News from Alumni/ae
News items are listed in reverse chronological order, with weekly additions of news. Please click here to share your news.
Posted February 20, 2012
Dennis Castillo (AM'82, PHD'90) has just published a new book: The Santa Marija Convoy: Faith and Endurance in War-Time Malta, 1940-42 (Lexington Books). He is currently Academic Dean and Professor of Church History at Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, NY.
On January 4 Tristan Orozco (MDV'10) became Associate Minister of Wakonda Christian Church in Des Moines, Iowa.
Laura Hollinger (MDV'04) has become the Campus Engagement Manager with Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based nonprofit with the mission of building interfaith cooperation. She moved to this position after seven years as Associate Dean of Rockefeller Chapel and as coordinator of Bond Chapel worship for the Divinity School.
Michael Karunas (MDV'98) has been named the new senior minister of Central Christian Church in Decatur, Illinois. He concluded service as the senior minister of First Christian Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on January 31, 2012.
Larry Bouchard (AM'75, PHD'84) has published Theater and Integrity: Emptying Selves in Drama, Ethics, and Religion (Northwestern University Press). He is currently Associate Professor at the University of Virginia.
Posted January 30, 2012
We were saddened to hear of the death of Reverend Myron L. Ebersole (AM'61, DB'63). Rev. Ebersole was a hospital Chaplain and Supervisor of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis, Lancaster General Hospital, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 1967-78, and the Penn State University Medical Center, Hershey Pennsylvania, 1978-96. He also served as a Supervisor at The Christian Medical College and Hospital in Vellore, India, in 1996. He was a member of The American Board of the Vellore Hospital 1998-2006. He was active in professional organizations, serving as President of the College of Chaplains in 1979. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the College of Chaplains in 1986. He was a member of the Board of Representatives and served on the Certification Committee of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. He also was founder of the Pennsylvania Society of Chaplains, which he served as President for a term.
Robert Denham (AM'64, PHD'72 in Humanities) has just published his 32nd book: The Northrop Frye Handbook (Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland and Co., 2012). On March 28, 2012 he will deliver the Reynolds Lectures at Emory & Henry College, in Emory, VA. Denham is Fishwick Professor of English, Emeritus, Roanoke College.
Kinndlee Shea Lund (MDV'08) will be ordained on February 4 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Pelican Rapids, MN. She has been called to serve as Associate Pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Breham, Texas and begins there later in February.Emilie M. Townes (AM'79, DMN'82) has been named to The Fund for Theological Education (FTE) Board of Trustees. Ms. Townes is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology at Yale Divinity School and an ordained American Baptist clergywoman.
Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove (PHD'08) has been named Rabbinical Advisor on Interfaith Affairs for the Anti-Defamation League. Rabbi Cosgrove is Senior Rabbi at Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City.
Posted January 10, 2012
Anthony Cerulli (PHD'07) has won an EURIAS Fellowship, with affiliation at the Insitut d'études avancées-Paris, for 2012-2013. He has also been awarded an NEH Fellowship for 2012-2013. He is currently teaching at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and is Managing Editor, India Review.
Jeff Lehn (MDV'10) is now the new pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Cynthia Lindner participated in his ordination service there on November 27.
Eric Ziolkowski (AM'81, PHD'87) has just published a new book, The Literary Kierkegaard (Northwestern University Press). He is also one of the main editors of The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, a prospective 30-volume work published by De Gruyter in Berlin, whose third volume appeared this past fall, and whose fourth volume is scheduled to appear during the winter 2012.
With sadness, we report that Joseph Colombo (AM'78, PHD'86) passed away on January 2. A passionate and inspiring professor at the University of San Diego, Joe joined their Department of Theology and Religious Studies in 1984, and served as Department Chair from 1998-2004. He was recognized with a Steber Professorship in 2006-2007, as well as being named a University Professor in 1997-1998. His extensive service to the College and University included multiple terms on the University Senate, as well as serving on, and chairing, the CAS ARRT committee.
Posted December 22, 201
G. William Barnard (PhD '94) has just published Living Consciousness: The Metaphysical Vision of Henri Bergson, with SUNY Press.
Jon Ebel (AM'99, PHD'04) was awarded tenure at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He was also awarded the Helen Corley Petit prize for the best tenure dossier in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Dennis Duling (AM'67, PHD'70) just published A Marginal Scribe. Studies in the Gospel of Matthew in Social-Scientific Perspective, with Cascade Books (Wipf and Stock).Posted December 7, 2011
W. Clark Gilpin (AM'72, PHD'74) and Catherine Brekus have published American Christianities: A History of Dominance and Diversity, with University of North Carolina Press. Clark Gilpin is the Margaret E. Burton Professor Emeritus of the history of Christianity and Catherine Brekus is associate professor of the history of Christianity.
