Student Bios
Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Religion
American Religious Culture
Ethics and Society
Hebrew Bible
Historical Studies in Theology and Religion
Jewish Religious Cultures
New Testament
Person, Community, and Religious Life
Theological Studies
Asian African and Middle Eastern Religions
Anya Fredsell is a doctoral student in Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Religions, Her academic interests include South Asian religions, Tamil language and culture, gender and sexuality studies, and ethnography of religion. Her research relies on ethnographic methodologies to examine relationships among families, land, and deities in contemporary Tamil Nadu, India. Anya received her BA in Religious Studies from Elon University and MTS in Global Religions from Emory's Candler School of Theology. Prior to graduate studies she completed a Fulbright-Nehru Student Research Fellowship in Chennai, India.
Brittany Landorf is a doctoral candidate in Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Religions. Her dissertation, titled, “The Ethics of Deviance and the Making of Orthodoxy: Gender, Sexuality, and Divine Madness in North African Islamic Mysticism,” traces the figuration of the “mad” mystic known as the majdhūb. Interweaving textual analysis of North African Sufi hagiographic compendiums and treatises composed in the sixteenth-nineteenth centuries with ethnographic fieldwork, she argues that the majdhub’s ambiguous embodiment of deviance marks the continual production of orthodoxy amidst changing understandings of Islam, shifting political power, and reforms to the role of the saint in society. As part of her dissertation, she has translated the hagiographies of fifty female saints buried in Fez, Morocco and mapped their burial locations in a digital story map that is forthcoming as Visiting the Female Saints of Fez. Her writing has appeared in The Journal of Islamic Ethics, The Journal of Body and Religion, and Practical Matters. Her dissertation research has been supported by a Fulbright Student Research Grant in Morocco, a Halle Institute Grant for Global Studies, and a Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry Digital Scholars fellowship. Prior to her doctoral studies, she completed a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Fellowship in Bursa, Turkey. She received a BA from Macalester College and an MTS in Islamic Studies from Harvard Divinity School. 
Alapa Odugbo holds a BA and an MA in Religion from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and Georgia State University, USA, respectively. His PhD research interests focus on the diverse ways that metaphysical realities impact moral ethics, provide explanations for health conditions and extraordinary occurrences and function as survival symbols in indigenous African contexts. Alapa is committed to broadening knowledge through critical scholarship and education on diverse indigenous beliefs and how they change, adapt, and interact with modernity and frequently cross paths with public health, commerce, state policies, and other issues that have profound impact on human existence and possibilities.
Mujahid Osman is a doctoral student in West and South Asian Religions. Osman’s work is at intersection of Islamic studies, liberation theology, and peace and justice studies. Through ethnographic methods and textual analysis, he studies modes of religious meaning-making and ethical reimagining by Muslims on the socio-economic margins. His writing has appeared in the Journal for the Gender and Religion in Africa, Reading Religion, and Contending Modernities. Before his graduate studies, Osman was volunteering at a small progressive Muslim congregation in Cape Town, South Africa. Osman received a Master degree in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana; Bachelor of Social Science Honours degree in religious studies; and a BA in political studies and religious studies from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Prakash Raju - bio forthcoming
Taha Firdous Shah is a doctoral student in Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Religions (AAMER). Her work is at the convergence of Islamic studies, anthropology, and peace studies in South Asia. She is interested in examining how Sufism has created an alternate space for fostering faith and peace, especially for women. Her work will explore the shaping of ideas and cultures through the circulation and exchange of information from dargāhs (shrines) and khanqāhs (Sufi lodges) to common households. Taha received her MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies from the University of Cambridge and a BA in English Literature and History from St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi.
Prathiksha Srinivasa - bio forthcoming
Mufdil Tuhri is a doctoral student in the field of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Religions. His academic interests lie at the intersection of religious studies (Islam, Christianity, and indigenous religions), anthropology, and political theology. He aims to study the relationship between religion, state, and society in Indonesia through the lens of "religious moderation." He intends to explore how the Indonesian government strategically utilizes this concept to combat extreme and radical tendencies and how it affects and reshapes people's everyday practices. Mufdil received his Bachelor's degree in Islamic Theology from the Padang State Islamic Institute in Indonesia and a Master's degree in Religious and Cross-cultural Studies from the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS) at Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia.
