Our PhD Students

Gonzalo Alers

Email Address: galers@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Research Interests: The Gospels; The Book of Revelation; Early Christianity; Non-Canonical Literature; Postcolonial and Decolonial Biblical Criticism

Michael Anderson

Email Address: manderson3@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion, ABD
Dissertation Title: “Becoming Friends, Becoming Gods: Friendship as an Everyday Mysticism”
Research Interests: Philosophies of friendship, desire, and intimacy; Ethics; Popular Culture, esp. television and game studies; Queer Theory; Letters and letter-writing; Mysticism

Lisa Asedillo

Email Address: lisasedillo@gmail.com
Program Area: Religion and Society, ABD
Dissertation Title: “Decolonial Hope as Praxis: Pedagogical Strategies of Freedom in the Philippines”
Research Interests: Race and Decoloniality; US-Philippine Relations/US Empire History; Asian American Christian Ethics/Transpacific Studies; Postcolonial Feminist Theo-Ethics; Queer of Color Critique

Gum Jat Awng

Email Address: gawng@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion
Research Interests: Postcolonial Theory; Liberation Theologies; Process Philosophy; New Materialism

Hunter Bragg

Email Address: hbragg@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion ABD
Dissertation Title: “Condemning Whom We Do Not Know: A Political Theology of Plea Bargaining in American Criminal Justice”
Research Interests: Political Theology; Theologies and Practices of Christian Confessor; Apophatic Theology; Theological Anthropology; the American Prison-Industrial Complex; American Plea Bargaining
Professional Website: https://drew.academia.edu/HBragg

Benjamin Bixler

Email Address: bbixler@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Research Interests: Identity formation in the Hebrew Bible; Gospels; Popular Culture; Critical Race Theory; Masculinity; Anabaptist/Mennonite Theology; Pedagogy
Professional Website: https://drew.academia.edu/BenjaminBixler

Weizhen Chen

Email Address: wchen1@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion
Research Interests: Political Theology; Liberation Theology; Black Theology; Process Philosophy; Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies; Mohism; Politics of China

Andrew Deeb

Email Address: adeeb@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Research Interests: Hebrew Bible; Wisdom Literature; Trans Studies; Affect Theory; Bible and Popular Media

Damien Pascal Domenack

Email Address: ddomenack@drew.edu
Program Area: Religion and Society
Research Interests: Black Atlantic; Dance and Performance; Christian Sexual Ethics; Decoloniality, Critical Theory, Liberation Theology; LGBTQI+ Ministry; Pastoral Theology; Queer/Trans Theory

Brigid Dwyer

Email Address: bdwyer@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Research Interest: New Testament Studies; Pauline Studies; Spirit-Flesh Binary; Feminist and Queer Theories

Hunter Edwards

Email Address: hedwards@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Research Interests: Hebrew Bible; Queer Theory; Interplay of Narrative and Legal Code; Characterizations of God; Social Identity in Texts

Luke Grote

Email Address: wlgrote@gmail.com
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion, ABD
Dissertation Title: The Self That Therefore I Am Not: Jacques Lacan, Zen Buddhism, and the Practice of Subjectivity
Research Interests: Jacques Lacan; Zen Buddhism; Continental Philosophy; Spirituality

Eun Han

Email Address: ehan@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Research Interests: Postcolonial Biblical Criticism; Memory Theory

Simeiqi He 何斯美琪

Email Address: she1@drew.edu
Program Area: Religion and Society, ABD
Dissertation Title: “‘The Living Flame of Love’: A Post-Critical Moral Theology of Marriage”
Research Interests: Theological Ethics/Moral Theology/Christian Ethics; Social Ethics; Catholic Social Thought; Comparative Religious Ethics; Spirituality and Mysticism; Continental Philosophy; Chinese Thought; Literary and Cultural Theory; Critical Theory; Marriage and Family; Gender and Sexuality; Environmental Ethics; Bioethics; Peace-building; Contemporary China

Wren Hillis

Email Address: lhillis@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion
Research Interests: Political Theology; Religion, Politics and Economics; Methodist and Wesleyan Studies