Dan McKanan (PhD'98) has just published Prophetic Encounters: Religion and the American Radical Tradition, with Beacon Press.
Anne Ford (AM'99) has published Peaceful Places: Chicago. This guide includes 119 tranquil sites in the Chicago area where one can escape the stress of the big city.
Posted November 22, 2011
T.L. Brink (PHD'78) is youtube's "headlessprofessor" where he has uploaded nearly 300 videos covering topics in psychology, economics, logic, statistics, and Mexican politics as well as religious studies. He has videos on theodicy, the ontological argument, teleological argument, cosmological argument, Calvin, and religious roles. These videos are particularly useful in his online lower division courses.
Amy Ziettlow (MDV'99) and Elizabeth Marquardt (MDV'99) have received a three-year grant from the Lilly Endowment to investigate aging, death, and dying in an era of high family fragmentation. They plan to write a trade book. Each are currently blogging at Huffington Post and FamilyScholars.org.
Posted November 1, 2011
Michael Brown (MDV'94, PHD'98) recently left his position at Emory (associate professor of New Testament and Christian Origins) for the position of associate dean of the College and director of the Malcolm X Institute of Black Studies at Wabash College. He began his new position on September 1, 2011.
Anthony R. Picarello, Jr. (AM'92), general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has been named associate general secretary for policy and advocacy of the USCCB. Picarello has served as general counsel for the USCCB since 2007 and will retain that title.
Posted October 21, 2011
We were saddened to hear of the death of the Reverend J. Dean Brackley, S.J. (PHD'80). For most of the 1980s Brackley worked as an educator, teaching at Fordham University, and as a community organizer in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He also led a church-sponsored leadership program in the South Bronx. After graduates of the School of the Americas killed six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter in 1989 at the University of Central America in San Salvador, Brackley volunteered to take the place of one of the martyred Jesuits. He joined the staff of the Universidad Centroamericana in 1990 and administered the university’s School for Religious Education and assisted in schools for pastoral formation sponsored by the UCA. He was the author of The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times: New Perspectives on the Transformative Wisdom of Ignatius of Loyola (Crossroad, 2004) and of numerous articles in America, Revista Latinoamericana de Teología, and Grail. Beyond his academic responsibilities, Brackley did pastoral work in a poor urban community in San Salvador. He described life in El Salvador as, “a mix of economic, political, generational, moral and religious crosses and resurrections.” Lecturing extensively in the USA and Europe, Brackley did much to keep the memory of the recent martyrs of El Salvador alive and to continue their struggle for social justice. See the New York Times article here.
Rebecca Anderson (MDV'10) has been called as Associate Minister of Glencoe Union Church, just north of Chicago. She has been serving at Holy Covenant United Methodist Church in Chicago.
On August 1, Brittany Barber (MDV'99) began serving as Interim Minister of University Place Christian Church in Champaign, Illinois.
Spencer Dew (AM'01, PHD'09) is serving as a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. This summer he received a grant from the Black Metropolis Research Consortium for archival research on the Moorish Science Temple.
Beau Underwood (MDV'10) has joined the pastoral team of National City Christian Church in Washington, DC, part-time. As assistant pastor, he will lead new member classes, plan special worship services, and serve as National City's clergy representatative to the Washington Interfaith Network (WIN). He continues full-time as the Partnership and Outreach Coordinator for Faith in Public Life.
Ben Varnum (MDV'10) has been named Assistant Rector of St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church in Overland Park, Kansas, beginning in mid-October. He will be ordained by the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago on November 1, 6:00 pm, at St. Chrysostom Episcopal Church in Chicago.
Posted September 28, 2011
Dan Overmyer (AM'66, PHD'71) has several recent publications: Local Religion in North China in the Twentieth Century:The Structure and Organization of Community Rituals and Beliefs, By Daniel L. Overmyer, Leiden, Brill, 2009; (Co-edited with Larry DeVries and Don Baker) Asian Religions in British Columbia, UBC Press, 2010; (Festschrift), The People and the Dao: New Studies in Chinese Religions in Honour of Daniel L. Overmyer, Monumenta Serica Monograph Series LX, Sankt Augustin, Institut Monumenta Serica, 2009. He has retired from teaching and research, and is now a happy grandfather of five and President of Nature Vancouver (The Vancouver Natural History Society) .
