2024 Teaching Staff
Beatrice Chrystall
(bchrystall@hds.harvard.edu)
Lecturer on Pali
Beatrice Chrystall has been teaching Pali at Harvard Divinity School, both during the academic year and at the Summer Language Program, since 2014. Before that she was teaching at Harvard’s Department of South Asian Studies, from where she also received her PhD. Her doctoral thesis, entitled “Connections without limit: The refiguring of the Buddha in the ‘Jinamahānidāna,’” was a study of a biography of the Buddha written in Pali in Thailand. The thesis examined the relations between literary form and ethics, and, as the Jinamahānidāna is a composite text, the role of intertextuality in Pali texts. Her particular interests are Buddhist narrative, ethics, literary traditions, language, and intertextuality. English by birth, she previously studied in Oxford and Paris.
Beatrice very much enjoys creating a collegial and collaborative environment where students support each other’s learning in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. For her comments about the Summer Language Program, please see “Separated in Flesh, Together in Spirit.” Beatrice is also very interested in the pedagogy of learning languages, and in developing a range of teaching methods that will allow people of all levels of language-learning aptitude to thrive in and enjoy learning Pali. She is also preparing a new primer for first year Pali, and working on a translation of the Jinamahānidāna.
Karin Grundler-Whitacre (kgwhitacre@hds.harvard.edu)
Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, Director of the Summer Language Program, and Lecturer in German
Karin Grundler-Whitacre, a native of Germany, started her teaching career in German language and culture, pedagogy, and philology as a doctoral student at Brandeis University in 1995. She received her master’s degree in Women’s Studies and Comparative Literature and her doctoral degree in Interdisciplinary Literary Studies (with a concentration on modern German and American Jewish comparative literature) for her dissertation, entitled, “Islands in a Sea of Exile: The Life and Works of the Writer and Painter Barbara Honigmann” in 2002 from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.
In 2004, Karin started to teach in the Summer Language Program at HDS. She has been teaching the SLP German every summer since 2004, and as of 2006 has been teaching first-year German translation courses during the academic year at HDS. With additional staff and administrative changes, Karin took on the administration of the regular-year language program and the language qualifying exams at HDS. She has been the director of the Summer Language program at HDS since 2009.
Her teaching focuses on instructing students to learn how to read and translate German into English by using original texts, poems, newspaper reports, works by Paul Tillich, Karl Barth, Max Weber, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorthee Sölle, Argula von Grumbach, Immanuel Kant, Martin Luther, and others. Her classes also regularly visit the Harvard Divinity School Library to view originals and pamphlets dating from earlier centuries, including the Reformation era (1521), to learn how to read, interpret and translate Fraktur script.
Her teaching method combines German culture, contemporary topics, history, “oddities,” film, food, holidays, and fun facts, as well as very little emphasis on grammar (or only as much as needed) to make encountering language patterns and methods of translation easily accessible to everyone in the class, even for less grammar-inclined students.
Haci Osman Gündüz (Ozzy) (hgunduz@g.harvard.edu)
Instructor in Classical Arabic, Summer Language Program
Mr. Gündüz has been the Instructor in Classical Arabic (CA) for Summer Language Program since 2018. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Arabic Language and Literature in the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (NELC) at Harvard University. He taught Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) at Tufts University from 2010 to 2016. His dissertation research focuses on the literary milieu of Damascus during the first century of Ottoman rule (1516-1600). He is also interested in post-classical literary history of Arabic, early modern Ottoman and Persian literatures, literary criticism, and Islamic intellectual history.
Mr. Gündüz’s teaching philosophy focuses on a student-centered classroom experience conducive to effective language learning. He implements a wide array of classroom activities aiming at full learner participation. He brings his expertise in Classical Arabic to the classroom, introducing students not only to the grammar, syntax, and morphology of the Arabic language, but also to the rich corpus of sources available in Arabic.
Judy Haley (jhaley@hds.harvard.edu)
Lecturer on Intermediate New Testament Greek
Judy Haley has taught Greek and Latin as well as New Testament courses in a variety of settings in the Boston area, including Harvard Divinity School, the Summer Language Program at HDS, Andover Newton Theological School, and Lowell Catholic High School.
Her classroom goals include helping students to gain tools they need for their work, emphasizing ancient language as a means for people to communicate across time, and building a supportive learning community. She continues to study advances in second language acquisition and the psychology of learning to strengthen her courses.