Esther Inuwa

Email Address: einuwa@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Research Interests: New Testament Studies; African/a studies; Womanist/Gender Hermeneutics; Postcolonial and Decolonial Theory; Revelation; Empire; Apocalyptic Studies

Nicholas A. Johnson

Email Address: njohnson2@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures, ABD
Dissertation Title: “Idolatry in Romans and Revelation: Toward An Africana-Decolonial Hermeneutic of Images”
Research Interests: Pauline epistles; Revelation; Early Christian history; Intersections of Africana, postcolonial, and New Testament studies

Eunchul Jung

Email Address: ejung@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion
Dissertation Title: Phenomenology of Eros: Deconstruction of the Self and the Experience of Salvation
Research Interests: Free will; Subjectivity; German Idealism; Psychoanalysis; Critique of civilization; Phenomenology

Ha Young Kang

Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion
Research Interests: Political Theology; Process Philosophy; Postcolonial Theory; Women’s and Gender Studies; Confucianism; Daoism; Methodist and Wesleyan Studies

Jung Ae Kim

Email Address: jkim19@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures, ABD
Research Interests: Hebrew Bible; Ecological Hermeneutics; Animal Studies; Feminist Studies

Shin-Young Kim

Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion
Research Interests: Eco-Theology; Political Theology; New Materialism

Patrick A. Kelly

Email Address: pkelly1@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion
Research Interests: Environmental and Ecological Ethics; Roman Catholic theology; Roman Catholic Social Teaching; Critical Theory; Continental Philosophy; Marxism; Feminism and Ecofeminism; Gender Studies

Minenhle Nomalungelo Khumalo

Program Area: Bible and Cultures, ABD
Research Interests: Afro-pessimism; Afro-futurism; Literary Theory; Africana Biblical Hermeneutics; Aesthetics of Violence; Queer Theory; Marxism

Tsz Him Lai

Email Address: tlai@drew.edu
Program Area: Religion and Society
Research Interests: Liberation and Postcolonial theologies; Christian Social Ethics; Asian and Hong Kong Christianities

Tzu Yu Lin

Email Address: tlin1@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Research Interests: Gospels; Decolonial Theory; Taiwanese Contextual Interpretation; Postcolonial Theory; Political Activism; De-Chinization in Taiwan

Jennifer Maidrand

Email Address: jmaidrand@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Research Interests: Hebrew Bible; Ecological Hermeneutics and Theology; Womanist and Feminist Hermeneutics; Geo-politics of Israel/Palestine

Hilary McKane

Email Address: hfloyd@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Research Interests: Economics and the New Testament; Parables; Women in the Greco-Roman world

J.D. R. Mechelke

Email Address: jmechelke@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion
Research Interests: Political theology; Anthropocene; Queer Theories and Theologies; Continental Philosophy; Information and Technology Studies; Negative and Radical Theologies; Lutheran Theologies
Professional Website: https://jdmechelke.academia.edu/

abby mohaupt

Email Address: amohaupt@drew.edu
Program Area: Religion and Society, ABD
Research Interests: Climate Change; Social Movements; Religious leadership in the public sphere; Public Action; Critical Race Theory; Gender; Ecology; Reformed Theology
Professional Website: www.abbymohaupt.com

Isabella Novsima

Email Address: inovsima@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion
Research Interests: Theology of Disability, Feminist Theology, Mental Health Studies, Disability Studies, Constructive Theology, Ecotheology, Theology of Trauma, Transpersonal Psychology, Christian Mystics

Janet Okang (Jane)

Email Address: jokang@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Research Interests: New Testament Studies; Comparative Study of Mealtime Fellowship in the New Testament; Greco-Roman Antiquity and West African Mealtime Traditions; Bible and Cultural Studies; The Portrait of Children in New Testament Discourses

D. Scott Ostlund

Email Address: dostlund@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion
Research Interests: Christian Theological Ethics; Critical White Studies; U.S. Evangelical Studies; Liberation Theologies; Wesleyan-Methodist Studies

Erin Parks

Email Address: eparks@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion
Research Interests: Affect Theory; Racism and Whiteness; New Materialisms; Pantheologies; Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies

