ATTR Guest Members are International and Norwegian PhD students from other institutions than the ATTR consortium.
ATTR Guest Members: Names and Institutions, and their PhD Projects
ATTR Guest members
Alvær, Jesper James. Academy of Fine Art Prague
Angelo, Camille. Yale University
Asikanius, Mariella. PhD Programme in theology and religion, VID Specialized University
Aslaksen, Kamilla, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences
Bauer, Joanna. PhD Programme in theology and religion, VID Specialized University
Berglund, Carl Johan. Department of Theology, Uppsala University
Breu, Clarissa. Universität Wien, Evangelisch-theologische Fakultät, Institut für neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, Wien
Brownsmith, Esther. Dep. Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University, Massachusetts
Burling, Hugh. University of Cambridge (St John’s College)
Burnett, Julianne. University of Manchester
Calhoun, Allen. School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, University of Aberdeen
Chahanovich, W. Sasson. Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
Chamisso, Tarekegn. VID Specialized University
Cobb, James. Department of English and Comparative Literature, College of Arts and Sciences, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Connor McGuan, Karen. Harvard University
Darby, Jonathan. Nazarene Theological College, University of Manchester
Emami, Amirardalan. Leiden University Centre for the Study of Religion, Leiden University
Garayeva, Khanim. University of Szeged, Hungary
Gimse, Ingrid Breilid. Department of Religion, Philosophy and History. University of Agder.
Given, J. Gregory. Committee on the Study of Religion, Harvard University
Gunderson, Jaimie. Department of Religious Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Gunnes, Gyrid Kristine. Center of Diakonia and Professional Practice, Campus Oslo, VID Specialized University
Hakalax, Karin Elisabeth. VID Specialized University
Hong, Seung Min. Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa
Kennedy, Curry. Penn State University
Klöckener, Monnica. Seminar für Alte Kirchengeschichte, Patrologie und Christliche Archäologie, Katholisch-Theologische Fakultät, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Kjeldsberg, Ludvik Andreas. Department of Religion, Philosophy and History. University of Agder
Lafleche, Emily. Religious Studies, University of Ottawa
Larsen, Matthew. Yale University
Linjamaa, Paul. Lund University
Morrison-Atkins, Kelsi. Committee on the Study of Religion, Harvard University
Nesse, Marte Lægreid. VID Specialized University
Nunn, Tessa. Romance Studies, Duke University
Oldershaw, Myles. Duke University
Poole, Megan. Penn State University
Porrone, Arianna. University of Macerata
Porter, Sarah F. Harvard University
Prelock, Aaron. VID Specialised University
Raccuglia, Peter. Department of English Language and Literature. Yale University
Rodenbiker, Kelsie. Durham University
Smeenk, Kim. Faculty of Arts /School for the Humanities, University of Groningen
Spjut, Petter. Uppsala Universitet
Steele-Fisher, Benjamin. Religious studies, University of California, Davis
Tillema, Aron. Religious Studies, University of California Davis.
Toft, Lasse Løvlund. Aarhus University
Van Maaren, John. Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University
Williams, Lindy. Nazarene Theological College, University of Manchester
Winterberg, Alberto Alfredo. Freie Universität Berlin
Youssef, Medhat Nady. VID Specialized University
ATTR Guests, Phd Projects
Alvær, Jesper James. Academy of Fine Art Prague
“Seeing Through Shortcomings: Ontologies of the Image”
A research project consisting of repeated operative modules that locate and point towards ontologies or constituents of its image. The image here is not an object or thing but is an utter transparency, the ‘presence of the thing in its absence’ to quote Prof. John Lechte. The modules allows for an intermodal treatment of texts, concepts, images and translations and the overall project as interpretation inscribe itself through artistic production to unfold with a systematical traceability.
Angelo, Camille. Yale University
The widely accepted evolutionary model for Christian ritual space espouses that domus ecclesiae (οἶκος τῆς ἐκκλησίας), a distinct pseudo-domestic architectural intermediary that linked the basilica church with its domestic antecedent, were ubiquitous before 313 CE). Yet only one unequivocally ante-pacem example of such a building exists – Dura Europos' Christian Building. In this paper, I examine the belief that this structure bears a material relationship to the architectural phenomenon that the phrase domus ecclesia is commonly thought to express. Through a brief critical historiography, I interrogate the domestic origins that the modern construction of the category presupposes. Through an analysis of the term’s ancient literary use, I then expand upon arguments in recent research that the term domus ecclesiae was neither applied contemporaneously to Dura’s Christian Building nor used discriminately to refer to a unique architectural type in the ante-pacem period. Turning to the material remains, I reconstruct the three-dimensional reality of the architectural adaptions to Dura's Christian Building and outline how these changes divested the space of the key architectural elements of Durene household space to demonstrate that this structure, where the Christian community at Dura assembled and worshipped, was architecturally adapted in a way that they experienced as bearing no material relationship with the domestic structure that preceded it. This paper thus challenges the validity of the domus ecclesiae category itself by complicating its core foundations.
