Category Archives: Interviews, Profiles, Meet & Greet

Interview: Mariam J. Kamell Kovalishyn

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M_KamellDr. Mariam J. Kamell Kovalishyn is Assistant Professor of New Testament Studies at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. She earned a BA from Davidson College, MA from Denver Seminary, and PhD from University of St. Andrews.

How did you decide to become a biblical scholar? Share your autobiographical journey.

It was more by accident than intention, at least on my end. In the sovereignty of God, I am sure he was organizing my steps, my plan never involved me being a scholar. My dream growing up was to be a housewife. As life progressed, however, it became pretty clear that dream wasn’t opening up. In the meantime, I had majored in a combination of Classics/English/History in my undergrad, largely because I had a Latin teacher I adored and I ended up with too many Classics classes to ignore. I also did a semester abroad in Greece and fell in love with the country and history (as I’d always loved the mythology). However, having written a thesis in my undergrad and having it go a bit sideways, I swore off school forever, particularly any schooling that would involve large writing projects.  More→

Interview: Laura S. Nasrallah

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lsn-3-medDr. Laura S. Nasrallah is professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School. She earned an A.B. from Princeton University, and M.Div. and Th.D. from Harvard Divinity School. She can also be found at her faculty website and at lettersofpaul.org.

How did you decide to become a biblical scholar? Share your autobiographical journey.

Midway through my undergraduate studies, I had the realization while reading Elaine Pagels’s The Gnostic Gospels that the Bible wasn’t just one book produced outside of human time and labors. This epiphany—something many readers likely knew all along; let’s say I was a late bloomer—made me hunger to study the history of early Christianity and the Christian Testament. It was then only late in college that I realized that the study of religion could be an academic field.

I had also long understood that religion was important. My youngest years were spent in Beirut, Lebanon, during the tensions and then the violence of the civil war in that country. Afterwards, we moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to a culture infused with a deep love and use of the Bible. I knew from a young age that religion was very important—it could cause wars, for instance—and that the Bible was a text on which people founded their lives and their actions. I also knew from my own family that religion was central to life and identity; I knew of my American mother’s shift from Catholicism to Protestantism as she married my father; my Lebanese father’s strong family traditions in Protestant Christianity in Lebanon, a minority denomination in that country.

Once I had that epiphany that the Christian Testament could be studied in light of other historical events and literary texts, and that the study of religion could be both a deeply personal and academic pursuit, I felt it was inevitable to study these materials!  More→

Interview: Caryn A. Reeder

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Reeder-CarynDr. Caryn A. Reeder is Associate Professor of New Testament at Westmont College. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Religious Studies from Augustana College, M.A. in Biblical Studies from Wheaton College, M.Phil. in Old Testament and Ph.D. in New Testament from the University of Cambridge. Reeder has been teaching at Westmont since 2007.

How did you decide to become a biblical scholar? Share your autobiographical journey.

As an undergrad at Augustana College, I had to take two religious studies classes. I enjoyed the first one so much that I ended up with a double major in psychology (because I thought it was practical) and religious studies (because it was fun). I’d planned to have a practical career in psychology – but luckily, my first job after graduation took me to Jerusalem for two years, where I had the opportunity to drink lots of tea, read the Bible with different sets of cultural lenses than my own, and also engage with some of the hard questions of ‘biblical interpretation’ and the continuing significance of the biblical story for the lives of Palestinians and Israelis. I realized I’d much rather have the fun of studying the Bible in its different historical, geographical, social, cultural, and literary contexts than continue with my plan of a career in psychology.  More→

Interview: Abigail Ann Young

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aay-jpgDr. Abigail Ann Young is a Medieval scholar with a particular interest in the history of biblical exegesis. She earned a B.A. in Latin from The University of Texas at Austin, M.A. in Classical Languages and M.A. in Late Ancient History from University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Licenciate in Medieval Studies from Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, St Michael’s College, University of Toronto, and Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from University of Toronto. Prior to her retirement Young worked as palaeographer, Latinist, and general research associate and editor at the Records of Early English Drama project at Victoria College in the University of Toronto. She can be found at her website, on Academia.edu, and on Twitter.

