Convocation 2023
Convocation
of
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard University
at the Opening of the 208th year
Thursday, September 7, 2023
4 pm
James Room (Swartz Hall South)
Other viewing and overflow room: Sperry Room
Program
OPENING MUSIC
Eugene Kwong, MTS candidate, tenor saxophone
Isaiah Briggs, MDiv candidate, drums
Daniel Hawkins, HDS Chief Information Officer, bass
Chris Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, piano
WELCOME
David F. Holland
Interim Dean of the Faculty of Divinity
John A. Bartlett Professor of New England Church History
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE LAND AND PEOPLE
Rebecca Mendoza, Doctoral student, Committee on the Study of Religion, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
INTRODUCING THE READERS
David F. Holland
Interim Dean of the Faculty of Divinity
John A. Bartlett Professor of New England Church History
READING
Two Passages from Dogen:
"A Dharma Hall Discourse of Dogen"
"A verse of Dongshan remembered by Dogen"
Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, MTS candidate, Harvard Divinity School
READING
“A Jewish Story" Retold by Rabbi Michael Gold
Ariel O’Donnell, MDiv candidate, Harvard Divinity School
INTRODUCTION OF PROFESSOR HEMPTON
David F. Holland
Interim Dean of the Faculty of Divinity
John A. Bartlett Professor of New England Church History
INTRODUCTION OF THE SPEAKER
David N. Hempton
McDonald Family Professor of Evangelical Theological Studies
REMARKS BY
Claudine Gay
30th President of Harvard University
MUSIC INTERLUDE
“We shall be known” by Karisha Longaker of MaMuse
Stephanie Hollenberg, MDiv candidate, voice
Nicole Newell, MDiv candidate, voice
Chris Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual, voice
Lyrics:
We shall be known by the company we keep
By the ones who circle round to tend these fires
We shall be known by the ones who sow and reap
The seeds of change, alive from deep within the earth
It is time now, it is time now that we thrive
It is time we lead ourselves into the well
It is time now, and what a time to be alive
In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love
DISMISSAL
David F. Holland
Interim Dean of the Faculty of Divinity
John A. Bartlett Professor of New England Church History
CLOSING MUSIC
Eugene Kwong, MTS candidate, tenor saxophone
Isaiah Briggs, MDiv candidate, drums
Daniel Hawkins, HDS chief information officer, bass
Chris Hossfeld, director of music and ritual, piano
RECEPTION
Everyone is cordially invited to attend a reception from 5–6 pm with light refreshments on the HDS Commons.
Speakers:
Claudine Gay became the 30th president of Harvard University on July 1, 2023.
Prior to becoming president, she spent five years leading Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences as the Edgerley Family Dean, having served previously as dean of social science from 2015 to 2018. Gay was recruited to Harvard in 2006 as a professor of government. She was also appointed as a professor of African and African American Studies in 2007. She was named the Wilbur A. Cowett Professor of Government in 2015.
As FAS dean, Gay guided efforts to expand student access and opportunity, spur excellence and innovation in teaching and research, enhance aspects of the FAS’s academic culture, and bring new emphasis and energy to areas such as quantum science and engineering; climate change; ethnicity, indigeneity, and migration; and the humanities. She successfully led the FAS through the COVID pandemic, consistently and effectively prioritizing the dual goals of safeguarding community health and sustaining academic continuity and progress. She also launched and led an ambitious, inclusive, and faculty-driven strategic planning process, intended to take a fresh look at fundamental aspects of the FAS’s academic structures, resources, and operations and to advance academic excellence.
Gay is a leading scholar of political behavior, considering issues of race and politics in America. She has explored such topics as how the election of minority officeholders affects citizens’ perceptions of their government and their interest in politics and public affairs; how neighborhood environments shape racial and political attitudes among Black Americans; the roots of competition and cooperation between minority groups, with a particular focus on relations between Black Americans and Latinos; and the consequences of housing mobility programs for political participation among poor people. Gay is a dedicated educator and mentor whose courses have focused on such topics as racial and ethnic politics in the U.S., Black politics in the post-Civil Rights era, American political behavior, and democratic citizenship. She is founding chair of the Inequality in America Initiative, a multidisciplinary effort launched in 2017.
