Tanya Walker
Senior Fellow, Rivendell Center for Theology and the Arts
Research Interests: Death Studies; Theology and the Arts; Memorial and Ephemeral Art; Frameworks of Interpretation
Since 2017, Dr. Walker has co-directed the Rivendell Center for Theology and the Arts (Rivendell Institute at Yale), overseeing initiatives which facilitate research and collaboration in the areas of literature and religion, and death and the arts.
Her research interests focus on the relationship between human and aesthetic mortalities and immortalities, with a particular interest in conceptions of loss and permanence, as expressed in memorial and ephemeral art (including the works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and Andy Goldsworthy). Her cross-disciplinary methodology and engagement with the arts is informed by examining the explicit and implicit frameworks through which the human experience is interpreted and expressed, with a specific emphasis on understandings of death in visual art and memorials. Her membership in the Association for the Study of Death and Society reflects these interdisciplinary interests, as well as her commitment to expanding dialogue between interlocutors from diverse areas of study and practice. She periodically teaches "Continuing Bonds with the Dead through Art" at Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Worship, and the Arts, Yale Divinity School.
Dr. Walker holds a Ph.D. in Divinity and an M.Litt. in Theology, Imagination and the Arts from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and a B.A. in French and English from Albion College, USA.
