Jenna Supp-Montgomerie earned a PhD in religious studies with a certificate in cultural studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds a joint appointment in Religious Studies and Communication Studies at the University of Iowa. Her research examines the relationships of water, infrastructure, and religion.

Her first book, When the Medium Was the Mission: The Atlantic Telegraph and the Religious Origins of Network Culture (NYU Press, 2021), traces the shaping influence of religion—particularly American Protestantism—on network culture through the story of the 1858 Atlantic Telegraph Cable. In a wide range of activities, from global mission to American public speech to utopian experiments in communal living, religion forged an imaginary of networks as connective, so much so that connection now serves as the primary definition of networks despite their reliance on various forms of disconnection. Her recent research examines the water that often serves as the background to infrastructure but is, itself, a vital element of our infrastructural lives. She has published on this theme in Cultural Studies, Material Religion, and elsewhere. Recently, she collaborated with engineers, scholars, dancers, and artists to co-direct and perform in Meandering River, a site-specific multimedia performance piece with the Iowa River, which was part of Hancher’s Infinite Dream festival in 2025.

Dr. Supp-Montgomerie teaches courses on the environmental humanities, critical theory, media history and theory, and religion and cultural life in the U.S.

Pronouns

she, her, hers

Research interests

• Blue humanities
• Religion and infrastructure
• Critical theory

Selected publications

• When the Medium Was the Mission: The Atlantic Telegraph and the Religious Origins of Network Culture. New York: NYU Press, 2021.
• “Fluid.” Material Religion. Forthcoming.
• “Communications.” In The Routledge Handbook of Religion and American Culture. Ed. Chad E. Seales. New York: Routledge, 2025. Pp. 132-146.
• “Infrastructural Awareness.” Cultural Studies (2021): 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2021.1988121
• “Affect and the Study of Religion.” Religion Compass 9, no 10 (October 2015): 335-345.

Courses taught

• RELS:2000 Religious Diversity for Leadership/Entrepreneurs
  • Course video
• COMM/RELS/GWSS:6345 New Materialisms
• RELS:5115 Blue Humanities
• RELS/COMM:2080 Public Life in US Religion & Media

Awards, honors, and grants

• DSHB Humanities Scholar, University of Iowa, 2024-2025.
• Meandering River. The National Endowment for the Arts and the Iowa Arts Council, which exists within the Iowa Economic Development Authority. With Stephanie Miracle (PI), David Cwiertny, Eric Gidal, Elizabeth McTernan, Heather Parrish, and Larry Weber, 2024-2025.
• Meandering River. The Big Field Fund, a Regional Regranting Program of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts administered by Public Space One. With Elizabeth McTernan (PI), David Cwiertny, Eric Gidal, Heather Parrish, Stephanie Miracle, and Larry Weber, 2024-2025.
• Public Religion and Media Publics Working Group, Funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, 2017-2022.
• Innovations in Teaching with Technology Award, University of Iowa Academic Technologies Advisory Council, 2019.

View Curriculum Vitae