Prior to joining the Harvard faculty, Gay was an assistant professor of political science at Stanford University from 2000 to 2005, and an associate professor (tenured) from 2005 to 2006. She earned a B.A. in economics from Stanford University, where she received the Anna Laura Myers Prize for best senior thesis in the department. She earned her PhD at Harvard in 1998, receiving the Toppan Prize for best dissertation in political science.
A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Gay has pursued her scholarship as a fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. She currently serves on the boards of the Pew Research Center, Phillips Exeter Academy, and the American Academy of Political and Social Science. She also served as a member of the American Association of Universities advisory board on racial equity in higher education.
David Holland is Interim Dean of the Faculty of Divinity and the Bartlett Professor of New England Church History at Harvard Divinity School. Holland’s research focuses on the intersecting theological commitments and cultural changes that shaped American life from the early seventeenth century to the late nineteenth. His first book, Sacred Borders: Continuing Revelation and Canonical Restraint in Early America, was published by Oxford University Press in 2011. He has since published a brief theological introduction to the Book of Mormon and is an editor on the Oxford Handbook on Seventh-day Adventism, which is now in press.
His research has also appeared in the New England Quarterly, Law and History Review, and in a variety of other scholarly collections, including a recent essay in Secularization and Religious Innovation in the Atlantic World by Oxford University Press. Holland is currently at work on a co-authored volume, Ideas and Ideals in the American Past, commissioned by Oxford and a comparative biography, A Particular Universe: Ellen Gould White, Mary Baker Eddy and the Nineteenth Century United States, to be published by Yale University Press.
David N. Hempton is McDonald Family Professor of Evangelical Theological Studies and Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor. He served as Dean of Harvard Divinity School from July 2012 through August 2023. Before joining the Faculty of Divinity in spring 2007, he was University Professor and Professor of the History of Christianity at Boston University; and prior to that appointment, he was Professor of Modern History and director of the School of History in Queen’s University Belfast.
Hempton is a social historian of religion with particular expertise in populist traditions of evangelicalism in Europe, North America, and beyond. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. In recent years, he has delivered the F.D. Maurice Lectures at King’s College London, held a fellowship of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and was HDS’s Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 2008.
In October 2021, Hempton was the featured speaker of the Gifford Lectures, one of the most prestigious honors in academia. His series of lectures is titled “Networks, Nodes, and Nuclei in the History of Christianity, c. 1500–2020.” Hempton’s most recent book is Secularization and Religious Innovation in the North Atlantic World (Oxford, 2017).
Rebecca Mendoza's research focuses on Indigenous religious traditions of the Americas with a focus on precolonial and decolonial theory grounded in Mexico and the contemporary borderlands of Mexico and the U.S. Broadly, her scholarship centers Indigenous ontologies, material religion, and ritual survivance pertaining to kinship among humans, plants, animals, ancestors, and land. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges ancient Mesoamerican materials and cosmovision with contemporary Indigenous, Mexican, and Chicanx communities. Mendoza is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School (MDiv) and the University of Oregon (BA) with professional experience working in community organizing, advocacy, education, and storytelling. She was a 2022 Summer Pre-Columbian Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks, a Graduate Student Associate at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and in 2023 she was awarded the Ford Pre-Doctoral Fellowship.
Ariel O’Donnell is an MDiv candidate at Harvard Divinity School from Omaha, Nebraska. O'Donnell seeks to integrate death care and ritual, shadow healing work, creative writing, and serving marginalized communities at these crossroads. O'Donnell is grateful for the opportunity to be among community at HDS and learn from the river near her home.
Elom Tettey-Tamaklo is a second-year MTS candidate whose work is at the intersection of religion and human rights law, specifically in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Elom believes that there can be no just peace without the recognition of the Divine in each of us and therefore strives to call attention through religious practice and legal frameworks, to the inherent and unquestionable worth of all human beings.
Musicians:
Isaiah Briggs is a MDiv candidate focusing on the role of music in social movements and faith communities. His work centers on bringing creative/social development programs to young people dealing with PTSD and complex trauma.
Daniel Hawkins is the chief information officer at Harvard Divinity School and has served in various information technology roles across the university since he began his career at Harvard in 1997. He is also the bassist and founding member of the Boston band Pressure Cooker, which writes and performs original roots reggae, rocksteady, and ska music.
Stephanie Hollenberg is a third-year MDiv candidate exploring the intersection of music and spiritual care. She and husband Luke are growing a home in Vermont.