Allison Hurst (allison_hurst@hds.harvard.edu)
Instructor in Elementary Hebrew
Allison Hurst is an advanced doctoral candidate in Hebrew Bible in Harvard’s Committee on the Study of Religion. She holds a BA from the University of Virginia and an MTS from Harvard Divinity School. She has been the Teaching Fellow for Elementary and Intermediate Biblical Hebrew in the Summer Language Program at HDS since 2017, and she has taught the third year of Biblical Hebrew (“Rapid Reading”) during the academic year at Harvard.
She has been a Teaching Fellow for a wide variety of classes at Harvard, has worked as the Head Teaching Fellow for two courses in the General Education program in the College, and has held adjunct positions in the Theology Department at Boston College. Her dissertation research focuses on how differing traditions about Egypt are negotiated across the Hebrew Bible. She is an editorial assistant for the Harvard Theological Review and a member of the Society of Biblical Literature.
Lana Neufeld (lana_neufeld@hds.harvard.edu)
Lecturer on Spanish
Lana has been with the SLP since 2018, first as a TF for five summers and then, starting in 2023, the primary instructor for SLP Spanish. She also serves as the instructor for HDS 4460 (Elementary Spanish Readings), 4463 (Intermediate Spanish Readings), and 4465 (Communications Skills for Spanish Ministry). In previous years, she has taught HDS 4464 (Advanced Spanish Readings) as well as served as a TF for various courses in FAS, including Spanish language and literature, British literature, and General Education courses.
Her dissertation addressed the varied expressions of exile, diaspora, and belonging in Jewish literature from Latin America and Israel, and she includes representations of these, among other themes, in Spanish-language texts from across time periods, cultures, traditions, and regions of the Spanish-speaking world. Lana enjoys integrating students’ interests into course readings and discussions, broadening her own knowledge while incorporating students in both teaching and learning roles of the course. Her stated goal for each course is to establish an intimate classroom community where every person feels at ease, connected, and open to learning.
Matthew Percuouco (Matthew.Percuoco@gordon.edu)
Lecturer on Intermediate Hebrew
Matthew Percuoco received his PhD in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament from Harvard University this past November and has since been serving as Adjunct Professor of Biblical Studies at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. He is currently working with Mohr Siebeck to publish his dissertation, titled, “The Nature and Function of the Samuel Conclusion: 2 Samuel 21–24 as Mise en Abyme.” Matthew’s research interests include narrative artistry in the book of Samuel, inner-Biblical allusion/intertextuality in the Hebrew Bible, and narrative analogy in the Hebrew Bible. Matthew is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and has served as an editorial assistant for the Harvard Theological Review.
This is Matthew’s first year teaching for the SLP. He had the opportunity to take the German and French courses as a student in the SLP. He enjoyed his time as a student in the SLP, and he is excited to be involved with it once again.
James Skedros (jskedros@hds.harvard.edu)
Lecturer on Elementary New Testament Greek
James C. Skedros has taught Greek at both Harvard Divinity School and in its Summer Language Program since 2000. He received his ThD in the History of Christianity from Harvard Divinity School in 1996.
He has taught at the Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley, California) and is the Michael G. and Anastasia Cantonis Professor of Byzantine Studies at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology (Brookline, Massachusetts). His writing and research areas include popular religious practices in Late Antiquity, Byzantine Christianity, the lives of early Christian and Byzantine saints, pilgrimage, and Christian-Muslim relations. He is a double recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, both for the study of Byzantine saints in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Craig Tichelkamp (cht653@mail.harvard.edu)
Lecturer on Christian Latin
Craig Tichelkamp has been involved with teaching Greek and Latin at HDS since 2014. His approach to language instruction focuses on both acquisition and learning, guiding students quickly from the study of grammar to a facility and familiarity with the language that can serve them in research and ministry.
His current course offerings cover the history of scriptural interpretation among pre-modern Christians and their neighbors. In his classroom, students sample the range of interpretive possibilities that emerge from these traditions, which, while historically and theologically distinct, also mutually inform one another.
In addition to teaching at HDS, Tichelkamp recently finished a doctoral dissertation, titled, “Experiencing the Word: Dionysian Mystical Theology in the Commentaries of Thomas Gallus (d.1246).” His translation and introduction to Gallus’s commentary on the Song of Songs is forthcoming in the Brepols series Victorine Texts in Translation. Both projects reflect Tichelkamp’s interests in Christian theology, history, literature, and pedagogy. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass.