Posted September 13, 2011
Anne E. Patrick (AM'76, PHD'82) retired from Carleton College as William H. Laird Professor of Religion and the Liberal Arts, emerita, in 2009 and moved back to Silver Spring, Maryland. She has recently published Women, Conscience, and the Creative Process (Paulist, 2011), and she is now at work on another volume in Catholic feminist ethics.
Franklin Sherman (PHD'61) has published Bridges: Documents of the Christian-Jewish Dialogue. Volume 1: The Road to Reconciliation, 1945-1985 (Paulist Press, 2011). Volume 2 (forthcoming) will bring the documentation down to the present. After many years on the faculty of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Frank became Founding Director of the Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding at Muhlenberg College, his alma mater. In 2010, he received the third annual Shevet Achim Award from the Council of Centers on Christian-Jewish Relations for outstanding contributions in the field.
John Weaver (AM'98) was recently appointed Dean of Library Services and Educational Technology at Abilene Christian University. He previously served as Director of The Burke Theological Library at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Also, he was elected as President of the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) this year.
Anne K. Knafl (AM'02, PHD'11) is Visiting Instructor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and also Adjunct Faculty at Spertus College in Chicago.
Heather Miller Rubens (PHD'11) was named the Roman Catholic Scholar at the Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, MD.
Daniel Shin (PHD'11) will be a Post Doctoral Fellow at Emory University.
Emy Cardoza (MDV'10) has accepted the position of Coordinator for DePaul University's Office of Diversity Education.
Yue Zhang (AM'11) will be an Associate at KMPG in Dallas, TX.
Devin P. O'Rourke (AM'11) is the Assistant Director of Graduate Student Affairs at the University of Chicago.
Posted August 24, 2011
Joel Harter (PHD'08) just published his first book -- Coleridge's Philosophy of Faith: Symbol, Allegory, and Hermeneutics. He is currently the Lilly Pastoral Resident at Hyde Park Union Church and an adjunct instructor of philosophy at Catholic Theological Union.
Posted August 4, 2011
David Peter Lawrence (AM'82, PHD'92), Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy at North Dakota University, has been selected for a Fulbright research grant to India during the 2011-2012 academic year for a project contributing to intercultural and comparative philosophy and South Asian studies. Lawrence will study in India under the project "Translations and Studies of Monistic Saiva Philosophy." He will spend the year in the city of Lucknow, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, and will also conduct research in other cities such as Varanasi and Kolkata.
Posted July 28, 2011
On July 1, Amy Limpitlaw (AM'90, PhD'00) began her new position as the new Head Librarian for the School of Theology. Amy was recently the Research & Electronic Services Librarian for the Yale University Divinity Library, and she served before that as Associate Director of Vanderbilt University’s Divinity Library, where she had earlier served as Public Services Librarian.
Posted July 21, 2011
Steven McFarland (AM'03) has served as Vice President for University Communications at Aurora University in Aurora, Illinois, since late 2010. Earlier, he led communications efforts at Harvard Divinity School and the national domestic hunger-relief organization Feeding America.
Jennifer Kottler (MDiv'03) became the Associate Pastor of Park Avenue Christian Church in New York City on July 1. She previously served as Director of Policy and Advocacy at Sojourners.
Posted June 27, 2011
The Rev. Elyse Nelson Winger (MDiv'99) has been appointed the new University chaplain of Illinois Wesleyan University. “The IWU community will be well served by Chaplain Nelson Winger’s strong background and experience, as well as her proven commitment to diversity and social justice,” said Kathy Cavins-Tull, IWU vice president for student affairs and dean of students. See the full news announcement at http://www.iwu.edu/CurrentNews/newsreleases11/news_Chaplain_00611.shtml
Nelson Tebbe (PhD'06) is Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. He writes about religious freedom and general constitutional law and theory. He is Chair of the Law and Religion Section of the American Association of Law Schools, co-organizer of the Brooklyn Legal Theory Colloquium and the Annual Law and Religion Roundtable. His most recent article, on the constitutional status of nonbelievers, will be published in the September 2011 issue of the Virginia Law Review.
Posted June 20, 2011
Rev. Dr. Matthew Myer Boulton (PHD'03) has been named the Christian Theological Seminary’s sixth president. Boulton is relocating to Indianapolis from Cambridge, Massachusetts where he has served as Associate Professor of Ministry Studies at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) since 2007. He has taught a broad range of courses on Christian theology, preaching, and history, including courses that put social justice work in theological perspective. His teaching and research have explored the ways in which Christian life is shaped through worship and music. See the full CTS announcement at http://cts.informz.net/CTS/archives/archive_1579596.html
Philip Harrold (PHD'01), Associate Professor of Church History at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, has recently co-edited (with D. H. Williams) and published, The Great Tradition--A Great Labor: Studies in Ancient-Future Faith (Cascade Press, 2011). The volume includes essays by D. H. Williams, Tony Clark, Edith Humphrey, Simon Chan, D. Stephen Long, George Sumner, and Dominic Erdozain. While the focus is on contemporary Anglicanism, the wider search among evangelicals for "deep church" (C. S. Lewis) is described from a multi-disciplinary perspective.