Christopher Hossfeld has served Harvard Divinity School since 2017 as director of music and ritual and Instructor in Sacred Music. His professional experience spans many years as a conductor, composer, vocal performer, and lecturer in academic, church, and community settings. He has served as the director of music for Yale Divinity School’s Marquand Chapel, for St. Anne’s in-the-Fields Episcopal Church in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and for a faith community at the Montreal Diocesan Theological College. In Montreal, he was the conductor and co-artistic director of Opera da Camera and co-founded One Equall Musick, a collaborative vocal ensemble.
He composes music for many settings, from concert works to music for liturgy or film. His music has been performed at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Toronto Music Garden, Jordan Hall, and at Yale and Harvard universities. He has received commissions from various ensembles, including the Rosetta Trio, the Cantata Singers of Ottawa, and the Grammy-nominated string orchestra A Far Cry. In addition to serving the HDS community, he is also the director of music at Grace Episcopal Church in Newton, Massachusetts.
Eugene Kwong is studying towards an MTS in Islamic Studies and contends daily with music and community in Islam.
MDiv candidate Nicole Newell studies spiritual care, healing design, and contemplative practices at HDS. She sings with the Harvard University Choral Fellows and performs regularly in the wider community.
FACULTY OF DIVINITY
Claudine Gay, President of Harvard University
David F. Holland, Interim Dean of Harvard Divinity School, John A. Bartlett Professor of New England Church History
Swayam Bagaria, Postdoctoral Fellow of Hindu Studies
Melissa Wood Bartholomew, Associate Dean for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging and Lecturer on Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging
Giovanni Bazzana, Frothingham Professor of the History of Religion and Professor New Testament and Early Christian Studies
Ann D. Braude, Senior Lecturer on American Religious History and Director of the Women’s Studies in Religion Program
Catherine Brekus, Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America and Chair of the Committee on the Study of Religion (FAS)
Davíd Carrasco, Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America, with a joint appointment with the Department of Anthropology (FAS)
Francis X. Clooney, S.J., Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology
Benjamin Dunning, Florence Corliss Lamont Professor of Divinity and Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity
Diana L. Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies, Fredric Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society (FAS), and Member of the Faculty of Divinity
Cheryl A. Giles, Francis Greenwood Peabody Senior Lecturer on Pastoral Care and Counseling
Mohsen Goudarzi, Assistant Professor in Islamic Studies
Ahmad Greene-Hayes, Assistant Professor of African American Religious Studies
Janet Gyatso, Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies and Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs
Charles Hallisey, Yehan Numata Senior Lecturer on Buddhist Literatures
David N. Hempton, Alonzo L. McDonald Family Professor of Evangelical Theological Studies, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
Theodore Hickman-Maynard, Associate Dean for Ministry Studies and Lecturer on Ministry
Amy Hollywood, Elizabeth H. Monrad Professor of Christian Studies
Tracey E. Hucks, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Africana Religious Studies and Suzanne Young Murray Professor (Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study)
Terrence L. Johnson, Professor of African American Religious Studies
Ousmane Oumar Kane, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Professor of Contemporary Islamic Religion and Society, Professor of African and African American Studies (FAS)
Karen L. King, Hollis Professor of Divinity
David C. Lamberth, Professor of Philosophy and Theology
Jon D. Levenson, Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies
Kevin J. Madigan, Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History
Dan McKanan, Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer in Divinity
Diane L. Moore, Associate Dean for Religion and Public Life, Religion and Public Life Lecturer in Religion, Conflict, and Peace, Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions
Jacob K. Olupona, Professor of African Religious Traditions, with a joint appointment as Professor of African and African American Studies (FAS)