Brock Perry

Email Address: bperry@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion, ABD
Dissertation Title: Critical Spirituality
Research Interests: Continental Philosophy; Gender and Sexuality Studies; History and Theories of the Secular and Critique; History of Christian Theology; Spirituality; Epistemologies of Truth; Activism and Social Change

Beth Quick

Email Address: bquick@drew.edu
Program Area: Religion and Society
Research Interests: Animal Studies; Christianity and Ecology; Ecogrief; Social Movements; Ecofeminism; Ecowomanism; Food Ethics

Dawrell Rich

Email Address: drich@drew.edu
Program Area: Religion and Society
Research Interests: Religion and Ecology; Sociology of Religion; Environmental Justice; Social Movement Theory; Urban Studies; Black Church Studies; Black Liberation Theology
Professional Website: https://www.dawrellrich.com/

Brandan J. Robertson

Email Address: brobertson@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Research Interests: Sexuality and Gender in the New Testament; Masculinity Studies; Queer Theology; the Greco-Roman World
Professional Website: https://www.brandanrobertson.com

Kenia Vanessa Rodriguez

Email Address: krodriguez1@drew.edu
Program Area: Religion and Society
Research Interests: Liberation and Postcolonial Theologies; Decoloniality; Decolonial Feminist Theology; Mujerista Theology; Christian Social Ethics; Cultural Studies; Critical Race Theory; Bioethics in Latino/a communities

Rose Sharon

Email Address: rsharon@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion
Research Interests: Process, Liberation, and Death of God Theologies; Anti-Racist and Abolitionist Praxis; Queer and Trans Studies; Integral Ecology; Critical Animal Studies; Anti- and Post-Capitalism; Mysticism and the Esoteric; Heresy; Comparative Religion; Decoloniality; Posthumanism
Professional Website: https://ingoodfaith.vision/

Dan Siedell

Email Address: dsiedell@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion
Research Interests: Theological implications of images and artistic practices; negative theology; theopoetics and creativity; new materialism; and the potential of curatorial practices for theological discourses.

Sin Lung Tong

Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Research Interests: Hebrew Bible; Narrative Criticism; Affect Theory; Poststructuralism; Postcolonialism

AJ Turner

Email Address: aturner1@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion
Research Interests: Psychology of Religion; Epistemology; William James; Religious Naturalism; Sociocultural Psychoanalysis

Min Um

Email Address: mum@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion
Research Interests: Ecotheology; The Theology of Karl Barth; Process Thought; Liberation Theologies; Animal Ethics

Kelsey Erin Wallace

Email Address: kwallace1@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures, ABD
Dissertation Title: “Remembering the Future: Exodus, Science Fiction, and the Strategies of Memory”
Research Interests: Science Fiction; Narratives of Violence; Grief and Cultural Memory; Gender and Sexuality; Hebrew Bible; Pop Culture
Professional Website: http://www.kelseyerinwallace.com/

Amiel H. Wayne

Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Study of Religion
Research Interests: Philosophy of Religion; Phenomenology; Religion and Ecology; Aesthetics; Queer Theory
Professional Website: https://amielhartwayne.wordpress.com/

Susan Woolever

Email Address: swoolever@drew.edu
Program Area: Religion and Society, ABD
Research Interests: Christian Social Ethics; Religious Ethic; Childist and Feminist Theory; Sexual Ethics; Trauma Theory; Mental Health

Yajenlemla

Email Address: yyajenlemla@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Research Interests: New Testament Studies; Purity Culture; Postcolonial Biblical Criticism; Cultural Studies

Recent Alumni

Elyse Ambrose

Email Address: eambrose@drew.edu
Program Area: Religion and Society
Dissertation Title: “Black Queer Ethics: Integrative Communality as Liberative Christian Sexual Ethics”
Research Interests: Christian sexual ethics; Black queer ethics; Black feminism; Womanism; Black modernists; Black religious histories; Afro-diasporic spiritualities
Professional Website: elyseambrose.com

Desmond D. Coleman

Email Address: dcoleman@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion
Research Interests: Philosophical and Political Idealism; Africana Studies; Performance Studies

