Kathleen Holscher is assistant professor of religious studies and American studies, and holds the endowed chair in Catholic studies, at the University of New Mexico. She completed her graduate work at Princeton University, and her undergraduate degree at Swarthmore College. She is originally from Northwest Indiana, and currently lives in Albuquerque with her husband Alonso and her dog Rafa.

"Kathleen Holscher...tackles one of the most controversial domestic policy disputes related to religion and the public sphere in the mid-twentieth-century United States in this well-informed and thought-provoking study. ... [An] eclectic mix of sources allows Holscher to give voice to the men, women, and even children whose stories fill the pages of this insightful book." --Journal of American History

"Holscher brings to life northern New Mexico, the classroom, and courtroom through detailed descriptions and diverse sources. She fills a gap on the study of American Catholic education and women religious in the pre-1950 era, when the restrictions of convent life contrasted with the flexibility of the classroom... Holscher's Religious Lessons would benefit library shelves and graduate courses on cross-cultural studies, legal history, U.S. education, American religion, and the history of women religious." --American Catholic Studies

"A lucid and engaging presentation of a complex event... Drawing on a plethora of Catholic and Protestant primary sources, conducting personal interviews, examining newspapers, and delving deeply into legal records, trial transcripts, and constitutional law, Holscher crafted an impressive analytical narrative... an outstanding book." --The Catholic Historical Review

"In this beautifully-written account of a game-changing lawsuit that began in a remote northern New Mexico community, Kathleen Holscher explores the many human dimensions of hard-fought issues of church and state after World War II. Holscher's capacity to bring a sympathetic yet analytically keen eye to her subjects makes Religious Lessons a great read as well as a rediscovery of key debates about religion in public education at mid-century."--Sarah Barringer Gordon, author of The Spirit of the Law: Religious Voices and the Constitution in Modern America

"In Religious Lessons Kathleen Holscher makes church-state jurisprudence a matter of rich cultural history. From the tangle of Catholic sisters teaching in New Mexico's public schools, Holscher discloses a national drama that galvanized proponents of Jefferson's wall of separation in the late 1940s and 1950s. That larger story is astutely told, even as the tangible habits-religious and educational-of rural village life are beautifully evoked."--Leigh E. Schmidt, Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, Washington University in St. Louis

"This wonderful book demonstrates just how important the 'Dixon' case in New Mexico, and the broader mid-twentieth-century controversy over 'captive schools,' were for the history of church-state relations in America. Even more, Holscher teaches us to see how a contested legal principle-the separation of church and state-was negotiated in the daily lives of her subjects. Blending innovative approaches from legal and religious history, Religious Lessons will change the way you think about the history it tells."--Tisa Wenger, author of We Have a Religion: The Pueblo Indian Dance Controversy and American Religious Freedom