Kimberley C. Patton, Professor of the Comparative and Historical Study of Religion
Stephanie Paulsell, Susan Shallcross Swartz Professor of the Practice of Christian Studies
Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church
Annette Yoshiko Reed, Krister Stendahl Professor of Divinity and Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity
Mayra Rivera, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Religion and Latinx Studies
Michelle C. Sanchez, Associate Professor of Theology
Teren Sevea, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies
Charles M. Stang, Professor of Early Christian Thought and Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions
D. Andrew Teeter, Professor of Hebrew Bible
MEMBERS OF THE FACULTY EMERITUS AND RESEARCH PROFESSORS
Leila Ahmed, Victor S. Thomas Research Professor of Divinity
John Braisted Carman, Parkman Professor of Divinity, Emeritus
Harvey G. Cox, Jr., Hollis Professor of Divinity, Emeritus
Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, Charles Chauncey Stillman Research Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies
William A. Graham, Murray A. Albertson Research Professor of Middle Eastern Studies (FAS), Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
David D. Hall, Bartlett Professor of New England Church History, Emeritus
Michael D. Jackson, Senior Research Fellow in World Religions
Baber Johansen, Research Professor of Islamic Religious Studies
Mark D. Jordan, Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Research Professor of Divinity
Peter Machinist, Hancock Research Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages (FAS)
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Krister Stendahl Research Professor of Divinity
Preston N. Williams, Houghton Professor of Theology and Contemporary Change, Emeritus
OTHERS OFFERING INSTRUCTION
Khalil Abdur-Rashid, Muslim Chaplain (Harvard) and Lecturer on Muslim Studies (HDS)
Irit Aharony, Senior Preceptor in Modern Hebrew (FAS)
Ali S. Asani, Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies (FAS) and Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures (FAS)
Preeta Banerjee, Instructor in Ministry Studies
Ran Bechor, Preceptor in Modern Hebrew (FAS)
Jeremy D. Battle, Lecturer on Baptist Polity
Katarina Bergh, Instructor in Ministry Studies
Chris Berlin, Instructor in Ministry Studies and Pastoral Counseling
Nicholas Boylston, Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (FAS)
Cornell William Brooks, Visiting Professor of the Practice of Prophetic Religion and Public Leadership (HDS), Hauser Professor of the Practice of Nonprofit Organizations (HKS), and Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice (HKS)
John P. Brown, Practitioner in Residence in Religion, Business Ethics, and the Economic Order
Raymond Carr, Visiting Professor
Jocelyne Cesari, T.J. Dermot Dunphy Visiting Professor of Religion, Violence, and Peacebuilding
Beatrice Chrystall, Lecturer on Pali
Shaye J.D. Cohen, Nathan Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy (FAS)
Richard Cozzens, Preceptor in Arabic (FAS)
Brandon Thomas Crowley, Lecturer in Ministry Studies
Khaled El-Rouayheb, James Richard Jewett Professor of Arabic and of Islamic Intellectual History (FAS)
Christopher Eldrett, Lecturer in Spanish Translation
Michael Ennis, Lecturer on Advanced Greek
Lewis Finfer, Instructor in Faith-Based Community Organizing
Amy L. Fisher, Instructor in United Methodist Polity
Gail Forsyth-Vail, Instructor on Church Polity
Jessica J. Fowler, Visiting Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Catholicism, WSRP Research Associate 2023-24
Jay L. Garfield, Visiting Professor of Buddhist Philosophy
K. Healan Gaston, Lecturer in American Religious History and Ethics
Reebee Kavich Girash, Instructor on United Church of Christ Polity
Luis Girón Negrón, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures (Spanish) and of Comparative Literature (FAS)
J. Gregory Given, Lecturer on Elementary Coptic
Elon Goldstein, Lecturer on Tibetan Buddhist Studies
Geraldine Grimm, Lecturer on German
Karin Grundler-Whitacre, Assistant Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs, Director of the Summer Language Program, and Lecturer on German
Haci Osman Gündüz, Summer Language Program 2023, Instructor in Classical Arabic
Elena Herminia Guzman, Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and African Religions, WSRP Research Associate 2023-24
Muhammad Habib, Preceptor in Arabic (FAS)
Shiraz Hajiani, Lecturer in Islamic Studies, and Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for the Study of World Religions
