Emily is a first-year PhD student studying the New Testament and early Christian literature.

What does your work focus on / revolve around?

My study revolves around the New Testament and its earliest readers. I am fascinated by how this sacred collection of writings came into existence, and how ancient Christian exegetes engaged in their task of interpreting it. I am especially interested in how they conceived of their reading as a transformative encounter with their scripture’s authors, both human and divine.

How did you come to study at the Divinity School?

While an undergraduate, I discovered Professor Mitchell’s The Heavenly Trumpet: John Chrysostom and the Art of Pauline Interpretation. Inspired by this book – its subject, methodology, and quality of scholarship – I pursued its author and her institution when I researched graduate programs. I applied to the Divinity School and then actually visited Swift Hall in the frigid month of January 2019. Although the stones outside were treacherously slick, and the classrooms inside too heated to be comfortable, I felt at home in the courses I audited during my visit. The discussions were rigorous and illuminating, but Professor Mitchell’s care left just as much an impression. During a three-hour evening Early Christian Rhetoric seminar, she shared a Cliff bar from her office and gave me a ride to my Airbnb afterward.

What is an aspect of life at the Divinity School or in Hyde Park that you enjoy?

The lake! On its shores, I visit with friends, rest in solitude, exercise, read, Rosary, drink coffee. Sometimes I jump in, usually in the summer. I enjoy how she provides a watery limit to the city and reminds me of my home, West Michigan, which lies just across, on the other side.