Gabriel C. Crooks

Email Address: gcrooks@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion
Dissertation Title: “Under Control: Theology, Mastery, and the Autopoiesis of Masculine Identities”
Research Interests: Theological Imagination; Gender-based violence; Genocide and Holocaust Studies; Pedagogy; Historical Theology

Ericka Shawndricka Dunbar

Email Address: edunbar@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Dissertation Title: “Trafficking Hadassah: An Africana Reading of Collective Trauma, Memory and Identity in the Book of Esther”
Research Interests: Religion and Social Change; Africana Biblical Studies; Africana Diaspora Studies; Trauma Studies; Ethics; Cultural Studies; Women’s Studies; Gender-based violence; Women and children in the Bible; Human trafficking discourses; the role and impact of religion on individual and collective/cultural identities

Alice Kim

Email Address: akim5@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion
Dissertation Title: “Theology of Traumatic Affect: A Transformative Religious and Political Response to Trauma”
Research Interests: Process Philosophy; Reformed Theology; Trauma Studies; Genocide and Holocaust Studies; Affect Theory; Philosophical Ethics; Political Theology

Seong Hyun Lee

Email Address: 777slee@gmail.com
Program Area: Religion and Society
Dissertation Title: “The Power of Communal Empathy: Moral Implications of Empathy from Psychological and Care Ethics Perspectives in Responding to Sexual Violence in Faith-Based Community”
Research Interests: Pastoral Care and COunseling; Christian Social Ethics; Ethics of Care; Women’s and Gender Studies; Moral psychology and ethics of empathy; Interculturalism; Wesleyan Theology; Feminism and Digital Activism
Professional Website: www.linkedin.com/in/seong-hyun-rohe-lee

Rory McEntee

Email Address: rmcentee21@gmail.com
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion
Dissertation Title: “For the Time Being: Religion, Secularity, (Inter)Spirituality, and Democracy”
Research Interests: Democracy; Pluralism; Comparative Philosophy and Religion; Comparative Theology; Science and Religion; Spirituality and Eco-Spirituality; Contemplative Studies; Political Philosophy; Critical Theory and Race; Constructions of ‘Religion’ and the Secular; Comparative Mysticism; Buddhism; Christian Contemplative Tradition

Austin Roberts

Email Address: aroberts2@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion
Dissertation Title: “Anthropocene Imaginaries: Geophilosophy, Political Theology, and the Planetary Future”
Research Interests: Process Philosophy; Political Theology; Ecotheology; Anthropocene Studies; Religious Naturalism; New Materialisms

Lauren D. Sawyer

Email Address: lsawyer@drew.edu
Program Area: Religion and Society
Research Interests: Feminist and Womanist social ethics; Sexual ethics; Youth and young adults; Evangelical purity culture; History of sexuality
Professional Website: http://laurendsawyer.com/

Elizabeth Siegelman

Email Address: esiegelman@drew.edu
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Dissertation Title: “Whose Gotta Have It? Race, Gender, and Violence in the Song of Songs”
Research Interests: Women, Gender, and Sexuality in the ancient Near East; Reading the Bible through the Lens of Trauma; the Bible and Incarceration; the Bible and Popular Culture

Eric A. Thomas

Email Address: EThomas623@gmail.com
Program Area: Bible and Cultures
Dissertation Title: “Queer of Color Biblical Criticism: Race, Sexuality and the New Testament”
Research Interests: Biblical hermeneutics; Queer Theory; Africana and Black Religious Studies

Max Thornton

Email Address: mthornton@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion
Dissertation Title: “Cyborg Trans/criptions: gender, disability, and the image of God”
Research Interests: Disability; queer theory; trans studies; STS; theological anthropology
Professional Website: maxthornton.me

O’neil Van Horn

Email Address: ovanhorn@drew.edu
Program Area: Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion
Dissertation Title: “On the ground: terrestrial theopoetics, environmental justice, and the anthropocene”
Research Interests: Ecotheology; Political Theology; Process Philosophy; Poststructuralism; New Materialisms; Critical Race Studies; Queer Theory
Professional Website: http://ovanhorn.com