Scholars, students, and alums showcase their research and thought leadership in Boston
November 2025 – Drew Theological School will once again be well represented at the Annual Meetings of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), taking place November 22–25 in Boston.
The annual conferences, among the largest global gatherings of scholars in religion, theology, and biblical studies, will feature Drew faculty, students, and alums across dozens of panels, papers, and leadership roles.
The Theological School’s presence at the AAR and SBL Annual Meetings demonstrates the school’s deep and ongoing engagement with critical issues shaping theology and society today.
In addition to their academic contributions, the Drew University Alum Reception will be held on Sunday, November 23, welcoming members of the extended Drew community for an evening of connection and celebration.
Drew’s distinguished faculty will lead and contribute to critical conversations at the intersections of theology, ecology, gender, migration, and politics.
- The Rev. Dr. Melanie Johnson-DeBaufre, Henry Anson Buttz Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, will participate in several SBL sessions, including the Paul and Politics Seminar and a generative book review panel for The Formative Stratum of the Sayings Gospel Q.
- Dr. Dong Sung Kim C’07, T’11,’22, Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible, serves as co-chair of the SBL Children in the Biblical World section.
- The Rev. Dr. Hyo-Dong Lee, Associate Professor of Comparative Theology, will present Tianxia World Order and Daedong Democracy: Toward a Confucian Utopian Re-imagination of the Global Commons.
- The Rev. Dr. Althea Spencer Miller, Assistant Professor of New Testament, will serve as a panelist for the SBL session Migration and the New Carceral State.
- Dr. Elaine Nogueira-Godsey, Assistant Professor of Religion, Society, & Ecofeminism, will preside and respond in multiple AAR sessions focused on ecofeminism, liberation, and Latinx religious thought.
- Dr. Karen Pechilis, Affiliate Professor, will present Devotion, Freedom, and Identity: An Early Female Saint.
- The Rev. Dr. Robert Paul Seesengood, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, will be the subject of a combined AAR/SBL review panel on his book American Standard: The Bible in U.S. Popular Culture.
Drew’s PhD students will also be active presenters and presiders, reflecting the school’s strong commitment to rigorous scholarship and public theology.
- Brigid Dwyer | Presenting | Because Licked Cupcakes are Unworthy of Life: Thomas 114, Mary Magdalene, and the Abjection of the Feminine | Presenting | But She Said… “No.” Affording Feminist Killjoy Agency to the Women of Mark 16:8
- Hunter Edwards | Presenting | Dangerous Mixtures: Nadab and Abihu through the Lens of Shadow of the Colossus
- Carolina Glauster | Presiding | Prophetic and Shamanic Women from a Global Perspective
- Eun Sung Han | Presenting | A Decolonial Reading of John’s Vision of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:9–22:5
- Eunchul Jung | Presenting | The Salimist: A Comparative Study of the Postmodern Feminine (and perhaps Feminist) Subject beyond Liberal Humanism
- Jung Ae Kim | Presenting | A Dog-Man Picking Up Scraps under the Master’s Table (Judges 1:4–7)
- Matthew Lai | Presenting | Political Mourning as Ritual Protest: The Chinese Religious Elements of the June 4 Candlelight Vigils in Hong Kong
- YoungHak Lee | Presenting | Decolonizing Faith: The Bible, Martyrdom, and Historiophoty in Ilsagago | Panelist | Book Review: Sarah Emanuel’s Wrestling with Paul: The Apostle, His Readers, and the Fate of the Jews (Fortress Press 2025)
- Juan Martinez | Panelist | Latine Public Witness in the Wake of Far-Right Movements
- Isabella Novsima | Presenting | Disability and Liberation: The Legacy of Jurgen Moltmann in Theology of Disabilities
- Fellipe dos Anjos Pereira | Presenting | The Falling Sky as Cosmopolitical Warfare: Eschatological scenes of an Ancestral Catastrophe in Brazil
- Lerato Pitso | Presenting | Not Yet Uhuru: The Colonised South Africa Plate
- Beth Quick | Presenting | Creaturely Labor and the Problem of Christian Vocation
- Susan Saridakis | Presenting | After the Unveiling, Now What?
- TH Wolf | Presenting | More Intimate than Identity: Philippians 3:12–4:1 and Queer Potentials for Collective Utopian Longing | Presenting | Right Hand Man All Along: The Queer Afterlife of Judas in Popular Culture
- Yajenlemla | Presiding | The Road to Publication: Navigating the Academic Publishing Process
Drew’s alum network continues to shape scholarship through innovative and justice-oriented research.
- Lisa Asedillo T’23 | Panelist | Transnational Asian/American Feminist Theologies: History, Challenges, and Future Possibilities Saturday
- Kathleen Elkins T’13 | Presiding | Including and Excluding Children: How Are the Vulnerable Valued? | Program Unit Chair | Steering Committee of the “Children in the Biblical World” section (co-chairing with Dr. Dong Sung Kim)
- Jacob Erickson T’18 | Presenting | The Terror of the Trees: Algernon Blackwood, Vegetal Entanglement, and Pantheist Legacies
- Nikki Hoskins T’21 | Panelist | Black Religion, Death, and the Afterlives of Memory
- Jennifer Maidrand T’24 | Panelist | Book Review Panel Discussion of Munther Isaac’s Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza Saturday
- abby mohaupt T’24 | Panelist | Roundtable on Building a Moral Economy: Pathways for People of Courage
- Elaine Padilla T’11 | Panelist | La Comunidad Book Panel
- Erica Ramirez T’19 | Presenting and Responding | The Biopolitics of Miracles | Presiding | La Comunidad Book Panel | Panelist | Latine Public Witness in the Wake of Far-Right Movements
- Terra Schwerin Rowe T’16 | Presiding | Extraction, Religion and Land/place-based methods | Responding | Roundtable on Building a Moral Economy: Pathways for People of Courage
- Brian Tipton T’22 | Presenting | Where the Wild Things Are: Children’s Literature and Our Animal Imaginings (Mk. 1:13)
- Leah Thomas T’17 | Presenting | Pastoral/Spiritual Care in Times of Distress: A Turn to Embodiment