Joe Blosser (PHD'11) has been named Asst. Professor of Religion and Philosophy, and Director of Service-Learning at High Point University in High Point, NC.
Laura Desmond (PHD'11) teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY.
Cooper Harriss (PHD'11) will be Visiting Assistant Professor of Race and Religion at Virginia Tech, Dept. of Religion and Culture, in Blacksburg, VA.
Garry Sparks (PHD'11) will be Visiting Assistant Professor of the Humanities and Theology at Christ College, Valparaiso University, in Valparaiso, IN.
Sandra Sullivan-Dunbar (PHD'10) is Assistant Professor, Department of Theology, Loyola University Chicago.
Dov Weiss (PHD'11) will be Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Mark Franzen (MA'10) is the Program Coordinator for Lumen Christi Institute in Chicago.
Liv Gibbons (MDV'11) will be ordained July 17 at First Christian Church, Eugene, Oregon. In August, she will become the Minister in Residence at Central Christian Church, Lexington, KY.
Julia Hogren (MA'11) will be an Editorial Assistant at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago.
Jennifer Jaszewski (MA'11) will teach Secondary Math for Teach for America in Phoenix, Arizona.
Don Messner (MDV'11) will be Assistant Minister for Membership Development at First Unitarian Church of Rochester, NY.
Tristan Orozco (MDV'10) is Associate Minister at Plymouth Congregational Church (UCC) in Des Moines, IA.
George Sanchez (MA'11) will teach in the English Department of Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, IL.
Vijay Shah (MA'11) teaches Science at CICS Ralph Ellison High School in Chicago.
Andria Skornik (MDV'11) will be a CPE Chaplain Resident at Resurrection Healthcare CPE Residency in Chicago, IL.
Annette Thornburg (MDV'11) will be a Pastoral Resident at the Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, TX.
Posted May 20, 2011
Dr. Thomas F. Freeman (PhD'48) was honored on March 27 for sixty years of service as Pastor of Mt. Horem Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. Dr. Freeman, the Distinguished Professor of Forensics at Texas Southern University, was also honored, in 2009, for sixty years of service to TSU, and especially commended for his work with their debate team. TSU has established the Thomas F. Freeman Honors College, in his honor.
Anthony C. Yu (PhD'69) writes with news of Sueo Oshima (AM'65, PHD'70): Oshima studied with all the major theologians of Swift Hall in the sixties and finished a dissertation on Karl Barth and Heidegger, with Professor Joseph Haroutunian. When he wrote on the connection between the Swiss theologian who visited Chicago in 1962 and the German philosopher, most scholars here and abroad thought he was a bit crazy, but time has more than vindicated his approach. During his teaching career of nearly four decades back in his home country, he published four books (a revised and translated version of his Div Sch dissertation, and monographic studies of Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, and Paul Ricoeur in Japanese). In Japan, he is a celebrated authority on Barth and Tillich.
Posted May 5, 2011
The Rev. John M. Buchanan (BD'63) will receive an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from CTS and deliver the commencement address on May 14.
Kelly Hayes (PHD'04) turned her dissertation on Afro-Brazilian religious rituals into a documentary film, Slaves of the Saints.
Kurt Elling keeps it bittersweet on his new album, "The Gate".
Erin Bouman (MDV'09) was ordained at the Faith Lutheran Church (ECLA) in Homewood, Illinois, last November. With her in the photo is The Reverend Dr. Karen E. Knutson (THM'71, DMN'72), the first woman in the LCA (Lutheran Church in America) ordained to a regular parish position.
Posted April 27, 2011
The Rev. Richard Lawrence (DB'62) was awarded the Purpose Prize in 2010 for applying his skills as an organizer to increase affordable housing options in Southern California and opportunities for citizen engagement nationally. As the volunteer co-chairman of the Affordable Housing Coalition the San Diego County, he helped to organize a broad-based alliance of labor, faith-based and community groups called ACCORD, or A Community Coalition Organized for Responsible Development. With ACCORD, Lawrence helped secure a $30 million agreement from real estate investment firm JMI Realty to create 136 units of housing for families earning between $18,000 and $36,000 per year. The units opened in 2009. Among Lawrence’s other successes, he protected San Diego area renters from arbitrary eviction from an SRO hotel and helped advocate for housing-related city ordinances, including one that requires that 10 percent of all new housing be affordable. Now Lawrence is focused on developing “community action think tanks” to engage diverse groups of citizens in exploring pressing issues, including housing and health care.
