Hanson, Kristin Helweg

Kristin Helweg Hanson has an undergraduate degree in nursing and graduate degrees in education and religious studies. She earned her Ph.D. in Religion and a Certificate of Women’s Studies at Emory University in 2002. Since 2003, she has served as Adjunct Professor of world philosophies and religions at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Starting with preliminary field research in 1999 and continuing to the present, Kristin Helweg Hanson has been privileged to learn from Lutheran Inupiat in Anchorage and on the Seward Peninsula of Alaska.

Alaska Native (iÑupiaq) Translations and Transformation of Protestant Beliefs and Practices: A Case Study of How Religions Interact

2015 1-4955-0294-1
This work presents an initial conversation regarding how Iñupiaq culture affected or worked with the introduction of the Protestant faith. This fresh perspective provides a compelling metaphorical view of the process, not just as an assimilation of the other’s spiritual belief system, but views it as a “Gift exchange” between equally competent and equally important actors in an historically significant religious interaction.