Drew University

Luce Fellows

2011-2012 Luce Graduate Fellows

Yountae An

Yountae An was born in Korea and raised in Buenos Aires. He holds a B.A. in Theology (minor in Philosophy) from the Presbyterian College (Seoul) and an M.Div. from the San Francisco Theological Seminary (Graduate Theological Union , or GTU). Yountae is in his fourth year of doctoral work at Drew in Theological and Philosophical Studies. His main research interests are Continental philosophy, constructive theology, Postcolonial feminism and Latin American decolonial thinking. In addition, Yountae has been working for the Hispanic Summer Program since 2010, and he listens to Baroque music every day. For the CCGC, Yountae and Adelaide Boadi are working collaboratively on the “Global Futures” project, which consists mainly of partnering with other institutions and mobilizing and networking with the international students attending the Drew University Theological School.

Adelaide Boadi

Adelaide Boadi is from Ghana, West Africa. She received her B.A. (Economics and Sociology), with Dip. Ed., from the University of Cape Coast, M.Phil. (A.B.T.) from Central University College (Accra, Ghana), and S.T.M. from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (Pittsburgh, PA). She also holds an M.Phil. from Drew’s Graduate Division of Religion, and is currently working on a dissertation in Religion and Society (Sociology of Religion) that explores the dynamics of power, gender, and agency in the development of Ghanaian Pentecostalisms. Her research interests include global Pentecostalism, women and Pentecostalism, women in religion, West African/African Pentecostal Churches, religion and social change, immigrant religions, and language and power. With the CCGC, Adelaide is collaborating with Yountae An on the “Global Futures” project.

Theresa Ellis

Theresa Ellis earned a B.A. from the University of Redlands (California) and an M.T.S. from Drew University. She is a second-year Ph.D. student at Drew, where her area of study is Religion and Society, and her concentration is Ecosociology. Theresa’s academic interests include ecofeminism, grassroots movements, and Christianity in Africa. Regarding her work with the CCGC, Theresa is particularly interested in the intersections of cross-cultural courses with partnerships and institutions in other parts of the world.

Jung Doo Kim

Jung Doo Kim received a B.Th. from Methodist Theological University (Seoul), a Th.M. (Systematic Theology) from Methodist Theological University (Seoul), an M.A. (Philosophy) from Yonsei University (Seoul), an M.Div. from the Drew University Theological School, and an M.Phil. from the Graduate Division of Religion at Drew. Currently, Jung Doo is working on his dissertation in Theological and Philosophical Studies. His academic interests include constructive theology, systematic theology, and trans-disciplinary theology. At the CCGC, Jung Doo and Nikolay Petrov are researching and documenting the histories of Drew’s international students.

Nikolay Petrov

Nick Petrov is a Methodist minister from Bulgaria, serving both in the pastoral ministry of the Methodist church and in various ecumenical and educational programs. He graduated from Martin Luther College (Austria) and earned an M.Div. from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Nick is a second-year Ph.D. candidate at Drew in Wesleyan and Methodist Studies. His academic interests include engagement with historic and contemporary missions rooted in the Wesleyan heritage, as well as the great missionary movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when Protestants traveled the globe and planted churches. His research goal is to synthesize and systematize these issues and to find their practical and ecumenical application in concrete cultures and contemporary situations, especially in European contexts. Nick is very pleased to be working with Jung Doo Kim on collecting histories of international students and reaching out to Drew’s international alumni/ae. He also hopes to be involved more broadly with other CCGC ventures, such as exploring partnerships with Eastern European institutions.

Erica Ramirez

Erica Ramirez completed a B.A. in Counseling Psychology from Southwestern Assemblies of God University and an M.A. in Religion in American Life from Wheaton College (Illinois). She is a first-year Ph.D. student at Drew in the Religion and Society department, concentrating in the Sociology of Religion. Erica’s research interests lie in global Pentecostalisms, especially in transnational immigrant pentecostalisms and anti-colonial pentecostal impulses. With the CCGC, Erica plans to develop a web-portal connecting Drew to international communities with which Drew students have had cross-cultural immersion experiences, aiming to maintain and deepen these meaningful relationships.

Sara Rosenau

Sara Rosenau holds a B.A. from Earlham College, an M.S.W. from University of Denver, and an M.Div. from Iliff School of Theology. At Drew, she is a third-year doctoral student in Theological Studies. Sara’s scholarly work centers in the areas of political theology, ethics, and religion and sexuality. She has a background in social work and academic administration in higher education. Raised a Quaker, Sara is now a candidate for ordination with the United Church of Christ. She lives with her family in the Catskills region of New York State. Sara is excited to pursue work with the CCGC in the area of “Global Faculty,” helping to highlight transnational faculty research and to expand resources for cross-cultural curricula.