Shiva Urella is a doctoral candidate in Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Religions at the Graduate Division of Religion. His dissertation project at Emory focuses on the role of Telangana's ritual specialists, Ogguvandlu, and the Bhandāri tradition in shaping caste identities, sacred ecologies, and vernacular political discourses of modern South India. The Bhandāri tradition is a popular term used in the Telangana region to refer to a set of distinct regional deities, practices, narratives, material acts, communities, and performances. The Telugu word "Bhandāri" literally translates to "turmeric," a material widely used by devotees of this tradition to perform rituals. The main deities of the Bhandāri tradition are Mallanna and Yellamma.
Shiva's research interests include ritual and performance studies, caste studies, vernacular political theories and thought, religious and linguistic publics, healing and possession, and popular Hindu and Islamic traditions in South Asia.
Azadeh Vantanpour My research interest focuses on the Yārsān religious group in Iranian Kurdistan. My current research is on the correlations and connections between Yārsān’s sacred music, sacred food, sacred texts, materiality, and religious beliefs and their effects on healing and public well-being. I am also interested in the concept of Madness in Sufism and the appropriation of healing as a resistance movement and a path to liberation among marginalized religious groups.
I hold three master degrees in Iranian Culture and Languages from Shiraz University in Iran, Folk Studies, and Religious Studies from Western Kentucky University. 
Eric Daniel Villalobos is a first year PhD student studying South Asian religious traditions, with a particular focus on Jainism. His research uses ethnographic and historical methodologies to examine the so-called “semi-renunciant” yati monastic lineages within mūrtipūjaka Śvetāmbara Jainism in North India. This project takes him through the history of Indian monasticism, astrology, mantra-śāstra, and the colonial encounter with South Asian indigenous medical systems. He received his BA in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MA in South Asian Area Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
American Religious Culture
Courtney Ariel Bowden (she/her) is a songwriter, writer, and storyteller. She graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, and Vanderbilt University with a Master of Divinity and certificates in Religion, Arts & Culture, and the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender & Sexuality. She is currently a doctoral fellow at Emory University in the Graduate Division of Religion, American Religious Cultures.
She has written articles that appear on Sojo.net, The Tennessean, CNN, and Harper's Bazaar. Her research interests center around Black women’s spiritual and religious lineages.
She identifies as an artist-scholar who shows up learning & unlearning in community.
Website: www.courtneyariel.com
Danny Ballon-Garst is a doctoral candidate in American Religious Cultures. His research focuses on the history of race, religion, and sexuality; religion and politics; and queer religious activism in the twentieth- and early twenty-first-century United States. His dissertation, tentatively titled “Queer Religious Capital: Race, Religion, and LGBTQ Politics in Washington, D.C., and the DMV, 1968-2008,” traces the religious history of the post-Stonewall gay rights movement in Washington, D.C., and the surrounding metropolitan area, interrogating the role of religion and religious institutions in the neoliberalization of queer politics and excavating the role queer and trans people of faith played in responding to various crises of the late twentieth century: deindustrialization, HIV/AIDS, mass incarceration, and human rights abuses abroad. For the 2024-2025 academic year, Danny was awarded an HTI/Lilly Dissertation Fellowship by the Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI) and was selected as an honorary recipient of the Louisville Institute Dissertation Fellowship. Danny is currently a Centennial Scholars Fellow at Emory and was previously awarded a Totman Fellowship through the DC History Center and a Dissertation Fellowship through the Forum for Theological Exploration. Prior to matriculating at Emory, Danny received an MTS from Harvard Divinity School and a BA and JD from the University of Southern California. He practiced prisoners' rights law at the ACLU of Southern California and class action litigation in private practice.
Joshua Howard is a doctoral student in American Religious Cultures. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts in history and political science, and from Candler School of Theology with a Master of Theological Studies. Howard studies twentieth-century American religious history with a focus on evangelicalism, gender, sexuality, race, and Christian nationalism. His research historically and ethnographically analyzes the connection between White Christian nationalism and heteropatriarchy, paying close attention to how heteropatriarchy guarded racial and social boundaries after the Civil Rights Movement. He is also interested in how White Christian nationalists proliferate heteropatriarchal ideology through digital platforms.
Christina Désert is a doctoral students in American Religious Cultures. Désert’s work focuses on African heritage religions, particularly Haitian Vodou, with special attention to women’s kinship, the archive and the poetics, and the natural world. Her writing has appeared in ConSpiracies: Breathing Together the Breath of Life, Harvard Divinity School’s Religious and Spiritual Life’s online journal. She has presented her work at the American Academy of Religion, KOSANBA, the Haitian Studies Association, and the Caribbean Studies Association. Désert received a BA in psychology and French from College of Saint Benedict, her MSW from Baylor University, and her MDIV from Harvard Divinity School.