How did you decide to become a biblical scholar? Share your autobiographical journey.

I suppose it was my family that sowed the seeds, so to speak. When I was 8 years old my great aunt gave me a King James Bible, which set me to trying to read the Bible myself. I didn’t have very great success until my mother brought home the New Testament in the New English Bible translation when I was in high school. Suddenly I could understand the language, which was tremendously exciting, even though I couldn’t understand most of the concepts!

So when I joined the church as a university student, it seemed natural to want to use the language and textual skills I was learning in Classical Studies to study the Bible. It took me some time to figure out that, as a mostly-closeted gay woman with a partner, the clergy was not at that time an open path. (I have come to realise that this was a good thing in the end, since my gifts are far more for teaching and preaching than they are pastoral: I would not have made a good priest.) A course in Byzantine History started me in the direction of history of theology. Eventually at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies I found a way forward: the history of exegesis with professors who encouraged me to look at contemporary exegesis as well as mediaeval exegesis.  More→

Interview: Cynthia Shafer-Elliott

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Cynthia-Shafer-Elliott-00076Dr. Cynthia Shafer-Elliott is associate professor of Hebrew Bible at William Jessup University.  She earned a B.A. from Simpson University, M.A. from Ashland Theological Seminary, and Ph.D. from The University of Sheffield. She can be found at her WJU faculty web page and on Twitter @cshaferelliott.

How did you decide to become a biblical scholar? Share your autobiographical journey.

I grew up in a Christian home with parents that encouraged studying the Bible. I always loved history, and in particular the history of ancient Israel, but I wasn’t a good student so the academic life was never something I even considered until I went to college. During my freshman year at Simpson University in California, I took an introduction to the Old Testament class with Professor Glenn Schaefer (no relation). I remember that first day very clearly: it was as if my brain had been a sponge all those years studying the Bible as a child and that it was being rung out. For the first time in my life, I wanted to study and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. The following year I took Professor Schaefer’s historical geography course in Israel and little did I know how that trip would help shape my career. While in Israel we participated in a “dig for a day” at the caves of Maresha. The excavation coupled with just being in the land made a huge impact on me and how I study the Bible – that archaeology exposes the physical reality of ancient lives. It was at this point that I knew I wanted to pursue biblical studies and archaeology as a career.  More→

Interview: Leslie Baynes

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Leslie_smallerDr. Leslie Baynes is associate professor of New Testament and Second Temple Judaism at Missouri State University. She holds a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Theological Studies from the University of Dayton, and the Ph.D. in Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity from the University of Notre Dame.

How did you decide to become a biblical scholar? Share your autobiographical journey.

I didn’t own a Bible until I was 14 years old. A high school friend gave me a copy of the classic tract “The Four Spiritual Laws” and invited me to attend Campus Life/Youth for Christ, and there, of course, Bible reading was mandatory. I bought a copy of The Way because I liked the contemporary pictures on the cover. I was a nominal, essentially uncatechized Catholic, as many of us born after Vatican II were, even though both sides of my family had been Catholic back to Adam. By the time I was 16, I was leading morning Bible studies at my rural public high school. More→

Interview: Sara M. Koenig

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sara koenigDr. Sara M. Koenig is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Seattle Pacific University. She earned a B.A. from Seattle Pacific University, M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. She has been teaching at SPU since 2003.

How did you decide to become a biblical scholar? Share your autobiographical journey.

I applied to seminary with every intention of working as a youth pastor, though a year-long internship in youth ministry before I matriculated had me reconsidering that career! My first semester of seminary, Phyllis Trible was a visiting scholar at Princeton Seminary, and offered an elective course in Old Testament studies: I was hooked. Trible’s method of rhetorical criticism helped me see things in the text that I hadn’t before; it was almost like Dorothy waking up in the land of Oz and seeing things in color, From that point on, I took as many elective courses as I could in Old Testament. In my final year of my M.Div., my husband and I had a conversation about what we would do after graduation, and we decided I would apply to Ph.D. programs—in Old Testament, of course—to see if doors would open for me. When I was accepted into the program at Princeton Seminary, I gratefully walked through that door. When I was in the Ph.D. program, people would ask me what I wanted to do with my degree. My answer was always that I would like to teach at an undergraduate university like the one I attended, never thinking that I would be hired at THE school I attended. There are days when I feel weighed down by grading, or a schedule strained with meetings, but most days I am so glad to be able to do what I do. More→

