���ճԹ�

Biography

Wendy Cadge, a nationally renowned expert in contemporary American spirituality and religion, is the 10th president of ���ճԹ�. She is leading two key initiatives focused on advancing the College’s mission and broadening its reach: developing a forward-thinking strategic vision and creating a comprehensive campus plan for the physical campus.  

A Public Intellectual

A sociologist by training, President Cadge is known for her work on religion in public institutions, religious diversity, and pluralism, and as a highly respected educator, scholar, and administrator. 

As a public intellectual, she has written more than one hundred scholarly and general interest articles, many in collaboration with students and colleagues across disciplines, and four books on issues related to spiritual care across settings, religion in hospitals, port chaplaincy, and Buddhism in the United States. Cadge launched the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab in 2018 to bring chaplains, educators, and social scientists into conversation about the work of chaplaincy and spiritual care. 

Numerous foundations and trusts have supported her research and teaching, including the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Fetzer Institute, Henry Luce Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, Lovell Foundation, Radcliffe Institute, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in Health Policy Research Program, Ruderman Family Foundation, Russell Berrie Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust, and The Charles H. Revson Foundation. 

Cadge is a member of the American Sociological Association (ASA), the American Academy of Religion (AAR), and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR). She is a founder and past chair of the Innovations in Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Program Unit of the AAR. She is a previous chair of the Religion Section and the Committee on Professional Ethics of the ASA. 

Academic Achievements and Leadership

Her published books include “Spiritual Care: The Everyday Work of Chaplains” (Oxford University Press, 2023), “Paging God: Religion in the Halls of Medicine” (University of Chicago Press, 2012), and “Heartwood: The First Generation of Theravada Buddhism in America” (University of Chicago Press, 2005). She is co-editor of “Introduction to Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care” (University of North Carolina Press, 2022) and “Religion on the Edge: De-Centering and Re-centering the Sociology of Religion” (Oxford University Press, 2013). With colleagues, she also authored “Chaplaincy and Seafarers: Faith at Work” (Oxford University Press, 2024).

At Brandeis University, Cadge held various leadership positions, including dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, senior associate dean for strategic initiatives, and chair of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality program. Her achievements there included centering the graduate student experience by rebuilding and expanding student professional development, collaborating to extend degree programs into new modalities, advancing the graduate school’s anti-racism plan, and reconnecting current students and alumni to celebrate the school’s 70th anniversary. She received the Thomas A. King Faculty Award from the Gender & Sexuality Center, the Dean of Art and Sciences Mentoring Award for Outstanding Teaching of Students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Michael Walzer '56 Award for Excellence in Teaching. She served on the Bowdoin College faculty from 2003-2006. 

She received her bachelor’s degree with high honors and majors in Sociology and Anthropology, and Religion, from Swarthmore College, her master’s and Ph.D. from Princeton University, and completed two years of postdoctoral work at Harvard University.