Asikanius, Mariella. PhD Programme in theology and religion, VID Specialized University
"Thomas Aquinas's conception of madness and its ancient origins"
My PhD project is about Thomas Aquinas’s conception of madness and its Ancient origins. In addition to theological and philosophical focus, I will also investigate my sources from legal and medical perspectives. Madness was understood in the Middle Ages as a physiological condition that sets restrictions to one’s capacity to use reason, and therefore, it is also a question of one’s status in both spiritual and societal communities.
Aslaksen, Kamilla, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences
"The afterlife of The District Governor's Daughter (1854/55)"
In 1854/55, Norway’s first novel The District Governor’s daughters (1854/55) by Camilla Collett induced ethical as well as aesthetical controversy in the then limited Norwegian literary field. However, by the end of the century, the novel had acquired status as a national treasure. The PHD investigates the afterlife of the novel and explores the shifting meanings and roles the book took on the literary scene 1850-1900, towards canonization.
Bauer, Joanna. VID Specialized University
“Early Reception History of Isaiah 53: Mutual Relations of Text and Contexts”
The project studies the mutual relations between Isaiah 52:13–53:12 and its various contexts of reception up to 160 AD. Context is broadly conceived as anything that might have influenced the reception, including historical, geographical, cultural, sociological, ideological, economic, or linguistic factors. The project’s main research question is why Isaiah 53 was received the way it was received in the context of the reception’s production, including how the reception was intended to impact this context. The project’s theoretical approach is informed by literary theory. In addition, the project evaluates applying concepts from mathematical optimization to delimit receptions.
Berglund, Carl Johan. Department of Theology, Uppsala University
“Quarreling Colleagues: The Exegetical Methodology of Greek Philology in Origen’s and Heracleon’s Interpretations of the Gospel of John”
The response of Origen of Alexandria to Heracleon’s interpretation of the Fourth Gospel has traditionally been regarded as an orthodox refutation of “Valentinian Gnosticism.” In this project, both these early New Testament interpreters are viewed as practitioners of Greco-Roman literary criticism. Their common approach to the same Gospel reveals striking similarities between their exegetical methodologies, and sheds new light on the theological differences between these two quarreling colleagues.
Breu, Clarissa. Universität Wien, Evangelisch-theologische Fakultät, Institut für neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, Wien
“John and Revelation. A postmodern analysis of the relation between text and author”
In my dissertation, I analyze John in Revelation as an author from the point of view of postmodern literary theories focusing on the question of how authorship affects the text’s authority. John is seen as part of the text, as a function attributed to the text. The text of Revelation and its reception in exegetical literature and other interpretational processes are being analyzed and compared to other apocalyptic texts.
Brownsmith, Esther. Dep. Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University, Massachusetts
"Inconspicuous Consumption: Conceptual Metaphors of Women as Food in the Deuteronomistic History"
Orality is a quality of a text’s present, not merely its past; as Jacqueline Vayntrub has argued, “ oral performances can determine how written compositions are understood.” Given that the Hebrew Bible is a text primarily written by and for men, how does its depiction of women’s speech shape its implicit arguments about women? By examining three biblical texts of violence against women — two containing spirited speech, and one containing pointed silence — this dissertation seeks to answer this question and explain the narrative depiction of victimized women.
Its answer relies on an extended cognitive metaphor that inuences numerous biblical texts: the metaphor WOMAN IS FOOD (which remains as pervasive in the modern world as it was in the Bible). This overarching metaphor unites many of the Bible’s “texts of terror”: the fact that their women are objectied, fragmented, and consumed just as food is. While the metaphor rarely appears in linguistic manifestations, the conceptual metaphor WOMAN IS FOOD shapes biblical texts no less than overt linguistic metaphors. (Indeed, this dissertation will explore how a conceptual metaphor realizes itself in narrative.)