Ethics and Society
Janelle Lindsay Adams is a doctoral candidate in Ethics & Society. She is also a doctoral fellow with the Candler Foundry and a researcher for the Forum for Theological Exploration’s Discernment Labs initiative. Her dissertation is titled “Unsettling Resettlement: Organizations Creating Shared Sufficiency through Practices of Subversive Belonging.” Drawing on social and theological ethics, practical theology, and qualitative methods, Janelle suggests that organizations extend belonging possibilities through practices of recognition, accompaniment, design, and turning towards and away (or, solidarity and critique). She argues that these practices of subversive belonging—while formative in and of themselves—also contribute to a vision of shared sufficiency that exposes the American Dream as the nightmare it is and invites established Americans and newcomers alike to creatively resist society’s idolization of self-sufficiency.
Janelle’s writing has appeared in the Journal of Pastoral Theology and Center for Migration Studies Essays. Prior to her doctoral studies, she served as the Program Manager for Community Engagement for the refugee resettlement agency, Inspiritus, and as the Senior Administrative Coordinator for ACPE: The Standard for Spiritual Care & Education. Janelle received her BA in religious studies from Rhodes College and her MDiv from Candler School of Theology.
Silas W. Allard is a doctoral candidate in ethics and society. He also teaches courses at Emory University School of Law, where he is a senior fellow at Emory’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion and the managing editor of the Journal of Law and Religion. Allard’s scholarship engages the ethics of migration at the intersections of law, history, critical theory, and political theology. He is a co-editor of the book Christianity and the Law of Migration (Routledge, 2022). His writing has appeared in journals such as Refuge and Political Theology, and in edited collections on vulnerability, global law, international law, and migration. Prior to his doctoral studies, Allard served as Managing Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion and as a law clerk to Chief Judge Donald C. Pogue at the United States Court of International Trade. Allard received his juris doctor and master of theological studies from Emory, and a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from the University of Missouri.
Brittany Fiscus-van Rossum is a doctoral student in Ethics and Society. Brittany’s work engages Christian theology as well as the experiences and insights of those who live, worship, and build community on the streets of our cities. Brittany is interested in how Christian ethics can take seriously the wisdom of those who experience homelessness and food insecurity to envision more mutual and affirming forms of community building and care. Prior to her doctoral studies Brittany served as a pastor at Mercy Community Church, a grassroots ecumenical congregation committed to sharing hospitality and working alongside people without shelter in Atlanta, GA. Brittany is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and received her MDiv from Columbia Theological Seminary.
Daniella Hobbs is a doctoral student in Ethics and Society. Her research interests center around the contemporary ethics of racial identity formation, specifically multiracial identity in the United States. She is also interested in emerging spiritualities and cosmologies in the wake of a rise in people who identify as spiritual but not religious. Additionally, she is passionate about using digital media in order to make religious education accessible outside of the academy, and currently serves as a Digital Scholarship Assistant at the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship and a Senior Digital Ministry Fellow at Convergence. In addition to these positions, Daniella is also an Emory University Centennial Scholar and Louisville Institute Doctoral Fellow. Prior to Emory, Daniella received a bachelor's degree in Documentary Studies and Production with a minor in Sociology from Ithaca College, and a Master of Divinity degree with a concentration in social justice advocacy from Drew Theological School. 
Sarah Kothe is a doctoral student in Ethics and Society. Her research is centered in the field of theological bioethics. Her dissertation examines the experience of senior adults as they transition to new forms of housing and seeks to develop an ethical framework to address challenges confronted by this population. Prior to beginning doctoral work, Sarah taught religion at a Catholic middle school and worked at The Garrison Institute, an interfaith retreat and research center. She received an MTS from Candler School of Theology, Emory University and a BA in Biology and Theology from Boston College.
