Student Profile

Amy Levad

Course of Study:

Ethics and Society

Year of Entry:

2004

Areas of Focus:

Criminal justice reform
Restorative justice and conflict transformation
Virtue ethics
Feminist ethics
Catholic social teaching

Education:

Degree Institution City State Graduation Year
BA University of Puget Sound Tacoma WA 2001
MTS Candler School of Theology, Emory University Atlanta GA 2004

Teaching Experience:

Course Title School Role Professor
Engaging Critical Biblical and Theological Thought ATA Theology Certificate for Metro State Prison Instructor
Religious Practices of Peace and Violence Emory University Research Assistant Elizabeth Bounds
Introduction to Christian Ethics Candler School of Theology, Emory University Teaching Associate and Colloquy Leader Jon Gunnemann
Introduction to Christian Ethics Candler School of Theology, Emory University Teaching Assistant and Colloquy Leader Elizabeth Bounds
Religion and Politics FaithTrek, Iliff School of Theology Instructor
Religion in American Society Candler School of Theology, Emory University Teaching Associate Nancy Eiesland
Introduction to Christian Ethics Teaching Assistant and Colloquy Leader Timothy P. Jackson

Publications:

???A Song to Sing, A Life to Live: A Conversation with Don and Emily Saliers,??? video produced for Practical Matters: A Transdisciplinary Multimedia Journal of Practical Theology and Religious Practices, http://web.mac.com/practical.matters (Atlanta, GA, forthcoming).

Conference Presentations:

Format Presentation Title Conference Name Conference Date
Paper Panel Restorative versus Transformative Justice: Responses to Our Criminal Justice Crisis American Academy of Religion Forthcoming
Response Paper Moral Challenges to Ecclesial and Pastoral Imagination: A Response to Craig Dykstra Consultation on Religious Practices and Practical Theology on the Theme of ???Imagination??? October 2007
Paper Presentation How Many Times Shall I Forgive? (Matthew 18:21): Resisting and Forgiving Injustice from a Theological Perspective Rethinking Resistance: Literature, Religion, and Politics in a Global Context March 2007
Paper Presentation The Lived Christian Body: Appropriating Iris Marion Young for Feminist Christian Ethics Southeast Regional Commission on the Study of Religion March 2005

Work Experience:

Position / Role Institution City State Dates
Academic Coordinator Atlanta Theological Association Certificate Program in Theological Studies for Metro State Prison for Women Atlanta GA 2008-present
Issue Editor Practical Matters: A Transdisciplinary Multimedia Journal of Practical Theology and Religious Practices, Emory University Atlanta GA 2007-present
Copy Editor Practical Matters: A Transdisciplinary Multimedia Journal of Practical Theology and Religious Practices, Emory University Atlanta GA 2007-present
Program Coordinator Youth Theological Initiative, Candler School of Theology, Emory University Atlanta GA 2003-2004
Case Manager The Empowerment Program, Sisters of Loretto Volunteer Corps Denver CO 2000-2001

School Community Involvement:

Position / Role Institution City State Dates
Student Representative Policy and Curriculum Committee, Graduate Division of Religion, Emory University Atlanta GA 2005-2007

Practices Concentration:

Core Seminar Paper: Building God???s Nation: Court Watching as a Theological and Civic Practice of Higher Power Church

Experiential Requirement: The Moral Imagination of Restorative Justice

Description:
Through the experiential component, Levad has explored how participation in restorative justice practices can change the ways communities think about and respond to the ethical challenges arising in the wake of crime. Restorative justice is an innovative communal response to problems within criminal justice systems that brings together offenders, victims, and community members to tell their stories and discuss the harm caused by an offense. Levad has engaged in ethnographic research of six restorative justice programs in Colorado in order to understand the role that their practices can play in transforming their participants' moral imaginations. She has been a participant-observer of several restorative justice conferences and interviewed numerous participants, including facilitators, community members, victims, and offenders.

Dissertation:

Title: The Moral Imagination of Restorative Justice

Description:
Drawing on her research from the experiential component, Levad???s dissertation places her encounters with the practices of restorative justice into dialogue with the intellectual history of virtue ethics, particularly its illumination of the significance of imagination (in addition to emotion, reason, and perception) for processes of moral discernment. The purpose of this interdisciplinary juxtaposition of theory and practice is both to clarify the multiple dynamics of moral discernment within restorative justice practices and to elevate imagination within theories of virtue ethics as an indispensable faculty for moral discernment in practice. Levad concludes that justice in response to crime requires a vivid and expansive moral imagination and that because restorative justice fosters such a moral imagination, its practices better approximate justice than traditional criminal justice practices.

Biography

A native of Colorado, Levad earned her BA in mathematics and religious studies with honors from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. After graduation, she served a year with the Loretto Volunteer Corps and worked with The Empowerment Program as a case manager for women arrested for prostitution in Denver, CO. Levad then entered Candler School of Theology at Emory University and earned her MTS before beginning the doctoral program in the Graduate Division of Religion. She is now completing her dissertation while also working as an editor for Practical Matters and as the academic coordinator for a program funded by that Atlanta Theological Association that offers a certificate in theological studies for women in Metro State Prison.