In terms of source texts, the Deuteronomistic History of the Hebrew Bible will be the primary focus — in particular, the Levite’s concubine, the rape of Tamar, and the death of Jezebel. All three depict violence toward a women as perpetrated by a man; all three contain hints of culinary language; in all three, the woman is literally or metaphorically torn apart. Using the tools of cognitive linguistics, feminist criticism, and classic philological biblical analysis, this dissertation will illuminate the metaphor WOMAN IS FOOD as it shapes these narratives. In the process, it will investigate how the women’s oral communications both support and resist their categorization as consumable.
Burling, Hugh. University of Cambridge (St John’s College)
“The Problem of Privileged Religious Experiences”
Burnett, Julianne. University of Manchester
"Was Moses perceived as a magician? A socio-historical exploration of Moses’ wonder-working in the narratives of the Pentateuch within the context of ancient Egyptian and Israelite Magic."
My project examines the portrayal of Moses as a wonder-worker and possible magician in the Pentateuch. A socio-historical methodology is used to explore the context of ancient Egyptian and Israelite magic and how this might shed new light on the Moses narratives.
Calhoun, Allen. School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, University of Aberdeen
"History of Taxation in Christian Theological Thought"
My research seeks to excavate the narrative of the law of taxation as it has developed in the Christian tradition, examining particularly what tax is, and what it is for, through the history of Christian theology. A further purpose of my study is to determine how and when distributive justice was formalized and became connected to the practice of taxation.
Chahanovich, W. Sasson. Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
“The Ottoman Apocalyptic Mentality and the Dark Side of Sufism (15th – 17th c.): Pseudo-Ibn al-ʿArabı̄’s The Tree of Nuʿmān (al-Šagarah al-nuʿmāniyyah), The Cry of the Owl (Ṣayḥat al-būm), and the End of Time”
Sasson Chahanovich is a Ph.D. at Harvard University in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. There he is studying post-classical Islamic Intellectual History with Prof. Khaled el-Rouyaheb. For the purpose of his thesis, Sasson is investigating eschatological enthusiasm, apocalyptic prophecy, and mystical occultism and their collective function within, and service to, the Ottoman Empire. Sasson has identified a corpus of heretofore barely studied texts that vividly – both in language and in art – bring to life this trifecta of topics. Moreover, not only do Sasson’s manuscripts demonstrate central role of eschatology, apocalypse, and the occult in the Ottoman imperial imagination, but also how our own modern conceptions of Islamic orthodoxy, as embodied in the throne of the last great Sunni Caliphate, are complicated in light of this information.
Chamisso, Tarekegn. VID Specialized University
"The meaning and significance of the "Discerning the Body" in 1 Cor 11:29B: An exegetical analysis of 1 Corithians 11:17-34"
The term “body” in Paul (of course, in other books of the Bible, too) is used in different contexts with different meanings. Even the context of this word in 11:29b seems twofold. On the one hand, the Lord’s Supper and on the other hand, the divisions of the believers become strikingly transpiring themes of the passage. Both themes play a significant role for the understanding of the passage. Thus, it becomes ambiguous term: sacramental?, ecclesiastical?, or both as sacramental and ecclesiastical body? This study engages into the discussion of this verse in the NT scholarship by using higher criticism as a main method to attain the meaning. It assumes that locating the text in its logical and historical contexts will help to achieve the goal of the study.
"Black Realism: Beyond the Ontology of The Black Subject in Contemporary African-American Fiction"
My project is as an evaluation of contemporary realism, particularly the relationship between 21st Century Black Fiction and the lived experience of black life. Theories of black life and literature rely on a onsideration of ontology: how does black life exist? Yet, this is not an ontological question; it is a consideration of egemony. Contemporary Black Fiction illuminates the degree to which the racialization and objectification of the black subject is not fundamental to its identity, but reliant upon the context of political oppression. Contemporary black writers explore the possibilities of a black literature that thinks through black identity outside of an ontological (political) framework. I want to ATTR Summer School 2018 PhD Projects understand why these theorists continue to turn to ontology, discover what work their writing actually does in relationship to contemporary realism and then detail the results and implications of the actual use of their theory.
Connor McGuan, Karen. Harvard University
"'Suppers in the Times of the Kingdom'? Food, Drink and the Resurrection Body in Early Christian Thought"
This dissertation engages in rhetorical-critical analysis of early Christian arguments in favor of bodily resurrection, focusing on various perceptions of the relationship between the future resurrection body and food and drink. The project situates arguments concerning the alimentary capacities of the resurrected body in their historical-rhetorical contexts, exploring their relationship to contemporaneous conversations around theology, philosophy, and medicine, as well as to dietary and burial practices and realities of food availability.
