Tara Tuttle, Ph.D.

Senior Lecturer

About Me

Tara M. Tuttle is a Senior Lecturer in the Lewis Honors College and previously served as the Assistant Dean of Diversity and Inclusion. She has a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary Humanities with an emphasis in 20th century American culture and a graduate certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Louisville, and an MA in Humanities from Indiana State University. Passionate about Honors education, she worked in the Honors Program at Indiana State University, taught Honors courses as affiliate faculty in the Honors Program at Ball State University, and developed the Honors Program at St. Catharine College before joining the faculty in the Lewis Honors College here at the University of Kentucky. Her research examines inclusive excellence in higher education and the intersections of gender, sexuality, and religion in contemporary U.S. culture. She is also the president of the Kentucky Honors Roundtable.

Ask Me About... 

• Gender and sexuality! These are my favorite topics to teach, research, and talk about. Social understandings (and misunderstandings) of gender and sexuality shape our experiences as individuals in society in big and small ways, and these understandings are always evolving.

• Social justice! Social responsibility, mutual respect, human dignity, diversity, and inclusivity are among our core values here in the Lewis Honors College. I feel strongly we all have an obligation to participate in the promotion of a more just society. I am interested in ways we can work to become conscious of and to eliminate bias and discrimination against othered, marginalized, historically excluded, and vulnerable members of our communities.

• Inclusive Excellence! As Co-Chair of the Lewis Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, I work to ensure that the programs, policies, and practices of the Lewis Honors College help attract, retain, affirm, and foster the full participation of all members of our community across differences in race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, age, socioeconomic status, religious affiliation, and other aspects of identity.

Research 

“Advancing DEI by Addressing Epistemic Injustice in the First-Year Interdisciplinary Foundations Seminar,” The New Honors: Advanced Learning for Today and Tomorrow, Ed. Graeme Harper, Cambridge Scholars, 2023. 

“Cultivating Institutional Change: Infusing Principles of DEI into Everyday Honors College Practices,” Honors Colleges in the 21st Century, Ed. Richard Badenhausen, National Collegiate Honors Council, 2023. Authored with Julie Stewart and Kayla Powell.

“Cultivating Delight, Crossing Divides, and Solving Impossible Problems: Lessons Learned from a Year of Virtual Conferences,” Chapter 9 of Honors Online: Teaching, Learning, and Building Community Virtually in Honors Education, Ed. Victoria Bryan and Cat Stanfield, National Collegiate Honors Council, 2023. Authored with Jon Blandford, Kathy J. Cooke, Erik Liddell, and Kathryn M. MacDonald. 

“The Dangers of “You Are Not Your Own”: How Purity Culture Props Up Rape Culture.” Hating Girls: Perspectives on Misogyny in Twenty-first Century America. Eds. Debra Myers and Mary Sue Barnett. Brill, 2021.  

“#NunsToo:  Media Coverage of Sexual Violence against Nuns and Sisters After #MeToo.” Crisis and Challenge in the Roman Catholic Church. Eds. Mary Sue Barnett and Debra Myers. Lexington Books, 2020. 147-168. 

“Responding to Gender and Sexual Identity Diversity in the College Classroom.” Cultural Competency Handbook. Ed. Timothy Forde. New Forums Press, 2018. 125-144.

“‘Deranged Vaginas’: Pussy Riot’s Feminist Hermeneutics.” The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 28.2-3 (2016): 67-80.

 “The Intersection of Dominican Values and Women’s and Gender Studies Pedagogy.” The Journal of Catholic Higher Education 35.1 (Winter2016): 65-79.

 “‘Barely in the Front Door’: Feminist Pedagogy Outside the Classroom.” Working for Social Justice Inside and Outside the Classroom: A Community of Teachers, Researchers, and Activists. Eds. E. Wayne Ross and Nancye McCrary. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2015. 231-238.

“Laborare est Orare: Starting a Gay-Straight Alliance at a Rural, Private Catholic College.” Gender and Diversity Issues in Religious-Based Institutions and Organizations. Eds. Theron Ford and Blanche Jackson Glimps. Advances in Religions and Cultural Studies (ARCS) Book Series. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2015. 124-136.

“Queering Country Music Autobiography: Chely Wright’s Like Me and the Performance of Authenticity.” Studies in Popular Culture 37.2 (Spring 2015): 67-86.

“Refusing the Fall: Blanche McCrary Boyd’s The Revolution of Little Girls and the Eden Myth.” The Notebook: A Journal for Women with Small Town and Rural Roots 4 (May 2015):43-50.

“The Dynamics of Allusion: Faulkner’s and Morrison’s Use of Genesis 1-3.” Faulkner and Morrison. Eds. Robert Hamblin and Chris Rieger. Cape Girardeau: The Center for Faulkner Studies, Southeast Missouri State University Press, 2013.

“Created Unequal?: Interpreting Hierarchies of Gender, Race, and Sexual Orientation in Genesis 1-3.” The Researcher XXII.2 (Spring 2009): 29-64.