Grafton M. Thomas (DB'48) reports: “Briefly, after a short and happy career in teaching and business, I enrolled at U.of C. for ministry, in 1945. Now 95, my accomplishments beyond the usual: Ahead of the times, I was the major founder of four Illinois civil rights organizations, removing northern Jim Crow, beginning in 1943 when M.L. King, Jr. was in 8th grade. This included organizing a successful boycott of employers in 1959, in the southern-culture city of Alton, IL., James E. Ray's home, nearly causing a riot. Lost my pastorate, but worth the fun! In 1955, led movement to route a county crime syndicate and corrupt politicians in northern IL. Published my bio: "Confessions of a Maverick Minister" four years ago. Prof. Vic Obenhaus inspired me .... Am now a widower, but much involved in two forum groups, each with sixteen educated retired men, I founded in 2000, so I enjoy a weekly discussion on many issues. Still active in walking and golf."
Rev. Michael R. Swartzentruber (MDV'10) has accepted a call to First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Richmond, Kentucky , where he will serve as the Associate Minister.
Abby Zang Hoffman (MDV'06, AM'06 SSA) moved to the suburbs of Rochester, NY (Fairport) in September and now serves as Senior Pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church.
Posted April 20, 2011
Elizabeth Marquardt and Amy Ziettlow (both MDV '99) are each blogging at FamilyScholars.org and HuffingtonPost.com on themes including families, death and dying, and spirituality. They welcome your comments.
Larry Rosser (THM'69, DMN'76) is serving as Executive Director of Kimoyo-Lamboya -- a Ghanaian NGO that was formed to respond to the invitation from the Chief and Elders of Lamboya Tribe in Ghana's Upper East Region to use their gift of 160 acres to build a West African Hospital & Medical School, K-12 school, conference center and guest house, microfinance administration and training center, Internet Cafe as well as agricultural/animal husbandry demo programs.
Mary Krawczyk (MDV'92, AM'92 SSA) is the Director of Family Services for Friendly House, an agency doing immigration, child welfare, counseling and education in Phoenix, AZ. See FriendlyHouse.org
Jim Bundy (DMN'69, AM'71, PHD'79) recently retired after 42 years in the ministry with the United Church of Christ, the last ten of which were at Sojourners U.C.C. in Charlottesville, VA. In connection with his retirement, the church published a collection of his sermons from his time at Sojourners entitled Words Along the Way: Sermons for Sojourners (Charlottesville, Sojourners United Church of Christ, 2010).
Posted March 28, 2011
A Disciples minister, G. E. Ryan Gilbert (MDV'08) had his sermon, "Son of a Zealous God," published in A Beautiful Thing: Sermons from the Inaugural Festival of Young Preachers, ed. Lee Huckleberry (Chalice Press, 2010). He recently moderated the Transylvania Presbytery's Calvin Retreat and serves on a monthly preaching rotation for two area Presbyterian churches. In his previous position, he served as the Associate Pastor for Youth at the First Presbyterian Church of Prestonsburg, Kentucky.
This May, Jill Raitt (AM'67, PHD'70) concludes a three-year term (2008-20011) as The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Endowed Chair in Catholic Thought at Fontbonne College in St. Louis, MO. During the academic year 2011-2012, she will be a visiting professor in the Department of Theological Studies at St. Louis University.
Posted March 18, 2011
William J. Hynes (AM'69, PHD'76) was inaugurated President of Holy Names University in Oakland, CA on March 16, 2011.
Posted March 9, 2011
Daniel Cooperrider (AB'07, MDV'10) has been called to the position of Pastoral Resident at Wellesley Congregational Church in Wellesley, MA., beginning in August, 2011.
Julian DeShazier (MDV'10) will be installed as pastor of University Church, Chicago IL, on April 10, 2011.
Amy Lignitz Harken (MDV'03) has accepted a call to become Pastor of Mattapoisett (Massachusetts) Congregational Church (UCC). This move comes after five years' serving as Senior Minister at First Christian Church (DOC) in Independence, Mo.
Dan Kuckuck (MDV'10) has been selected for the pastoral residency program at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, IA.Beau Underwood (MDV'10, MPP'10) has accepted a position with Faith In Public Life in Washington, DC (www.faithinpubliclife.org) to serve as the organization's Partnership and Outreach Coordinator. DennisCastillo