Darby, Jonathan. Nazarene Theological College, University of Manchester
"Identification of Individual Scribes Among the Dead Sea Scrolls"
The identification of multiple manuscripts that have been written by an individual scribe from among the Dead Sea Scrolls offers a potentially valuable insight into the scribal culture of Second Temple Judaism. Confident identification, however, is challenging and problematic. The current project aims to assess methods of writer-identification, and to identify a group of manuscripts by an individual scribe for closer analysis of their scribal practices.
Emami, Amirardalan. Leiden University Centre for the Study of Religion, Leiden University
"Transformation in ancient Iranian religion : The Achaemenids as agents of long-term change"
My project aims to provide an in-depth study of the role played by the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BCE) in the construction of Zoroastrian tradition as a coherent system of beliefs and practices with its own distinct liturgical language (Avestan) and textual canon in light of newly available sources from this period.
Garayeva, Khanim. University of Szeged, Hungary
“Esotericism to add historiography to Peter Ackroyd's metafictional novels and its different usage compared to Dan Brown”
My research project is questioning different types of application of occult elements in the metafictional novels by Peter Ackroyd and is analysing the usage of the same devices differently by Dan Brown. In addition, the development and nature of the postmodern reinvention of the historical novels and some archaeological research on featuring esotericism will be covered. Theories that are being reviewed at the moment are 1) Georg Lukács’ configuration of historical novel that gives a primary knowledge on the arousal of this genre, 2) Hegel’s idea of “spirit” (Geist), which can be understood to indicate both the way a particular culture or period sees the relations between individuals and the world of a particular age, 3) historical negationism in Henry Rousso’s “The Vichy Syndrome” that enlightens the ways of commingling the reality and myth to confound understanding, 4) Christopher Partridge’s theory of “Occulture” that sheds a light on the significance of popular culture and everyday life in the construction of enchanted versions of reality, provides an understanding of the development and plausibility of modern spiritual experiences, etc.
The research project aims to embrace qualitative case-based designs aiming at empirical and methodological validities. Primary literature, peer reviewed journals, publications, interviews and archival-data are to be used as corpora for digital tools like Lexos, ITMS, AntCons, Voyant, etc. Methodological triangulation also includes close reading for a systematic literature review approach to define prior studies and gaps, semi-structured interviews, communicative validation and so on.
Gimse, Ingrid Breilid. Department of Religion, Philosophy and History. University of Agder
“Textual Criticism and materiality”
This project has changed significantly since the paper was submitted. Nevertheless, the paper presents the background for the question now being asked: Is the time ripe for a paradigm shift in the field of biblical studies, specifically textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible? The working hypothesis is that biblical scholars and textual critics operate within a paradigm which does not sufficiently address the materiality of the objects dealt with in the field. The project therefore seeks to do a meta-study of Prof. Emanuel Tov’s work on textual criticism. Perspectives from New Philology will also be relevant.
Given, J. Gregory. Committee on the Study of Religion, Harvard University
“Narrativizing Ignatius of Antioch: Generic and Textual Fluidity in the Making of an Early Christian Martyr”
The letters attributed to Ignatius of Antioch survive in a number of recensions and arrangements, scattered across dozens of manuscripts. What does this textual variance signify about the early reception of these letters? This project analyzes the versions of Ignatius’s letters, examining how editorial interventions in the texts relate to the authoritative status of the figure of ‘Ignatius’ and the letter collection as a literary genre in early Christian discourses.
Gunderson, Jaimie. Department of Religious Studies, University of Texas at Austin
“Affecting Corinth: Grief and Other Feelings in 2 Corinthians”
My project is on the apostle Paul’s affective politics in 2 Corinthians, and considers the aesthetic dimensions of ancient rhetoric in order to think about emotions and their relationship to bodies. In particular, I use affect theory to explore the ways in which rhetoric (in the Second Sophistic) was conceived of as a touching and feeling experience predicated on an enactive theory of perception.
Gunnes, Gyrid Kristine. Center of Diakonia and Professional Practice, Campus Oslo, VID Specialized University
Hakalax, Karin Elisabeth. VID Specialized University
"Protesting the wrath of God – embodied lament of the wailing male"
This study aims at exploring how the trauma of the male subject is embodied in the protest language of the lament genre of Lamentations 3 and Psalm 88. The male wailers of both texts present themselves with the Hebrew word geber, “strongman.” The trauma is by the wailers understood to be caused by the violent wrath of God. My hypothesis is that the disintegrated and powerless subject’s affliction is converted into gendered language about a powerful, punishing and male god, who abjicates and degrades the lamenter. The divine fury is in the study interpreted as both emasculation and infantilizing of the male. The emphasis on the cathartic effect of texts of lament, protest and arguing with God aims to evoke interest among artists, poets, clerics and pastoral care workers. I wish to contribute to reflection in the broader ethical discourse around gender and bodily matters.