Pascale C. Torracinta (pascale_torracinta@hds.harvard.edu)
Lecturer on Theological French
A native of Geneva, Switzerland, Pascale Torracinta has been teaching French language, literature, and translation for more than 30 years, and has held appointments at the University of Geneva, at St. John’s College, Oxford, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. She has taught French at HDS since 2012.
Pascale also works as a freelance academic and literary translator and is a regular contributor to the bilingual website La Vie des Idées/Books and Ideas (an online publication of the Collège de France) and other venues.
Teaching Fellows
Sherah Bloor (sherahbloor@g.harvard.edu)
Teaching Fellow on Theological German
Giorgia Bove (giorgia_bove@g.harvard.edu)
Teaching Fellow for Elementary and Intermediate New Testament Greek
Giorgia Bove is a PhD candidate in New Testament and Early Christianity in the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard. Giorgia studies demonology, lived religious experiences, mysticism, and ancient magic. She is working on a dissertation on Christian demonology from the Late Antique to the early Middle Ages that brings together elite literature (Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, the Desert Fathers) and material culture (magic papyri, amulets, engraved gemstones).
Alexis Brown (alexis_brown@mail.harvard.edu)
Teaching Fellow in Elementary Pali
Alexis Brown is a doctoral candidate on the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University. Her research interests include Buddhist narrative, Buddhist ethics, Pali language and literature, Theravada Buddhism, Sri Lanka (specifically its language, literature, and food), and the intersection of religious studies, moral philosophy, and literary theory. She is currently writing her dissertation on an anthology of Buddhist narratives composed in Pali around the 13th century in Sri Lanka, focusing on the value of reading such texts with attention to their literary features and the affordances of the narrative form. When she is not reading/writing/translating, she enjoys baking cookies and walking in the woods with her dog.
Giò DiRusso (gdirusso@g.harvard.edu)
Teaching Fellow on Elementary Syriac
adri rodriguez rios (adrianrios@g.harvard.edu)
Teaching Fellow on Theological Spanish
Originally from Rosarito, Mexico, Adrián Ríos is a PhD candidate in Latinx studies at Harvard University, with a secondary field in the history of science. They graduated from Southwestern College before transferring to the University of California at Berkeley to complete their undergraduate studies in Anthropology and Latin American literature. Their current research project centers on queer and anticolonial narratives across the US-Mexico border.
Byron Russell (brussell@fas.harvard.edu)
Teaching Fellow for Elementary and Intermediate Biblical Hebrew
Norman Sheidlower (sheidlowern@comcast.net)
Teaching Fellow for Christian Latin and Classical Arabic
Norman Sheidlower has been studying and teaching ancient and medieval languages for decades. He completed his MA in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Harvard GSAS in 2003, and began working as a teaching fellow at HDS shortly thereafter. For several years he served as a Teaching Fellow for upper-level courses in patristic Greek and medieval Latin; he also developed and taught a course in Old Occitan for a cohort of troubadour fans. He has been TFing, with undiminished enthusiasm, Classical Arabic and Christian Latin in SLP since 2007, and he looks forward to another summer of comradeship, good cheer, and grammatical rigor.
Tali Zechory (tali.zechory@gmail.com)
Teaching Fellow for Theological French
Administration
Karin Grundler-Whitacre (slp@hds.harvard.edu)
Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, Director of the Summer Language Program, and Lecturer in German
Please see full bio above.
Marlon Cummings (slp@hds.harvard.edu)
Director of Faculty and Academic Support Services
Marlon has been in the Academic Affairs Office at Harvard Divinity School since 2017, the latest chapter in a long career in higher education, with roles at Boston College, the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard College, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences under his belt. Marlon oversees the budget and financial operations of the Summer Language Program.
Kevin Chimo (slp@hds.harvard.edu)
Programs and Faculty Grants Coordinator
Kevin joined the staff at Harvard Divinity School in November of 2022, transitioning from three years at Harvard Medical School, where he had worked as a faculty assistant. Prior to that, he was a bookseller at the Harvard Coop, where he was first introduced to the Divinity School, working at author events on campus for the store. He is much closer to his intellectual home here at the Divinity School, having taken a BA in History and Religious Studies at UMass. Kevin assists with the day-to-day operational administrative tasks that keep the Summer Language Program up and running.