Kevin Lazarus is a doctoral candidate in Ethics and Society. His dissertation bridges Christian theology, disability studies, and critical theory to analyze discourse surrounding L’Arche—an international network of faith-based caregiving communities centered around adults with intellectual disabilities. By interrogating themes of community, care, and vulnerability within the literature on L’Arche, this project critiques the theological instrumentalization of disability and explores the possibilities and limits of narrating God’s activity in relation to intellectual disability. Lazarus is a Doctoral Fellow in Public Theological Education with The Candler Foundry and received the Louisville Institute’s Doctoral Fellowship. He is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church with experience in hospital chaplaincy. Lazarus received a BA in Spanish and a BA in Psychology from Auburn University and an MDiv from Emory's Candler School of Theology
Ella Myer is a doctoral candidate in Ethics and Society as well as the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies certificate program. In her dissertation, Myer analyzes the current upswell of scholarly and public interest in the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray using tools from Christian social ethics, memory studies, and feminist and queer theories. Myer’s writing has appeared in the Stellenbosch Theological Journal, Reading Religion, Moral Agency Under Constraint blog, and the Journal of the History of Ideas blog. Myer has also presented her work at conferences including the Memory Studies Association’s annual conference and a transnational symposium honoring Professor Dirk J. Smit. In addition to her dissertation work, Myer is an editorial associate for the open-access, academic journal Southern Spaces. Myer received an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Mary Ann Robertson is a doctoral candidate in the Ethics and Society course of study. Their dissertation, tentatively titled, “Defiant Memory: Confronting Slavery and Historical Violence at an American University,” explores the relationship between slavery and its afterlives and higher education in the United States. The project engages critical history, political theology, and ethics to unpack various practices of institutional remembrance—truth-telling committees, buildings and memorials, and the designation of burial grounds—and seeks to build upon an ethical framework of “dangerous memory” that centers relationship and radical transformation.
In addition to their dissertation work and teaching, Mary Ann is the assistant managing editor for Southern Spaces, a digital, open-access journal published by the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship. Prior to their doctoral studies, Mary Ann received their BA in Religious Studies and American Politics from the University of Virginia, and their M.Div from Union Theological Seminary in New York.
Matt Schram is a doctoral student in Ethics and Society. Schramm’s work draws on theology, critical theory, and queer and feminist theory to analyze gender, self-making, and religious authority in American Catholicism. Prior to their doctoral studies, Schramm worked as a youth minister in both Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches. Schramm received a BA in Philosophy and a BA in Religion from the University of Georgia and an MTS from Emory's Candler School of Theology.
Hebrew Bible
Mikayla Hamilton is a doctoral student in Hebrew Bible. Her research interests include comparative readings of the Song of Songs, metaphorical depiction of women and land in prophetic poetry, and literary aesthetics. She engages with feminist and ecocritical theory, exploring the reception history of poetic metaphors. She received her B.A. in Biblical Literature from Oral Roberts University in 2021 and her Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary in 2024.
Asia Lerner-Gay is a doctoral student of Hebrew Bible. Her research interests include theological interpretations of scripture, iconographic study, comparative analysis, and gender critical readings of scripture. Asia is also active in her ecclesial life, with connections to Pentecostal and Presbyterian worshipping communities. She received an M. Div. from Candler School of Theology (2022), and a B.A. in Biblical Studies from Southeastern University (2018).
Caitlin Joy Hubler is a PhD Candidate in Hebrew Bible. Her work engages conceptions of divinity within the Hebrew Bible and ancient Near East using historical and philosophical lenses. Hubler’s dissertation, tentatively titled “Deutero-Isaiah’s Aniconic Logic: Divine Ontology in the Anti-Idol Polemics,” investigates assumptions about divine nature, embodiment, and representation in Deutero-Isaiah’s anti-idol polemics. Her writing has appeared in Journal for the Study of Old Testament and the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (forthcoming) as well as The Biblical Mind, Mockingbird Magazine, and the Project on Lived Theology. Prior to her doctoral studies, Caitlin taught high-school introductory Greek and worked as Editorial Assistant at the Society of Biblical Literature. Hubler received a B.S. in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia and an M. Div. from Columbia Theological Seminary.
Ian MacGillivray is a doctoral candidate in Hebrew Bible. His dissertation, titled “The Production of a Prophet: Connecting Character and Composition in the Book of Jeremiah,” explores the complex status of Jeremiah as a prophetic character in the biblical text. Integrating recent research on scribal culture and the composition of Jeremiah with the philosophical work of Gilles Deleuze on language and literature, the project shows how the figure of Jeremiah is produced by diverse literary and sociohistorical forces that have shaped the text and its reception. Ian received his BA in philosophy from Harvard University, and his MAR from Yale Divinity School.