My work on biblical lament is an entirely text based close reading, and the method is literary and linguistic. The laments are read intertextually through an intersectionalist feminist prism, using masculinist psychoanalytical theory and the psychoanalytical language theory of Julia Kristeva. Of special use is her concept of abjection, the idea of society’s rejection of the maternal body. The study will explore the gendered male experiences as it is expressed rhetorically, not just as a perspective, but as a main signifier in language and culture.
Biblical lament grew out of an oral culture, a culture where illiterate women were bearers of the tradition of wailing, weeping and keening. In contrast to this oral culture, the tradition of biblical lament belongs to a scribal culture, where elite men wrote for an elite male audience. These gendered wailing cultures collide in the biblical lament genre.
Hong, Seung Min. Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa
"Protesting Korean Protestantism: Media, Resistance, and Theology of Critical Insiders"
My research topic is about South Korean Protestant critical insiders (i.e. those who are committed to Protestantism yet highly critical of the ways in which it is taught, believed, and practiced in South Korea) and how they resist Korean Protestantism theologically through media. The interdisciplinary nature of this project requires knowledge and skills in a number of relevant fields in the humanities and social sciences such as theology, sociology/anthropology of religion, and media/cultural studies. Accordingly, I believe it can benefit significantly from ATTR’s interdisciplinary aspiration with its emphasis on intersections between theology and other disciplines.
Kennedy, Curry. Penn State University
"Shrewd as Serpents, Harmless as Doves: The Christian Rhetoric of the Passio sanctorum Perpetua et Felicitatis"My project reads the martyr narrative of Vibia Perpetua, a 22-year-old Carthaginian noblewoman who was killed early in the third century, as a text designed to turn its North African audience into persuasive, daring promoters of the Christian faith. Renowned for its immediacy and emotional power, the Passio is a multi-authored text containing the personal memoirs that Perpetua wrote while in prison, where she feared for the life of her infant son, defied the wishes of her non-Christian father, and joined with her fellow Christians to make a public, dramatic argument for the supremacy of Christ over the powers that be. I am arguing that this text was used to teach a Christian rhetoric markedly different from the Greco-Roman rhetoric that writers such as Tertullian and Augustine took up. In particular, the Passio counsels its audience to look to the Christian community as a site of rhetorical invention, and to cultivate incarnational awareness, a habit of attention, thought, and action patterned after the Son of God's assumption of a vulnerable human body. I contrast communal invention and incarnational awareness with the single-rhetor, idea-driven commitments of the Greco-Roman tradition to show that the Passio deserves a place in the history of rhetorical theory.
Klöckener, Monnica. Seminar für Alte Kirchengeschichte, Patrologie und Christliche Archäologie, Katholisch-Theologische Fakultät, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster.
"Die Frau am Jakobsbrunnen in altkirchlicher Johannesexegese. Erkenntnis, Pädagogik und Spiritualität bei Origenes, Johannes Chrysostomos und Augustinus"
My PhD-project treats the exegesis of John 4,1-42, the encounter of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in Origen’s commentary on John and John Chrysostom’s and Augustine’s homilies on John. It compares the focuses of the three interpretations and attempts to explain carefully some of the reasons for their different interests.
Kjeldsberg, Ludvik Andreas. Department of Religion, Philosophy and History. University of Agder.
"Protestant Relics? Exhibiting the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Twenty-First Century US"
My PhD project is about the exhibitions of Dead Sea Scrolls in the twenty-first century US. Since 2000, more than 40 such exhibitions have taken place in the US. Found between 1946/47 and '56, the scrolls from the Dead Sea are considered one of the most important archaeological findings of the twentieth century. I research what function the Scrolls had in the exhibitions, focusing on the exhibitors' contribution to the circulation of knowledge about the scrolls.
Lafleche, Emily. Religious Studies, University of Ottawa
"Children of the Bridal Chamber from the New Testament to the Valentinians"
Despite some scholarly work regarding the exact meaning of the expression “children of the bridal chamber,” no broader comparison has been performed to determine its semantic range of this expression within the context of the Gospel of Philip. Given that “children of the bridal chamber” has been imagined previously by scholars to be a Valentinian self-designation, further scrutiny is required to better understand how this expression functions within the context of the Gospel of Philip and to determine if it functions in the same manner as in other early Christian texts such as in the Synoptic Gospels [Mark 2:19; Matthew 9:15; Luke 5:34] and in the inscription NCE 156. I argue that the expression “children of the bridal chamber,” need not be thought of as a Valentinian self-designation, but instead should be regarded instead as a marker of Christian insider identity. In order to better understand this expression as a marker of Christian insider identity, I shall outline how this expression functions within the Synoptic Gospels, the Gospel of Philip, and the inscription NCE 156.