Michael Sniffen

Michael Sniffen received a B.A. from West Virginia Wesleyan College, where he majored in Religion and minored in Vocal Performance and Greek, and an M.Div. from the Drew Theological School. He is a fourth-year Ph.D. student at Drew, and his area of concentration is Liturgical Studies. His academic interests include the impact of ritual on communal self-understanding, homiletics and social transformation, and pilgrimage as a form of self-discovery. Michael’s work for the CCGC involves rethinking the categories and divisions of Drew’s M.Div. curriculum, which is currently rooted strongly in Western notions of knowledge and scholarship. Focusing on the strengths of Drew’s diverse and collaborative faculty, Michael and Junehee Yoon are generating new curricular ideas that go beyond command of content to proven effectiveness in the global churches where Drew students are being trained to serve.

Marlene Underwood

Marlene Underwood earned a B.S. (Spanish Linguistics) from Georgetown University and an M.Div. from the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC). She is in her third year of doctoral studies at Drew, where she is majoring in Hebrew Bible. Marlene’s research involves using concepts from narrative psychology to examine the links between biblical stories and colonized existence (forced exile and return). Moreover, she is exploring the effects of trauma on narratives to discover what the final form of these stories could have expressed in post-exilic settings. Marlene is a candidate for ordination with the United Church of Christ, and she is particularly interested in developing Bible studies and curricula with churches wrestling with contemporary notions of exile, identity, sexuality, and justice. She is pleased to help compile, coordinate, and edit material for the CCGC website.

Junehee Yoon

Junehee Yoon completed a B.A. from Yonsei University and an M.A. from Ewha Woman’s University (Seoul). After coming to the United States, she earned an M.Div. from Drew University and an S.T.M. (Ethics) from Yale Divinity School, where her master’s thesis was entitled “Revisiting Christian Soteriology in the Liberation Process of Korean Christianity.” At Drew, Junehee is a first-year Ph.D. student in Religion and Society, majoring in Christian Social Ethics. Her academic interests include the ethical analysis of discourses on intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and sexual-orientation; and constructing ethical individual and communal identities within the Christian tradition for a Christian vision of liberation. Junehee’s work for the CCGC involves partnering with Michael Sniffen to design global curricula and resources.

2011-2012 Luce Faculty Fellows

The CCGC has awarded four faculty research grants for 2011-2012.  These grants support individual faculty research in the area of Africana Studies.  Each Luce Faculty Fellow has a unique approach to this area of study:

Kenneth Ngwa

Dr. Kenneth Ngwa, assistant professor of Hebrew Bible, will be conducting a case study of Cameroon in order to examine the construction of identities in a postcolonial context.  This study will contribute to his larger project of reading Exodus 2:11-15 through a postcolonial lens.  Ngwa writes, “The results will then become an analogy for thinking about Africana hermeneutics under the rubric of Diaspora experience that requires reflection about people with different cultural and colonial legacies.”

Althea Spencer-Miller

Dr. Althea Spencer-Miller, Assistant Professor of New Testament, is also researching indigenous hermeneutics, with a specific interest in orality studies.  “The Caribbean has an intellectual history in the Negritude Movement of the 1930s – 1950s,” Spencer-Miller explains. “The Paris based Movement consisted primarily of Caribbean and African thinkers, who were expatriates of French colonies, and at times included the French existentialist writer and philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartré.” Spencer-Miller is interested in how these African Diaspora connections might contribute to furthering the development of an Africana Hermeneutics.

Traci West

Dr. Traci West, Professor of Ethics and African American Studies, will be continuing her research on anti-violence activism in Ghana and South Africa and in the African diaspora community of Salvador, Brazil.   “I am specifically interested in the impact of white racist colonialism and religion on their strategies,” West added.  This supports West’s larger comparative project examining anti-violence work in US-Christian and other global Christian contexts.

Elias Ortega-Aponte

Dr. Elias Ortega-Aponte, Assistant Professor of Afro-Latina/o Religions and Cultural Studies, is also interested in religious practice and activism, specifically the relations between Power Movements, activism, and urban religion in the US.  This grant will aid Ortega-Aponte in expanding his ethnographic research of the Young Lords movement, as well as researching constructions of Afro-Latino/a identity as expressed in bomba music and dance, and the heritage of vejigante masks. This, and other research in Afro-Latino/a urban activism, “represent[s] a unique source for expanding Latino/a theological and ethical language in connection to urban religiosity; as well aiding in the articulation of a distinct Afro-Latino/a theology,” Ortega-Aponte states.

2011-2012 Luce Visiting Scholar

Dr.Po-Ho Huang is a Visiting Scholar during the spring semester of 2012.  Dr. Huang is Dean of the School of Liberal Education, Professor in the Department of Theology, and Dean of the Programme for Theology and Cultures in Asia at Chang Jung Christian University in Tainan City, Taiwan.