Interview: Corinna Guerrero

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CorrinaGuerreroCorinna Guerrero is lecturer at Santa Clara University and Adjunct Professor of Biblical Studies at American Baptist Seminary of the West. She is also a Ph.D. Candidate in Biblical Studies at Graduate Theological Union. Guerrero earned a B.A. in Comparative Religious Studies from San José State University and M.A. in Biblical Languages from Graduate Theological Union and Jesuit School of Theology. She can be found online at her page on Academia.edu or on Twitter.

How did you decide to become a biblical scholar? Share your autobiographical journey.

It wasn’t until actually doing the jobs of a biblical scholar that I was certain I wanted to be one. I have been blessed with the best advisor and mentor a woman could ask for, LeAnn Snow Flesher, Academic Dean and Professor of Old Testament at the American Baptist Seminary of the West, a consortial member school of the Graduate Theological Union. She took me under her wing very early in my doctoral studies as a junior scholar, a teaching assistant, and as a mentee. I credit Dr. Flesher with my decision to become a biblical scholar. More→

Interview: Barbara M. Leung Lai

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LeungLai-Faculty New Oic. [2]Dr. Barbara M. Leung Lai is Professor of Old testament and Director of the Pastoral and Chinese Ministry Program at Tyndale Seminary. She earned a B.Th. from Alliance Bible Seminary, M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary, Th.M. from Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto, and Ph.D. from University of Sheffield. Dr. Leung Lai’s website can be found at: drleunglai.tumblr.com

How did you decide to become a biblical scholar? Share your autobiographical journey.

I was first called to the Gospel Ministry in my 20s, so I enrolled at Fuller Seminary for my MDiv in the 70s. During my MDiv studies, I came to love the Hebrew Bible and was preparing myself for this academic path. As a Chinese woman studying MDiv in the mid 70s, I was the only Asian female graduating from Fuller (in 76, only the second year when Fuller had women MDiv graduates, and I was the only non-ordination track graduate among the 4 women grads). After my MDiv., I moved up to Canada, working towards my ThM with a modernist R. K. Harrison at Wycliffe College, U of T, and subsequently moved on to do the ThD with Harrison in the late 70s. When I graduated from Wycliffe, I was the only Asian woman graduating with a graduate degree at Wycliffe (in 79). I continued on my doctorate studies with Harrison (for 6 and a half years) till he became very ill and subsequently passed away in the mid 80s. During the years that I was raising a family, I was looking into starting another doctoral program all over again in the UK. In 1994, I started another PhD program at the University of Sheffield, under a postmodernist this time, Professor David J. A. Clines. As a more mature PhD student, I managed to complete my residence and my degree within 3 years (1997). There were a total of 16 years between the time when I almost completed my ThD dissertation with Harrison and finally gained my PhD from Sheffield under Clines. All because of the sustaining grace from above and the very determined spirit from within—guess, that’s what could be referred to as “a sense of the divine call.” More→

Interview: Beth M. Stovell

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BstovellDr. Beth M. Stovell is Assistant Professor of Old Testament at Ambrose University. She earned a B.A. from University of Texas, a M.C.S. from Regent College, and a Ph.D. from McMaster Divinity School. Stovell can be found at her academia.edu site, personal website at beth.stovell.info or on Twitter @BethStovell.

How did you decide to become a biblical scholar? Share your autobiographical journey.

I never imagined I would be a biblical scholar. I started my undergrad planning to be a neurosurgeon and then became completely enamoured with Classics and English Literature while at University of Texas. I loved ancient languages and literature, but I had no idea what I would do with that. I got a job as a Latin high school and junior high teacher. I figured out I loved teaching, but I wanted to learn more. I went to Regent College for my Masters degree, thinking I might become a novelist. I was studying English Literature and Spiritual Theology when my amazing mentor Dr. Maxine Hancock said to me that I had the gifts of a professor. This combined my passion for writing, research, and teaching in a way that I never imagined could be joined. More→