Larsen, Matthew. Yale University
"Book Burning, Book Production, and the Making of a Bookish Religion"
My paper, "Book Burning, Book Production, and Making Christianity a Bookish Religion", which is a part of a larger project on how Christians became ‘people of the book,’ looks at book burning under Diocletian, book production under Constantine, and how the interface of "media and materiality” contributes to the public perception that Christianity is a bookish religion.
Linjamaa, Paul. Lund University
"The Ethics of The Tripartite Tractate (NHC I:5): A Study of Early Christian Determinism"
The aim of the study is to explore the ethics of the Nag Hammadi-text The Tripartite Tractate (NHC I, 5), and by so doing not only illuminate a previously unstudied aspect of this very interesting early Christian text, but also gain insights into the workings of early Christian determinism, a phenomenon that for recent years has been treated as a heresiologist invention.
Morrison-Atkins, Kelsi. Committee on the Study of Religion, Harvard University
“The Rhetoric of Dress and Adornment and the Construction of Identity in Early Christianity”
This dissertation examines how the rhetoric of dress and adornment is deployed in early Christian texts to make particular political, ethical, and theological claims about what it means to be a follower of Christ. Using a framework of analysis situated at the intersections of feminist and queer theory, I explore how appeals to clothing the body subtly weave together crucial questions of embodiment and identity in order to shape the self-fashioning of the individual and community more broadly.
Nesse, Marte Lægreid. VID Specialized University
"The Norwegian Lutheran China Mission - a study of educational contact zones"
This study aims at systematically gather and study sources about the Norwegian Lutheran China Mission educational work. Moreover, to analyse how educational spaces served as a contact zone between nations, cultures and denominations.
Nunn, Tessa. Romance Studies, Duke University
"Writing Women Dance"
This dissertation argues that fictional dance scenes reveal various ways in which French women writers, during the first half of the nineteenth century, envisioned ideal women. By ideal women, I mean the possibilities of femininity, female embodied existence, and women’s sexuality. Although the chapters are primarily dedicated to four authors, Germaine de Staël, Julianne Barbara von Krüdener, Claire de Duras, and George Sand, I read them in relation to various eighteenth- and nineteenth-century writers, artists, dancers, and philosophers from throughout Europe in an effort to understand how these authors confirm or transgress transnational notions of women and femininity. Focusing primarily on public performances of social dance, I examine how these authors conceived ofwomen as observed subjects and grappled with possible modes of observing. Given that ballroom and country dances often partake in the negotiation of or quest for marriage, dance scenes reveal notions of idealized women as well as idealized love, neither of which is sustainable in the authors’ contemporary social reality. An art involving the manipulation of the human body within time and space, dance is a medium through which the performer can manipulate her observers’ perception of reality, thereby offering imaginative possibilities of existing differently. Consequently, dance scenes sketch possibilities that are not yet attainable. Proposing imagined portraits of feminine existence within heterosexual love, these descriptions of dance shine light on the freedom of embodied movement and expression in reinventing women’s social positions.
Oldershaw, Myles. Duke University
“Varieties of Influence”
My dissertation examines the role of influence studies in literary criticism, and argues for their value. It begins by examining the downturn in influence studies in the last third of the twentieth century, tracing the disciplinary shifts that saw influence become an outmoded critical term. It argues against these shifts, showing how the dismissal of influence was based on a narrow picture of what such studies must entail. It goes on to show how expansive the topic can be, and how well it serves to illuminate the discipline’s objects of study. Two further potential chapters demonstrate how discussions prominent in literary studies today – literary networks and institutional studies – implicitly investigate influence, even if the critics involved in such discussions would disclaim the term.
Poole, Megan. Penn State University
"Technical Beauty: Rhetoric and the Aesthetics of Science"
While traditional rhetorics of science, a subfield within rhetoric and composition, unravel the logic and argumentation of scientific discourse, this dissertation confronts the non-rational, aesthetic elements of scientific inventional practices and prose—ushered in by women artist-scientists such as Margaret Cavendish, Susanne K. Langer, and Katy Payne—to expand what can be considered rhetorical about scientific knowledge making. At stake in studying the aesthetic elements of science is not only an observation of the limits of science and art but also the inclusion of previously discounted voices whose rhetorical practices exemplified the recursivity of art and science.