Chelsea Mak is a doctoral candidate in Hebrew Bible. Her dissertation, titled “‘Therefore the Land Mourns:’ The Ecological Body in 8th Century Israelite Religion,” explores how the religious ecology of Israelite religion is revealed in the mutually constitutive relationship between the body and land as found in text and material culture. Attending to a multiplicity of narratives in dialectical encounter, those of the land and the prophetic texts of Hosea, Amos, and Micah, the project further illuminates the stakes of Israelite religious practices as situated within the political economy of the 8th century BCE. Chelsea’s writing has appeared in the edited volume, Theodicy and Hope in the Book of the Twelve and on the Politics of Scripture, a blog that is a part of the Political Theology Network and of which she is series editor. She is also pursuing a concentration in Religious Practices and Practical Theology. Chelsea received her BA in Christian Studies from Ambrose University and her MA in Biblical and Theological Studies from Ambrose Seminary. 
Forrest Martin is a doctoral student in Hebrew Bible. His interests include languages, literary criticism, performance and ritual, cosmology, and cross-cultural transfer—especially the lingering effects of Egyptian colonialism in ancient Israel and the wider Levant. Additionally, he is a graduate fellow at the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies. Before coming to Emory, Forrest received his M.A. in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures and his B.A. in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies (with a second major in Classical Greek) from the University of Washington, where he also worked as a pre-doctoral instructor.
Michelle Navarrete is a doctoral student in Hebrew Bible. Her research interests include psalms of lament, theologies of exile and marginality, decolonial/postcolonial translation studies, and U.S. Latine theologies. Michelle received a BA in Religious Studies from North Central College, an MTS from Evangel University, and an MA in Old Testament Biblical Exegesis from Wheaton College.
Radiance Richardson is a doctoral student in Hebrew Bible. Her research interests include the transmission of visual symbolism in the ancient Levant and Egypt, biblical monsters, prophetic metaphors and the human-Divine relationship in ANE divinatory literature, and Caribbean hermeneutics in biblical interpretation. She has approached these topics through the lenses of postcolonial and trauma theory, considering questions of cultural exchange, identity, and the shaping of communal memory. Radiance received bachelor’s degrees in Religion and Psychology from Pepperdine University (2020), a M.A.R. in Hebrew Bible from Union Theological Seminary (2023), and a Master of Sacred Theology in Hebrew Bible from Union Theological Seminary (2024). 
Mark Preston Stone is a doctoral student in Hebrew Bible. Stone’s work focuses on theodicy, ancient sexualities, and the literary development of Hebrew narratives. His writing has appeared in the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, the Review of Biblical Literature, and an edited volume on holiness in the Wesleyan tradition. He has presented at the Society of Biblical Literature. Prior to his doctoral studies, Stone worked as an adjunct instructor at Seattle Pacific University, and as an executive research assistant for Decisive Data. Stone received a B.A. in Theology and an M.A. in Christian Scripture, both from Seattle Pacific University.
Historical Studies in Theology and Religion
Alyssa Lynn Elliott is a is a doctoral student in Historical Studies in Theology and Religion. Her general focus is on Christian theology in the 2nd-7th centuries in the Greek, Syriac, and Latin traditions. Elliott’s current work focuses on homiletic and catechetical literature in the 4th century, particularly in the way they articulate the developing pneumatology of that era.
Her broader research interests include the development of angelology and demonology, the role of exorcisms in Christian initiation, and the use of teaching hymns in the Syriac tradition. Elliott is an ordained minister in the Christian Churches of the Stone-Campbell Movement. She holds a Master of Divinity with a concentration in Historical Theology from Emmanuel Christian Seminary at Milligan University and a B.A. in Biblical and Theological Studies from Manhattan Christian College.
Evgeniia Muzychenko (she/her) is a doctoral student in the Historical Studies program. Evgeniia focuses on the history of Evangelical missions in late colonial India, specifically, in Maharashtra. Evgeniia’s main research interests center around the history of Christianity in India, missiology, Hindu-Christian dialogue, and conversion. Evgeniia received her BA in Asian and African Studies at Saint Petersburg State University (Russia) in 2019. As a Fulbright scholar, Evgeniia completed a Master’s program in Theological Studies at Villanova University (Pennsylvania) in 2022.
Victoria (Yun-Ching) Shen is a doctoral candidate in Historical Studies in Theology and Religion. Shen’s work focuses on East Asian Christian political activism since the 1950s, especially in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Her dissertation, tentatively titled “Transpacific Taiwanese female Christians’ political activism from 1970 to 2000,” analyzes how overseas Taiwanese female Christians and Taiwanese American female Christians participated and contributed to the democratization of Taiwan. Moreover, it also focuses on how transpacific immigration and the experience in the United States influenced the political activism of overseas Taiwanese female Christians and Taiwanese American female Christians. Shen’s writing has appeared in Exchange: Journal of Contemporary Christianities in Context.
