BONDS Peer Mentors and Area Assistants

BONDS (Building Opportunities and Networks for Divinity Students) Peer Mentors

The BONDS Peer Mentorship Program helps incoming University of Chicago Divinity School students transition to graduate school and build community within their new cohorts and across the Divinity School. Peer mentors engage with incoming students through office hours, one-on-one meetings, regular email check-ins, and social events. BONDS mentors are always available to answer questions about campus and student life, moving to Chicago, experience with courses, languages, etc., or connect students to other resources in the Dean of Students Office or the University.

Brian Carter is a dual-degree student in the MDiv/MSW program. He is studying Islamic mysticism, Islamic Psychology, and philosophies of self. He is interested in chaplaincy and therapy and how to incorporate religious understandings of self and our relationship to “other” into the psychotherapeutic alliance. In his free time, he enjoys movies, theater, swing dancing, activism, and other organized trouble-making.

Max Freeman is a second year MA student specializing in Sanskrit and Kannada literature. He is interested in studying medieval South Indian texts in the context of their living performance traditions. He also likes to think about the future of experimental schools and the teaching of literature. Max grew up biking the perfectly gridded streets of Oak Park, on Chicago’s west side. Now in Hyde Park, his second favorite thing about living on Chicago’s south side is the proximity to the Museum of Science and Industry’s Swiss Jolly Ball. To unwind at the end of each week, you can usually find Max baking a challah or two for Shabbat. He also likes to play hacky sack and swim.

Elijah Freiman is a second year MA student focusing on the history of scholarship on religion and its relation to liberalism as a political and philosophical project. His interests center around the intersection of religion and law, including religious freedom jurisprudence in the United States. He enjoys biking, team sports, chatting about the parsha, and hearing about other people’s dreams.

David Leon is a second year MA student specializing in the Zhuangzi, but broadly interested in how to live in this world and what might lie beyond it. He speaks most major Western European languages and some of the East Asian ones. He is hoping to start a DnD group this year.

Sofia Lesur Kastelein is a second year in the MDiv program. She is interested in the overlaps between religious and therapeutic practices, as well as the queer appeal of astrology and tarot. Before arriving in Chicago, she grew up between Mexico City and southeast England, studied history and anthropology in London, and worked as a corporate oracle (consultant) in New York. Outside of studying, she currently enjoys learning to play the accordion, carving lino prints, and visiting museums.

Naomi Miller is a second year MA student focusing on medieval Christian mysticism, particularly the writings of female mystics. She is additionally interested in the intersection of literature and mysticism more broadly. Originally from New York City, Naomi came to the Divinity School following a series of tutoring and teaching jobs that took her all across the five boroughs. She currently works as an accessions assistant in the Regenstein Library Special Collections. Outside of academia, you can find Naomi picnicking at the Point, catching a movie at Doc Films, or psychoanalyzing reality TV.

Parker Niles (he/they) is a second-year MA student interested in contemporary Buddhist ritual in digital contexts, Buddhist material agency, encounters with the supernatural and unexplained, and Tibetan language. Outside of the fourth floor of the Reg, they work at Grounds of Being as a barista, and enjoy stand-up comedy, literary fiction, graphic novels, pretending to be a film buff, and all things that go bump in the night.

Mukti Patel is a PhD student studying South Asian Religions with a focus on Sanskrit and Gujarati literature and history. Mukti is originally from Toronto and grew up in Virginia, always within two miles of a body of water. When not studying, Mukti likes to make art in any medium possible: painting with coffee, calligraphy with crushed berry ink, sculpting with wire, you name it. She is also an enthusiastic plant mom, currently most proud of a miniature rose bush growing in her kitchen. You can usually find her at a coffee shop ordering anything but coffee.

