Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, President of Union Theological Seminary in New York City
Dr. Jones is Professor of Systematic Theology and the first woman president in the history of the Seminary. Dr. Jones has her Ph.D in theology from Yale University.
Dr. Jones is a prolific and popular scholar in the fields of theology, religion and gender studies. She is the author of Feminist Theory and Theology: Cartographies of Grace (2000) and Calvin and the Rhetoric of Piety (1995).
Key note lecture: "Redeeming the Present? Feminist Theology, Globalization and the Violence of Aids"
Professor Isabel Apawo Phiri, Academic coordinator of Theological Studies, School of Religion and Theology, UKZN
Prof. Phiri is one of the central theologians in the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. She has her Ph.D in philisophy from the University of Cape Town.
Her main research interests are Theology in the African Context and Gender in African Christianity. Prof. Phiri has co-edited African Women, HIV/AIDS and Faith Communities (2003), On Being Church: African Women’s Voices and Visions (2005), African Women, Religion and Health: Essays in Honour of Mercy Amba Oduyoye (2006).
Key note lecture: "Women talking back to aids and religion: a postcolonial and missiological perspective"
Judith Justice, PhD, MPH, is Associate Professor of Medical Anthropology and Health Policy, School of Medicine, University of California
Dr. Justice has studied special health problems related to infectious and stigmatized diseases (e.g., HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis) and her research includes multi-country studies of the political and cultural dimensions of reproductive and child health in African and Asian countries. She is the author of Policies, Plans and People: Foreign Aids and Health Development (1989), Neglect of Cultural Knowledge in Health Planning: Nepal’s Assistant Nurse-Midwife Programme (1999).
Key note lecture: "Frames of Religion, Frames of Aids"
Prof. Ezra Chitando, Department of Religious Studies, University of Zimbabwe
Theology Consultant for the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa (EHAIA)
Professor Chitando works closely with the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians to mainstream gender and HIV in theological programmes; his focus includes the responsibility of men in the time of HIV. He is the author of Religious Ethics, HIV and Aids and Masculinities in Southern Africa (2008), Acting in Hope: African Churches and HIV/AIDS No. I (2007), Living in Hope: African Churches and HIV/AIDS No. II (2008).
Key note lecture: "Masculinity, Aids and Religion in Africa"