Prior to her doctoral studies, Shen worked as an admission intern and research assistant at the Candler School of Theology and volunteered as the Youth and Worship Coordinator at the Atlanta Taiwanese Presbyterian Church. Shen received a Master of Theological Studies from the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies & History from the University of South Carolina, Columbia.
New Testament
Allison Barbee is a doctoral student in New Testament, focusing on the affect of disgust in the New Testament and apocryphal narratives; the use of narratives in the construction of early Christian identity; and descriptions of the human body in the Roman empire. She is interested in interpreting the texts of the New Testament with a variety of theories, including gender, affect, literary, and horror/monster theories. She has presented her work, "Space, Time, and Magic: Bakhtin's Theory of Chronotope in Acts," at the AAR/SBL annual meeting. Prior to her doctoral studies, Allison earned a bachelor's degree in Religious Studies from Wingate University, and a master's degree in New Testament and Early Christian Literature from the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Chantel R. Heister is a doctoral candidate in New Testament. Heister’s work focuses on conceptions of demonic forces in ancient Jewish and early Christian literature; extrabiblical literature and material culture from the Hellenistic and Roman periods; and translation studies. Her dissertation, titled “Devil in the Details: The Temptation of Jesus and Matthew’s Use of Psalm 91,” explores the connection between Psalm 91 and the Matthean redaction of the temptation event. Her writing on Jezebel’s punishment in Revelation 2:22 has been published in the journal Currents in Biblical Research, and she has presented on the same topic at the Society of Biblical Literature’s international meeting. Prior to her doctoral studies, Heister worked as an editor and journalist. She received a bachelor’s in English and Philosophy from Colorado Mesa University and a master’s in theological studies from George Fox University.
Youjeong Rachel Jeon is a doctoral student in New Testament. Jeon’s work focuses on the themes of travel, diaspora, and exile and the literary portrayal of spaces in the New Testament with special focus on the historical-social context of first century Roman Empire, transnationalism, translation theories, and narrative criticism. Jeon is a member of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, and is also interested in how biblical interpretation functions for identity formation in bi-cultural and bi-lingual diaspora communities. Prior to her doctoral studies, Jeon served as a youth pastor in Korean immigrant churches in Massachusetts and as the program director of Peacemakers for Korea, a non-profit dedicated towards peace-building in the Korean Peninsula. Jeon received her BA in English literature from Yonsei University in South Korea, M.Div from Harvard Divinity School, and STM in New Testament from Yale Divinity School.
Suse Jo is a doctoral student in New Testament. Her work focuses on the rhetoric of gender and power in the New Testament within the social, political, cultural, and religious background of the Roman Empire. In particular, Suse is interested in the Roman imperial rhetoric of mastery and subordination and the ways in which the texts of the New Testament subvert or reinforce such rhetorical structurizations of power within the domestic realm. Suse received her M.Div. and Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary and her B.S. in Human Biology from University of Southern California
Gilha Lee is a doctoral candidate with a concentration in New Testament. His dissertation, titled “Reciprocating with the Diakonia of Reconciliation: Socio-Politico-Economic Reading of Paul’s Theology of Reconciliation,” explores Paul’s notion of divine-human reconciliation through the lens of exchange. This research argues that Paul’s notion of reconciliation entails a reciprocal exchange between God and humanity, wherein individuals who receive God’s reconciliation are expected to reciprocate by engaging in the service (diakonia) of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18). He further examines the factors enabling the reciprocal reconciliation between entities with unequal power dynamics that could possibly be applied to various conflict contexts between different racial/ethnic groups, genders, social classes, political factions, and religious groups within our society. Gilha holds a B.Ec. and B.A. with double majors in economics and English linguistics from Kyung Hee University, South Korea (2008), an M.Div. from Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary (PUTS) (2011), South Korea, and two Th.M. degrees, one from PUTS (2016) and the other from Candler School of Theology, Emory University (2018). He is also an ordained pastor, currently serving a Korean immigrant church in Duluth, GA
Herman Arnolus Manoe is a doctoral student in the New Testament at the Graduate Division of Religion, Emory University. Manoe’s work utilizes postcolonial theory, intersectionality, feminism, sexuality, and slavery studies to read the New Testament texts. He is a member of the Protestant Evangelical Church in Timor (GMIT)-Indonesia. Manoe earned his master’s in theological studies (M.T.S) from Boston University School of Theology (2023) and his bachelor’s in theology (S.Si-Teol) from Satya Wacana Christian University (2018) in Indonesia.