Porrone, Arianna. Global Studies. Justice, Rights and Politics, Department of Political Science, Communication and International Relations, University of Macerata.
"Re-storying/restoring the Law for the Anthropocene through response-able obligations"
My research aim (what?) is to investigate and explore ways to re-think and re-configure human/nature relationship; ways that broaden and problematise Western, liberal and patriarchal assumptions and categories in environmental governance. The solutions offered by Western Law or natural scientists to the many challenges of our epoch (climate and environmental degradation, the exacerbation of social injustices and gender inequalities) are in fact incomplete, because they focus on one version of the story: the ‘epistemology of the mastery’ (Code 2006). By adopting ad hoc mitigation practices and a narrative of reason to frame the ecological crisis, they neglect the fact that also cultural values, social practices and socio-cultural imaginaries trigger ecological change (Opperman and Iovino 2017) in positive or negative ways.
My research will have two major objectives (how?) : (1) to provide a critical review on how international environmental and human rights law do not give credit or disregard ecological, gendered and situated knowledges (ontological and epistemological pluralism), and (2) to develop a conceptual framework for a model of collaborative environmental governance, by framing humans as vulnerable and empathetic and Nature as positive and emancipatory.
Porter, Sarah F. Harvard University.
"Early Christian Deathscapes"
Early Christian responses to death were communicated not only through letters of consolation, homilies of exhortation, poetry, or eulogy but also through architecture and space. Christians built and altered deathscapes (like martyrial complexes, funerary churches, and cemeteries) as expressions and channels of grief, ambition, and memory. Using archaeological and textual evidence, I analyze late fourth-century Christian deathscapes as individual architectural units, as actors within the civic landscape, as nodes of cultural memory, and as sites of individual practice.
Prelock, Aaron. VID Specialised University
"John Owen's Pastoral Theology and Methodology"
I am analysing Owen’s sermons, writings to pastors and congregations, ecclesiastical records, and his broader theological writings in order to answer the question: how did John Owen function as a local church minister in relation to his own defined theology? Understanding his practice in relation to his theology will shed greater light on a neglected aspect of this important figure.
Raccuglia, Peter. Department of English Language and Literature. Yale University
"American Cosmos: Scale and Freedom in the Nineteenth Century Environment"
My project examines the emergence and mediation of environment concepts at varying levels of scale through nineteenth century American texts. I examine how print forms and literary ecologies fostered notions of geographical and historical situatedness as transnational interconnectedness, the industrial transformation of the landscape, and political crises uprooted traditional forms of cognitive mapping and led writers like Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe to imagine new forms of natural, global, and local belonging.
Rodenbiker, Kelsie. Durham University.
"The Role of the Catholic Epistles in the Formation of the New Testament Canon"
This project is focused on the role of the Catholic Epistles in the formation of the NT canon as evidenced by third- and fourth-century papyri, codices, canon lists, Patristic usage, and (para)biblical intertexts and narrative exemplars. It emphasizes the contingent canonicity of early Christian literature as shaped through a process simultaneously historical, theological, and practical. Neither arbitrary nor inevitable, the CE collection illuminates the intentionality and non-linearity of NT canon history.
Smeenk, Kim. Faculty of Arts /School for the Humanities, University of Groningen
“Making it personal. A digital humanities analysis of how subjectivity shapes the news”
This project conceptualizes personal journalism and its epistemological underpinnings by analysing its forms and underlying practices between 1945 and 2018 in Dutch newspapers through a multi-method digital humanities approach. Personal journalism is journalism in which journalists are transparent about how stories are shaped by the reporter’s subjectivity. I address this by modelling four types of personal journalism and tracing their manifestation over time. I adopt a digital humanities approach, combining a large-scale content analysis, for which I develop and test digital tools, with a qualitative textual analysis.
Spjut, Petter. Uppsala Universitet.
"Parables and Plain speech: Scripture and Authority in Pistis Sophia"
How was orthodoxy and authority created in a text generally considered “gnostic” and non-orthodox? In this project, I investigate interpretative strategies and the use of authoritative text in the ancient egyptian work Pistis Sophia.