Elaina Reese is a third-year student in the MDiv program and is interested in healthcare chaplaincy and clinical ethics. Originally from Buffalo, New York, Elaina found her way to the Divinity School after educational and work experiences in the fields of nuclear materials, pediatric clinical trials, and hospice. When she’s not studying, Elaina likes to share meals with friends, write letters, shop at Korean grocery stores, and play Mario Kart.

Chase Viscuse is a second-year MA student doing historical and ethnographic work with serpent handling communities. He can usually be found ordering at Grounds of Being or walking his dog, Nomad. Chase is interested in projects that operate outside of societal norms. His extracurricular interests include sports, walking his dog, coffee, watching movies, and chess.

alicehank winham (we/wer) is a PhD student in the Philosophy of Religion track, focusing on Buddhist philosophy in conversation with contemporary philosophies oriented toward liberation. We hold a BA in Philosophy and Theology and an MSt in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Oxford, where we worked on neo-Pragmatist approaches to Candrakīrti as counters to naive Realism, and on countering Nihilistic approaches to Nāgārjuna by dispelling the possibility that he wielded śūnyatā with the arithmetic connotations of zero. Currently, alicehank is interested in exploring questions of how “what and who counts” arises in our field of perception in relation to individuation, differentiation, and our use of logic, while continuing to practice philosophical witchood, yoga, meditation, communal and environmental care, and insurrectionist ethics.

Open Space Coordinators

 

kimraj jordan (they/she) is a Sikh Punjabi, though she grew up in the U.S. She is a second-year MDiv student studying intersections between religious and other identities and spiritual and mental health care as well as her own faith. Open Space was one of her favorite things about her first year in Swift; she loved the opportunity to listen and be listened to. kimraj loves to read romance novels, dance, cook (for other people!), and go for walks with friends. And they enjoys meeting new people, so don’t be afraid to say “Hi!” if you see them on campus!

Area Assistant

 

Dani Levy is a second-year MA student at the Divinity School studying ancient Levantine and Near Eastern religions, with a focus on cosmological texts, the Hebrew Bible, and themes of gender, materiality, and the body. She is especially interested in the relationship between immaterial divine concepts and their material embodied manifestations as written texts, amulets, body parts, and holy objects. Originally from California, Dani has loved living in Chicago for the past five years. Outside of academia, she enjoys making ancient-inspired jewelry, watching movies, listening to disco music, and painting her nails.

Ministry Assistant

 

Hart Lang is an MDiv student and one of two Open Space Co-Coordinators. Originally from South Carolina, he’s been an artist and facilitator in Chicago for most of the last ten years and remains eternally curious about the ways creativity facilitates community building. He has an MFA in Creative Writing, a BA in Anthropology and Philosophy, and an abiding devotion to Lake Michigan.

Tutors

 

Garrett Lincoln Ashlock is a first-year PhD student on the History of Christianity track. He holds a BA in Middle East Studies from the University of Michigan and an MA from the University of Chicago Divinity School. Garrett is captivated by the relationship between Christianity and Platonism. He has focused on so-called “Christian Platonists” in the Greek, Armenian, and Syriac traditions, especially the Dionysian Corpus and Origen of Alexandria and his followers. From Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Garrett enjoys hiking, fishing, horticulture, natural history, bluegrass and country music, cooking Kentucky staples like barbeque, fried chicken, and cornbread, Cincinnati Reds baseball, and reading books, both fictional and nonfictional, especially those concerning the American South.

Admissions and Recruitment Assistant

 

Gillian Applegate (she/her) is a second-year MDiv. After a career in foster care, she decided to follow her calling and go to divinity school to become a chaplain. Gillian is an avid fan of West Ham United, hot tea, and the Balkans.

Andrew Wagner is an MA student at the Divinity School. He is interested in the philosophy of religion, especially philosophical and theological perspectives on the self, the will, and time, as well as intellectual history, with a focus on the relationship between existentialism and the history of Christianity. He is from Louisville, Kentucky, and in his free time enjoys long-distance running, playing electric guitar, and swimming at the Point.