Terngu Oliver Agbil is a doctoral student in the New Testament. Terngu’s work focuses on New Testament interpretation and the intersectionality of postcolonial studies, social justice, poverty, slavery, race and ethnic minority with a special focus on the Lukan parables that describe poverty and social injustice, and their relationship to the kingdom of God within first-century Roman-Palestine. He explores the interpretation of these parables, and how such interpretation has hermeneutical bearing on issues of colonization, racial and social injustices, marginalization, poverty, and ethnic minority and their relation to Africa and other parts of the world. Before starting his doctoral studies, Terngu taught at several high schools in Makurdi, Benue State, St. Charles Lwanga Pre-seminary, Adeke, Makurdi, Benue State and worked at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria. Terngu obtained his Bachelor of Philosophy (B. Phil.) and Bachelor of Sacred Theology (S.T.B) both from Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome, Italy, a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) from National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Kaduna, Nigeria, and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L) in Biblical Studies and Languages from Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry, MA, USA.
Person, Community, and Religious Life
Peter Cariaga is a doctoral student in Person, Community, and Religious Life. Born and raised in the Philippines as a missionary kid, his work focuses on youth who grew up transnationally (often called Third Culture Kids or TCKs) and on the ways they make theological sense of their cross-cultural lives. His writing has appeared in Religious Education and Stone-Campbell Journal. Prior to doctoral studies, Peter led a campus ministry for college age TCKs and directed a Lilly Endowment-funded youth theology institute. He has also served congregations in Oklahoma and Texas as an associate minister. As part of his program, he is pursuing concentrations in Global Christianity as well as Religious Practices and Practical Theology. Peter received both a B.A. in biblical studies and an M.B.A. from Oklahoma Christian University, did M.Div. coursework at Abilene Christian University, and received an M.A.T.S. from Saint Paul School of Theology.
Emilie Casey is a PhD candidate in the Person, Community, and Religious Life area of study. Casey works at the nexus of queer and critical race studies, contemporary philosophy, and the history of American preaching and pastoral care. Her dissertation critically examines the archives of the early clinical pastoral education movement between 1923-1954, theorizing how anxieties about sexual and racial difference, madness, criminality, and science shaped twentieth-century liberal Protestantism. Casey’s writing has appeared in Feminist Theology and is forthcoming in the Journal of Theta Alpha Kappa. She is the recipient of Emory’s 2023 Studies in Sexualities Graduate Award and the Louisville Institute’s Doctoral Fellowship. She regularly teaches introductory courses in Religious Studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. She is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Prior to her doctoral studies, Casey served as the Director of Marquand Chapel at Yale Divinity School. She received her BM from the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) and an MDiv and STM from Yale Divinity School.
Diandra M. Darby is a doctoral student in Person, Community and Religious Life. Darby’s work focuses on womanist preaching, with a special focus on the ways in which the content and construction of womanist sermons might inform the ways we teach preaching. Prior to her doctoral studies, Darby served on the ministerial staff of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church under the leadership of Dr. John R. Adolph. Darby received a Bachelor’s in General Studies from Lamar University, her M.Div. from The Interdenominational Theological Center, and a ThM from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Corwin Malcolm Davis is a doctoral candidate in Person, Community, and Religious Life, and earning a certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Davis’ work focuses on the complex relationship of Black religious rhetoric and the psyche, inclusive of pastoral theology, queer theory, and studies in Blackness and performance. Corwin earned a B.A. Degree from Belmont University and a M.Div. from Vanderbilt University Divinity School as the Dean's Scholar. At Emory, Davis has received the George W. Woodruff Fellowship, the Centennial Scholars Fellowship, and externally, fellowships from the Louisville Institute, The Forum for Theological Exploration, and Sacred Writes. His writing has appeared in recent issues of Religions, Theology and Sexuality, and Homiletics. His work has also been recognized in scholarship through the receipt of Emory’s 2022 Studies in Sexualities Graduate Award, and in public writing through features in literary publications such as Columbia Journal.
Jazzy Johnson is a community educator specializing in curating and facilitating transformative liturgical and religious education experiences of learning at the intersections of Christian faith, identity, justice, and repair. Prior to Emory, Jazzy designed and directed immersive learning experiences for college students in Chicago. She graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies and Sociology Minor and Emory University Candler School of Theology with her Master of Divinity degree, certificate in Religious Education and concentration in Justice, Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation. Jazzy is currently a doctoral student at Emory University in the Graduate Division of Religion in the Person, Community and Religious Life course of study.
