Participant Info

First Name
Gina
Last Name
Zurlo
Country
United States
State
MA Massachusetts
Affiliation
Boston University
Website URL
www.ginazurlo.com
Keywords
religion, world Christianity, mission, demography, sociology of religion, history, quantitative studies, women, United States, Africa, Asia, Latin America
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

My scholarship is interdisciplinary in nature, intersecting history, sociology, and World Christianity. As a historian, I’ve investigated the 20th-century shift of Christianity to the global South, especially the demographic trends and women’s involvement in Christian communities. One of my latest books – From Nairobi to the World: David B. Barrett and the Re-Imagining of World Christianity – chronicled the role of quantification in shaping public understandings of religion in a post-Christendom world.

I also work in women’s and gender studies, and am the first demographer of religion to uncover women’s share of church membership down to the denominational level in every country of the world. Check out my book on the subject, Women in World Christianity: Building and Sustaining a Global Movement.

In 2019, I was named one of the BBC’s 100 most inspiring and influential women of the year for my work quantifying the religious future, and women’s roles in it.

Recent Publications

Women in World Christianity: Building and Sustaining a Global Movement (Wiley-Blackwell, 2023)

From Nairobi to the World: David B. Barrett and the Re-Imagining of World Christianity (Brill, 2023)

Global Christianity: A Guide to the World’s Largest Religion from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe (Zondervan Academic, 2022)

World Christian Encyclopedia, 3rd edition (Edinburgh University Press, 2019)

Media Coverage
The Conversation, BBC, New York Times, Christianity Today, Pew Research Center, Newsweek, CNN
Country Focus
Expertise by Geography
Africa, Asia, Latin America, United States
Expertise by Chronology
20th century, 21st century
Expertise by Topic
Colonialism, Gender, Migration & Immigration, Religion, Women