Gregory Halaby, Preceptor in Arabic (FAS)
Judy Haley, Summer Language Program 2023, Lecturer in New Testament Greek, and Lecturer on Intermediate Greek
Jay M. Harris, Harry Austryn Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies (FAS)
Julia Hintlian, Summer Language Program 2023, Instructor in Elementary Syriac
Samuel B. Hogan, Sr., Instructor in Pentecostal Church Polity
Nathanael Homewood, Yang Visiting Scholar of World Christianity 2023-24
Christopher Hossfeld, Instructor in Sacred Music and Director of Music and Ritual
Allison Hurst, Summer Language Program 2023 Instructor in Elementary Biblical Hebrew
Alison Jablonsky, Instructor in Ministry Studies
Arthur Kleinman, Esther Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology (FAS), Professor of Medical Anthropology in Global Health and Social Medicine (HMS), Professor of Psychiatry (HMS)
Yunus Kumek, Lecturer on Muslim Studies
Robin Lütjohann, Instructor on Lutheran Polity
Amr Madi, Preceptor in Arabic (FAS)
Shaul Magid, Visiting Professor of Modern Jewish Studies
Dana Malhas, Preceptor in Arabic (FAS)
Kerry Maloney, Chaplain and Director of Religious and Spiritual Life and Instructor in Ministry Studies
Peter Der Manuelian, Barbara Bell Professor of Egyptology (FAS)
Samira K. Mehta, Visiting Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and North American Religions, Colorado Scholar, WSRP Research Associate 2023-24
S. Zahra Moballegh, Visiting Assistant Professor of Women's Studies and Islam, WSRP Research Associate 2023-24
Payam Mohseni, Project Director of Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs
Amanda Napior, Instructor in Ministry Studies
Lana Jaffe Neufeld, Summer Language Program 2023, Lecturer on Spanish
Romy Neumark, Gerard Weinstock Visiting Lecturer of Jewish Studies (FAS)
Alissa Oleson, Instructor on Lutheran Polity
Atalia Omer, T.J. Dermot Dunphy Visiting Professor of Religion, Violence, and Peacebuilding and Senior Fellow in Conflict and Peace, Program in Religion and Public Life
Giovanna Parmigiani, Lecturer on Religion and Cultural Anthropology
Z. Fareen Parvez, Visiting Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Islam, WSRP Research Associate 2023-24.
Matthew Percuoco, Summer Language Program 2023, Lecturer on Intermediate Hebrew
John R. Peteet, Associate Professor of Psychiatry (HMS)
Ute Possekel, Lecturer on Syriac
Michael Puett, Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology (FAS)
Ashley M. Purpura, Visiting Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Theology, WSRP Research Associate 2023-24
David Ragland, Lecturer on the Spirituality of Reparations
Hussein Rashid, Assistant Dean for Religion and Public Life, Lecturer on Religion and Public Life
Julia Rhyder, Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (FAS)
James Robson, James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations (FAS) and Harvard College Professor
Monica Stanford, Assistant Dean for Multireligious Ministry and Lecturer in Ministry Studies
Tom Santa Maria, Yang Visiting Scholar of World Christianity 2023-24
Cathy Seggel, Instructor in Church Polity
Jeffrey R. Seul, Lecturer on the Practice of Peace
Patricia Simpson, Instructor in Ministry Studies
James C. Skedros, Summer Language Program 2023 and Lecturer on Elementary New Testament Greek
Daniel Albert Smith, Lecturer on Ministry Studies
Burns Stanfield, Instructor in Presbyterian Church Polity
Liza Stern, Instructor on Jewish Polity
Claire Feingold Thoryn, Instructor on United Universalist Polity
Craig Tichelkamp, Summer Language Program 2023, Lecturer on Christian Latin
Pascale C. Torracinta, Summer Language Program 2023, Instructor on French
Laura Tuach, Assistant Dean for Ministry Studies and Field Education
Regina Walton, Lecturer on Anglican Church Polity
Gloria White-Hammond, Swartz Resident Practitioner in Ministry Studies
Terry Tempest Williams, Writer-In-Residence
David Wolpe, Visiting Scholar
Gina A. Zurlo, Yang Visiting Scholar of World Christianity 2023-24
DENOMINATIONAL COUNSELORS
Aisha Ansano, Counselor to Unitarian Universalist Students
Jeremy Battle, Counselor to Baptist Students
Chris Berlin, Counselor to Buddhist Students
Amy L. Fisher, Counselor to Methodist Students
Reebee Kavich Girash, Counselor to United Church of Christ Students
Samuel B. Hogan, Sr., Counselor to Pentecostal Students
Maryam Sharrieff, Counselor to Muslim Students
Patricia Simpson, Counselor to Roman Catholic Students
Burns Stanfield, Counselor to Presbyterian Students
Liza Stern, Counselor to Jewish Students
Kari Jo Verhulst, Counselor to Lutheran Students
Regina Walton, Counselor to Episcopal/Anglican Students