Michael McNally ’85
John M. and Elizabeth W. Musser Professor of Religious Studies, Religion
Education & Professional History
Carleton College, BA; Harvard Divinity School, MDiv; Harvard University, AM, PhD
Michael D. McNally (Carleton, B.A.; Harvard, M.Div., M.A., Ph.D.), 2001-, teaches on American religion and culture and Native American traditions. Special interests include Indigenous traditions and the law, tradition and history of Minnesota’s Anishinaabe/Ojibwe people, and Indigenized Christianities. He is author of three books: Defend the Sacred: Native American Religious Freedom beyond the 1st Amendment (Princeton, 2020); Honoring Elders: Aging, Authority, and Ojibwe Religion (2009), and Ojibwe Singers: Hymns, Grief, and a Native Culture in Motion (2000), as well as book chapters, law review, and academic journal articles. At Carleton he is Director of the American Studies Program and Co-Director of Carleton’s 3-yr Mellon-funded Indigenous Engagement in Place Initiative. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017 for his work on Native religions and law.
At Carleton since 2001.
Highlights & Recent Activity
Guggenheim Fellowship (2017-18)
Defend the Sacred: Native American Religious Freedom beyond the 1st Amendment (Princeton U.Press, 2020)
Honoring Elders: Aging, Authority, and Ojibwe Religion (Columbia U. Press, 2009)
Ojibwe Singers: Hymns, Grief & a Native Culture in Motion (Oxford, 2000; repr. MN Hist. Soc. Press, 2009)
ReligionsMN.org: Co-Director of ongoing public scholarship project on religious diversity in MN.
Sacred Minnesota: Project Advisor to 4-part documentary short partnership with Twin Cities Public Television (Spring, 2021)