047
- Romantic Literature – LIT 4046
- Women Writers – LIT 3053
- World Literature – LIT 3050
- British Writers II – LIT 2055
- Literary Analysis - LIT 3000
- Introduction to the Study of Literature – LIT 250
- English Grammar and Usage - LIN 3065
- College Composition: Writing & Research – WRI 1010
- Foundations in Humanities II: Renaissance/Enlightenment – HON 2020
Experience in Field
PUBLICATIONS
Pedersen B.T. (2021) Mozley, Anne. In: Scholl L. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women's Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. http://ncgsjournal.com/issue171/PDFs/pedersen.pdf
Tate Pedersen, Bettina. “Collaboration and Community Building with Print and Digital Platforms in the Remote Classroom.” Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies, vol. 17, no. 1, 2021, http://ncgsjournal.com/issue171/PDFs/pedersen.pdf
- Facing Challenges: Feminism in Christian Higher Education and Other Places. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK, 2015. Co-edited/authored with Allyson Jule.
- Being Feminist, Being Christian: Essays from Academia. Palgrave. June 2006. (Paperback, April 2008). Co-edited/authored with Allyson Jule.
- “Wollstonecraft’s Wrongs of Woman to Stoker’s Dracula: You’ve Come a Long Way Baby, or Have You?” Bram Stoker and the Gothic: Formations to Transformations. Palgrave Gothic Series. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
- “What Does a Woman Look Like? Reflections on the Multiple, Messy, and Mutating.” Results May Vary: Christian Women Reflect on Post-College Life. Edited by Linda Beail and Sylvia Cortez Masyuk. San Diego, CA: Point Loma Press Series and Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2013. pp. 86-93.
- “Are We Doomed? Why Christian Colleges and Universities Must Lead on the Issue of Gender Equity and Why They Don’t.” The Christian College Phenomenon: Inside America’s Fastest Growing Institutions of Higher Learning. Edited by Samuel Joeckel and Thomas Chesnes. Abilene Christian University Press, 2012. pp. 253-69. Co-authored with Allyson Jule, Professor of Education, Trinity Western University, Langley, BC Canada.
- “Suicidal Logic: Melancholy/Depression in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.” Victorian Gothic: Leeds Centre Working Papers in Victorian Studies 6 (2003): 110-123. Rpt. Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism: Criticism of the Works of Novelists, Philosophers, and Other Creative Writers Who Died between 1800 and 1899, from the First Published Critical Appraisals to Current Evaluations. Edited by Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker. Vol. 165. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2006. 150-57.
- “And That I Should Teach Tolerance.” Profession. New York: MLA, 2001. December 2001.
- “Annie Louisa Walker.” Dictionary of Literary Biography. Edited by William B. Thesing. Vol. 240. Gale Group, 2001. pp. 299-307.
- “Complicating Gender: Contrastive Rhetoric and Reader Response in Teaching Victorian Prose Works.” Nineteenth-Century Prose 26.2 (Fall 1999): 24-36.
- “Gendered and Regional Constructions of National Identity in the Post-Confederation Fiction of Maritime Women Writers (1867-1900).” The Proceedings of the 6th International Literature of Region & Nation Conference. Edited by Winnifred M. Bogaards. 2 vols. University of New Brunswick, 1998. pp. 129-42.
Professional and Community Involvement
- Professional Memberships – Literature: Modern Language Association (MLA), Bronte Studies, Conference on Christianity and Literature (CCL)
- Professional Memberships – Feminism and Christianity: Christian Feminism Today/Evangelical Ecumenical Women's Caucus (EEWC), Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE)
- Professional Memberships – Women's Studies: American Association of University Women (AAUW)
- Conference Co-Organizer: CCL 2004, CCCU Gender Conferences: Point Loma Nazarene University, 2008; Abilene Christian University, 2010
- Community – Guest Lecturer for the Osher Institute at UCSD, 2015, 2016, and 2018
- Community – Served as Choral Member, Section Leader, and Soloist at La Jolla Presbyterian Church, 2001 – 2014
Dissertations, Presentations, and Publications
PRESENTATIONS
Women Together Series, “Reading Women Writers, Reading Scripture with Dr. Bettina Tate Pedersen,” November 4, 2021, St. Paul’s Cathedral Episcopal, San Diego, CA.
Featured Academic Writer for Writer’s Symposium by the Sea. Point Loma Nazarene University. March 25, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDXTWorYsLs
“Women Reformed, Women Resistant: Our Long Story” Women and Christianity: A History of Faith, Struggle, and Valor Lecture, March 26, 2019, Crill Hall, Point Loma Nazarene University. San Diego, CA.
RESEARCH
- Sabbatical, fall 2018
- Wesley Fellow, fall 2015 (6 units), spring 2018 (6 units)
- Wesley Scholar, fall 2012 (3 units) and spring 2013 (3 units)
- RASP Grant, fall 2014, spring 2012, fall 2004
- Sabbatical, fall 2007 (12 units)
- Wesleyan Center Summer Scholar Grant, summer 2004
- Wesleyan Center Summer Scholar Grant, summer 2003
- Wesleyan Center Summer Scholar Grant, summer 2002