As a practitioner, Jazzy facilitates and researches B/bibliodrama, a method of embodied collective storytelling and pluralistic, interpretive, play practice . Jazzy’s research interests live within the interconnections between pedagogy, performance, play(ing), and protest in Liturgics and Religious Education, with particular attention to the relationship between Black women’s bodies and the body(ies) of the Earth.
Laura Montoya-Cifuentes is a doctoral student in Person, Community, and Religious Life. Her work analyzes gender and sexuality practices and theologies of Latin American Pentecostal women. Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, she concluded in 2011 a six-year program in Psychology at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. She worked as a community Psychologist for several years, helping communities affected by the sixty years of war in her country. She graduated from the Master of Divinity program at Boston University School of Theology in 2022. Her academic interests also include Liberation Theologies, Feminist Studies, Sociology of Religion, and Pentecostal Studies.
Shanise Palmer is a doctoral student in Person, Community, and Religious Life. Palmer’s work focuses on the rhetorical strategies and the contextual implications of Black women’s voices in the preaching moment. She is an ordained Baptist minister. Prior to her doctoral studies, Palmer served as her church’s first Pastor of Preaching, allowing her to provide oversight of its ministerial training program. Palmer received her B.S. in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, her M.Div. from Shaw University Divinity School, and her Th.M. from Emory’s Candler School of Theology.
Jessie Washington is a doctoral candidate in Person, Community, and Religious Life. Her dissertation, entitled "For Colored Girls Who Have Attempted Suicide: A Practical Theology of Black Women's Mental Health," explores the experience of Black women suicide attempters through ethnographic methods and digital storytelling. Jessie aims to develop a theology of testimony and witness that articulates how faith communities can better support the mental health needs of Black women.
In addition to her dissertation work and teaching, Jessie provides spirituality group counseling with The Nia Project, which supports Black women who have experienced intimate partner violence and/or suicidality. Jessie is also a mentor and writing coach with Emory's Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program.
Jessie earned an AB in African and African American Studies at Harvard University and an MSW and MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. She is a recipient of the Centennial Scholars Fellowship from Emory and the Doctoral Fellowship from the Forum for Theological Exploration.
Breno Nunes de Oliveira Seabra is a doctoral student in Theological Studies. Born and raised in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Breno was engaged in ministerial activities in his local church for six years and concluded a BA in Theology at Seminário Martin Bucer before moving to the US to pursue an MDiv at Western Theological Seminary. His academic interests include the doctrine of creation, Christology, Trinitarian theology, the theology of Karl Barth, race, sociology of religion, black and liberation theology, Global Christianity, and political theology.
Wyatt Harris is a doctoral candidate in Theological Studies. His dissertation, titled “The Doctrine of Justification and the Problem of Antiblackness” offers a constructive account of the Christian doctrine of justification in light of contemporary questions, especially those of race and antiblackness. This project analyzes recent accounts of, and debates surrounding, the Christian doctrine of justification, especially in the Lutheran tradition, and routes these through relevant concerns raised by both black theologians and radical black studies scholars, with a particular focus on Afropessimism, and argues that the doctrine must account for, and be informed by, such concerns in order to be adequately expressed and understood today. His writing has appeared in the Journal of Reformed Theology and Scriptura. Prior to his doctoral studies, he served as adjunct faculty in the Alabama Community College System’s Marion Military Institute and taught World Religions, New Testament Survey, and Old Testament Survey. Wyatt received his BA in English from The University of Mississippi and his M.Div from Beeson Divinity School, Samford University.
David Thien Le is a doctoral student in Theological Studies. He engages topics of language, political theology, and the nature of human difference pulling on critical theory, Jewish thought, and Christian theology. Prior to his doctoral studies, he lived and served, with his wife, in Christian communities for people with differing (dis)abilities in Durham, North Carolina working in conjunction with Duke University and various non-profit organizations before moving to Atlanta. David received his M.T.S. from Duke Divinity School and his B.S. in Biochemistry from Baylor University.
Der Lor is a Ph.D. student in Theological Studies. His general interests include theologies of the cross (Reformation to contemporary), Asian American theologies, and the relationships between revelation, epistemology, and ethics. His research explores a constructive theology at the sites of Hmong American political and religious meaning-making through a transpacific lens. Prior to doctoral studies, Der was a pastor of worship, discipleship, and teaching. He received his M.A.T. in biblical studies from Fuller Theological Seminary and Th.M. in systematic theology/ethics from Luther Seminary.