Steele-Fisher, Benjamin. Religious studies, University of California, Davis
“Totality and Universality: Modern Jewish Thought and the Apostle Paul in Taubes and Boyarin”
This dissertation project, broadly conceived, examines salient themes in reception of the Pauline Epistles by modern Jewish thinkers. Adjacent to that project, in this particular paper I examine treatments of Paul undertaken by two figures who have actually sought to reclaim the apostle as an important Jewish thinker: German-Jewish philosopher of religion Jacob Taubes and American Talmudist Daniel Boyarin. I argue that both deploy Paul diachronically as a means of grappling with the imbricated histories of Judaism and Christianity, but also the predicaments of modern Jewish life. Further, I contend that underlying both is German-Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig’s problematic of totality, a habit of thought correlative to Pauline universalism.
Tillema, Aron. Religious Studies, University of California Davis.
“Dialogism, Intention, and Truth in the Book of Jonah”
The biblical book of Jonah, where a prophet complains that God is too merciful and is eaten and spat out by a giant fish, is widely considered a parody, in everything from scholarly commentaries to children’s books. But was the book of Jonah intended to be humorous, and Jonah a parody figure? Earlier religious traditions throughout history from Judaism to Islam have variously characterized Jonah as an honest prophet, a prophet whose anger was ultimately his downfall, and the prophet who would usher in the eschaton when he would catch Leviathan and create a banquet hall from the monstrous sea-beast. What might account for such a shift in interpretation and what does this tell us about modern historical-critical hermeneutics? I engage with the history of interpretation of Jonah as well as the book of Jonah itself to imagine under what hermeneutical conditions Jonah was taken seriously – as a text grappling with divine justice, what it means to be a prophet, and other themes in the book of Jonah. The goal, then, is twofold: To demonstrate the historical contingency of the modern, monologic interpretation of the book of Jonah and to consider how contemporary interpreters constructs Jonah and its author to fit their own ends. This is a case study for my larger interests related to my dissertation. While I have not yet determined what I will precisely write about, I am interested in the contingency of modern historical scholarship on the Bible – much of it relating to authorship and intention. Because historical-critical scholarship places a large emphasis on contexts, authorship becomes a major factor in driving interpretation.
Toft, Lasse Løvlund. Aarhus University
"The hagiographical developments of the Syriac literary traditions of the Martyrs of Najran"
The project is a philological investigation of the Syriac hagiographic literary developments of the historical episode known as the “Martyrs of Najran” in Christian and Muslim traditions. With a focus on memory culture and identity making as the interpretative framework, the study will through synoptical readings of the Syriac Christian sources attempt to shed light on how and why this literary tradition developed as it did.
Van Maaren, John. Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University, Canada.
“Mark's Judaism: Repositioning the Second Gospel”
This research project focuses on rereading the gospel of Mark as a Jewish text. As an authoritative text for the Christian tradition, the reception of Mark has been shaped by the needs of later contexts, especially Jews and Christians as two distinct identities. This project seeks to counteract the influence of later contexts by the use of empirically tested sociological work on ethnicity to better understand the place of Mark as an expression of first-century “Jewishness.”
Williams, Lindy. Nazarene Theological College, University of Manchester
"Zion in Transition: Ezekiel and the Garden"
I am exploring Ezekiel's use of the Eden Garden narrative. I am investigating why he uses this narrative specifically, and how his usage alters aspects of the original story in order to craft, or re-craft, a new understanding of sacred space for a generation in exile. (For my project sacred space revolves around the mythology of Zion.)
Winterberg, Alberto Alfredo. Freie Universität Berlin
"The authority of memory: Cultural semiotics and mnemohistorical traces of Ancient Egypt in Late Antique Hermetism"
The frame narrative of the so-called Philosophical Hermetic texts consisting of several Egyptian mythological motifs gave rise to heated scholarly debate. The former was either concerned to directly derive Hermetism from the Ancient Egyptian religion or to devalue its Egyptian elements as a fantastic façade. This project aims towards a middle-way approach which values the received motifs as sense-filled mnemohistorical representations and purposeful sources of discursive authority.
Youssef, Medhat Nady. VID Specialized University.
"From judgment to blessing: an analysis of the rhetoric of Isaiah 19"
I am an Old Testament scholar working at the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Cairo, and I am a contemporary reader of the Old Testament. In both roles, I have observed a debate on the role of Egypt Isaiah 19 concerning the words of judgment (1-17) and the words of blessing (18-25), and whether or not these two parts relate to one another. Both ordinary and trained readers of Isaiah 19 perceive that there is a shift in atmosphere between verses 1-17 and 18-25, and this thesis will pursue an analysis of the rhetoric of Isaiah 19 as a whole in order to investigate how the tension between the two parts can be interpreted
