Margaret Berry

Margaret is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History. Her dissertation, tentatively titled, “On These Rocks I Will Build My Church: Sir Arnold Lunn, Dolores LaChapelle, and the Making of Modern Mountain Spirituality, 1888-2007” explores the religious conversions of English alpinist Sir Arnold Lunn (1888-1974) and American alpinist Dolores LaChapelle (1926-2007) to illuminate the relationship between mountain experience and religion in the twentieth century West. She argues that modern mountain sports not only became secularized replacement religions for middle- and upper-class urbanites but also pathways for returning to and reimagining orthodox traditions.

 

Margaret’s teaching interests are broad, including modern American and British religious history, Catholic Studies, the American West, environmental history, and sport history.

 

Before pursuing her doctoral studies, Margaret worked as a high school teacher and field instructor in Montana, Massachusetts, and Wyoming. She also holds a B.A. from Williams College and an M.A. in Teaching from Montana State University.