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Associate Professor Richard Hutch

Honorary Associate Professor

School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
richard.hutch@uq.edu.au

Overview

Associate Professor Richard Hutch is an Honorary Associate Professor and Reader in Religion and Psychological Studies in the School of Historical and Philosopical Inquiry. His research interests include psychology of religion, sport and spirituality, self-narrations and life-writing, and death and dying.

His current research projects include:

  • The American Civil Rights Movement: A Personal Narrative
  • Sport, Spirituality and Productive Ageing
  • History and Phenomenology of Religion

TO NOTE: Richard Hutch presented the keynote address at a symposium on the American Civil Rights Movement held at Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in the United States on the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, 9 April 1865. It was also the 50th anniversary of the "Summer Community Organization and Political Education" project (SCOPE), which was sponsored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), founded and led by Martin Luther King, Jr. Richard volunteered for the SCOPE project in rural counties in Alabama and Louisiana in the summer of 1965. The project spearheaded a massive voter registration drive throughout the South after "Bloody Sunday," the violent racial conflict that occurred at the beginning of the Selma to Montgomery march on March 7th that year. Through the efforts of SCOPE volunteers and others, who often faced life-threatening incidents of racial violence (as Richard himself did), the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was finally passed by the American Congress and signed by the President in August. The keynote address at Gettysburg College presented Richard's experiences in the South during his harrowing time there. He was honoured by his alma mater on the occasion with the establishment of an archive in his name in the Musselman Library at Gettysburg College, including the journal he kept during his summer in the South and other unique materials from the Civil Rights Movement. It can be noted at the town of Gettysburg was the site where the Civil War "Battle of Gettysburg" took place in July, 1863. Northern Union troops pushed the Southern Confederate troops from their so-called "high-water mark" back south across the Mason-Dixon Line (which separated "slave" states from "free" states, and was drawn on maps just beyond the southern border of the state of Pennsylvania near Gettysburg). The battle represented the beginning of the end of the Civil War, with the final defeat of the Confederacy by Abraham Lincoln's Union Army two years later on 9 April, 1865 at 3:15 in the afternoon, when church bells rang out throughout the North.

Associate Professor Hutch was the Director of Studies for the Faculty of Arts (2001-05) and Head of the School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics (2005-08) at the University of Queensland. Before taking up his appointment at UQ in 1978, he was Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Southern Illinois University in the United States (1974-78). He graduated from Gettysburg College (BA, 1967), Yale University (BD, 1970) and the University of Chicago (MA, 1971; PhD, 1974).

Research Interests

  • Religious Experience in World Religions
  • American Civil Rights Movement: Personal Stories
  • Life Narration Studies
  • Sport and Spirituality
  • Death and Dying

Research Impacts

Social justice and healthy living are marks of human morality, an often overlooked but central pillar of daily life. My work asks how a person can be a constructive force for personal growth and social change, this in spite of the fear many people have about imagining wider than usual horizons for living. Assertions of human morality go beyond entrenched views. Pursuing freedom and justice can move current issues forward, such as comtroversies about race, religion, sexuality, gender and ageing.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of Chicago
  • Bachelor, Yale University
  • Bachelor of Arts, Gettysburg College

Publications

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Grants

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Supervision

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Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Converting mortal losses into vital gains – ‘Could be worse’...

    Hutch, Richard A. (2016). Converting mortal losses into vital gains – ‘Could be worse’.... Transforming Spirituality: Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of 'Studies in Spirituality'. (pp. 323-338) edited by Rossano Zas Friz de Col. Leuven, Belgium.: Peeters Publishers.

  • Attribution (Theory)

    Hutch, Richard (2015). Attribution (Theory). Vocabulary for the Study of Religion. (pp. 140-143) edited by Segal, Robert A. and Stuckrad, Kocku von. Leiden, Boston: Brill.

  • Solo sailing as spiritual practice: A phenmenology of mastery and failure at sea

    Hutch, Richard A. (2012). Solo sailing as spiritual practice: A phenmenology of mastery and failure at sea. Sailing : Philosophy for everyone : Catching the drift of why we sail. (pp. 36-46) edited by Patrick Allen Goold. Cichester, West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons.

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

    Hutch, R. A. (2003). Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). Dictionary of Literary Biography. American Philosophers before 1950. (pp. 103-119) edited by Philip B. Dematteis and Leemon McHenry. United States: Thompson Gale.

  • Heterosexuality

    Hutch, R. (2002). Heterosexuality. SPCK Dictionary of Pastoral Studies. (pp. 152) edited by Wesley Carr. London: The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

  • Beyond the Reach of a Miracle

    Hutch, R. A. (2001). Beyond the Reach of a Miracle. Psychohistory in Psychology of Religion: Interdisciplinary Studies. (pp. 113-136) edited by Jacob A. Belzen. Amsterdam - Atlanta GA: Rodopi.

  • Depersonalisation and the magic of deifying the body: Clinical notes on a political hostage

    Hutch, R. A. (1999). Depersonalisation and the magic of deifying the body: Clinical notes on a political hostage. Crossing the boundaries in psychology of religion: Case studies in cross-national and cross-denominational context. (pp. 61-80) edited by J. A. Belzen and J. Corveleyn. Abo, Norway: Abo Akademis University.

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Completed Supervision

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

Psychology and religion, Sport and religion, Civil rights, Race in American History

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

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ResearcherID: E-6550-2015

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