Spring 2024 Event
Explorations in World Christianity
A discussion with the Yang Visiting Scholars in World Christianity at Harvard Divinity School
Thursday, April 11, 2024, 4 pm
James Room West, Swartz Hall
2023-24 Yang Visiting Scholars
For the academic year 2023-24, HDS is delighted to announce three Yang Visiting Scholars in World Christianity. They will conduct research, write, and teach, or co-teach, one course during 2023-24.
Nathanael Homewood is a lecturer in the Department of Religion at Rice University, the Secretary General of the African Association for the Study of Religions, and the editor for Modern and Global Christianity in the Religious Studies Review. A native of Canada, he earned his PhD in Global Christianity at the Department of Religion, Rice University, in May 2018. His first book, Seductive Spirits: Deliverance, Demons, and Sexual Worldmaking in Ghanaian Pentecostalism is under contract with Stanford University Press. His second book, Hallelujah Houston: The Bayou City as a Hub for Global Christianity is under contract with Bloomsbury Academic. His current project is a wide-sweeping exploration of the global influence of popular faith healer Benny Hinn. In spring 2024, he will teach the HDS course, "The Medium and the Mission: Technology and Communication in Global Christianity." (Read an interview feature with Nathanael.)
Tom Santa Maria is a religious and cultural historian of the Catholic Reformation in its European and Global contexts. His work focuses primarily on the relationship between the body, emotions, and religion. He has published in journals including the Catholic Historical Review, and the Journal of Early Modern Christianity. He comes to HDS from Yale, where he was the Residential College Dean of Silliman College, and before that, a graduate student in renaissance studies and history. In spring 2024, he will teach the HDS course, "Mysticism and Madness in the Early Modern World." (Read an interview feature with Tom.)
Gina A. Zurlo is co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and her research focuses on the demography of religion, World Christianity, sociology of religion, and women’s studies. She is also a visiting research fellow at Boston University’s Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, where she works on the World Religion Database (Brill). Her most recent books include Global Christianity: A Guide to the World’s Largest Religion from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe (Zondervan Academic, 2022), Women in World Christianity: Building and Sustaining a Global Movement (Wiley-Blackwell, 2023), and From Nairobi to the World: David B. Barrett and the Re-Imagining of World Christianity (Brill, 2023). She was named one of the BBC’s 100 most inspiring and influential women of 2019 for her work in quantifying the religious future. In fall 2023, she is teaching the HDS course, "Trends in World Christianity, 1900–2050." (Read an interview feature with Gina.)
Past Yang Visiting Scholars
Please visit Past Yang Visiting Scholars to read about the Yang Visiting Scholars in World Christianity for the academic years 2021-22 and 2022-23.
Featured Spring 2023 Event
World Christianity, Christianity in the West: Continuities and Differences
An online panel discussion on April 18, 2023, with the Yang Visiting Scholars in World Christianity at Harvard Divinity School
About the event
The Yang Visiting Scholars in World Christianity program brings distinguished senior and junior scholars of world Christianity to Harvard Divinity School each year, opening up fresh perspectives, particularly from the global south. This is our second year of having Yang Visiting Scholars at HDS and the cohort for the third year in 2023-24 has been selected and those scholars will also be in attendance.
This was an online panel discussion under the leadership of Professor Francis X. Clooney, S.J., Parkman Professor of Divinity, Professor of Comparative Theology at the Harvard Divinity School. Professor Clooney led a conversation with this year’s Yang Visiting Scholars, Heather Mellquist Lehto and Ashok Kumar Mocherla. This conversation intended show us how perspectives on the global scene might confirm, yet also challenge how we think about Christianity and the study of Christianity here in the United States.
The Yang Scholars of 2022-23 (Oluwakemi Abiodun Adesina and Chandra Mallampalli), as well as our Yang Scholars for 2023-24 (see below), joined in the conversation.
Professor Jacob Olupona, Professor of African Religious Traditions, with a joint appointment as Professor of African and African American Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, offered concluding remarks.
Responsibilities
Each visiting scholar teaches one course (either in the fall or in the spring semester) and presents their research in a public lecture. Yang Visiting Scholars are required to be in full-time residence at Harvard Divinity School while carrying out their proposed research projects during the academic year.
Any publication and/or research resulting from the stay at Harvard Divinity School must be credited to the Yang Visiting Scholars Program in World Christianity at Harvard Divinity School.
Eligibility
Positions are open to early career and senior scholars with doctorates in the fields of religion and to those with primary competence in other humanities, social science, and public policy fields who demonstrate a serious interest in world Christianity and hold appropriate degrees in those fields. Selection criteria emphasize the quality of the applicant's research prospectus, outlining objectives, methods, and publication plans, the expansion of expertise offered through HDS courses, and the significance of the contribution of the proposed research to the study of world Christianity.
Compensation
The appointment will come with compensation commensurate with experience. Salary, as well as some research and travel funds will be provided.
Housing possibilities: Harvard University Housing. Please note that the Office for Academic Affairs is unable to assist with housing and other lodging requests.
Additional Information
The appointment entitles the visiting scholar to a Harvard University ID card (which allows access to the Harvard University Libraries) for the duration of the appointment. Visiting scholars are cordially invited to attend all HDS community and public events. However, HDS is unable to offer courtesy library cards, or appointments, for any additional members of a scholar's family.
A visiting scholar is considered an independent researcher and may not register for and take classes for credit. For information on how to audit classes (not for credit) at HDS, please consult the instructions on auditing
This is a full-academic year appointment beginning August 1, 2023, and ending May 31, 2024. The extension of an appointment is unfortunately not possible.
For further questions, and/or inquiries, please contact the Yang Scholars Program Office in the Office of Academic Affairs.
Application Process
Please note the 2023-24 application has now closed. See below for interested future applicants.
Please only apply through the Harvard employment website. No hardcopy/regular mail or email applications will be accepted.
Your completed application through the Harvard portal must contain the following:
- A title and a description of your proposed research project, not to exceed 1,250 words;
- The title and description of a course on world Christianity related to your project, not to exceed one page;
- A description of your background in studies of Christianity, not to exceed 750 words;
- Curriculum vitae, not to exceed 10 pages;
- Writing sample, either a chapter or article, in electronic format (only a few pages, please).
- Two letters of recommendation are also required.
- All materials are only accepted through the online portal.
Questions? Contact us at yangscholars@hds.harvard.edu.