Contributors

Xochitl Alvizo: Feminist, theologian, and Christian identified woman, Xochitl is completing her doctorate at Boston University School of Theology in practical theology with a focus on church and society. She is researching new and postmodern forms of church using a practical theological method that includes the use of qualitative research and has an ecclesiological focus. Finding herself on the boundary of different social and cultural contexts, she works hard to develop her own voice and to hear and encourage the voice of others. Her work is inspired by the conviction that all people are inextricably interconnected and the good one can do in any one area inevitably and positively impacts all others.

 

Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D.: (http://www.barbaraardinger.com) Author most recently of Secret Lives, a novel in the magical realism style about grandmothers who do magic. Her previous books include Pagan Every Day, a daybook that celebrates holy days in numerous religions; Finding New Goddesses, a pun-filled parody of goddess encyclopedias; and Practicing the Presence of the Goddess, a sort of Feminist Spirituality primer that is now available on Kindle. Barbara’s day job is editing for smart people with good ideas but marginal writing skills. To date, she has edited 250 books, both fiction and nonfiction, in genres that range from theology to science fiction, plus academic theses and dissertations, textbooks, screenplays, poetry, and children’s books. She lives in Long Beach, California, with her two Maine coon cats, Heisenberg and Schroedinger. When she gets up from the computer, she would rather go to the theater and see musicals than almost anything else.

Carol P. Christ, Ph.D.:  Earning her B.A. at Stanford University and Ph.D. at Yale University, Carol is a founding mother in the study of women and religion, feminist theology, women’s spirituality, and the Goddess movement, and her work has revolutionized the field of feminism and religion.  She teaches online courses in the Women’s Spirituality program at CIIS and through Ariadne Institute offers Goddess Pilgrimages to Crete. Her books include She Who Changes , Rebirth of the Goddess, Odyssey with the Goddess, Laughter of Aphrodite, Diving Deep and Surfacing, and the widely used anthologies she co-edited with Judith Plaskow, Womanspirit Rising and Weaving the Visions.  Carol has taught at Wesleyan, Columbia, San Jose State, Harvard Divinity School, Pacific School of Religion, and other universities and seminaries.  She was born in southern California and has lived in Greece for over 20 years where she became a dual citizen of Greece and the US.  She has been active in anti-racist, anti-war, feminist, and anti-nuclear causes for many years.  Since 2001 Carol has been working with Friends of Green Lesbos to save the wetlands of her home island.  In 2010 she ran for office in Lesbos and helped to elect the first Green Party representative to the Regional Council of the North Aegean.  She helped to organize Lesbos Go Green, which is working on recycling in Lesbos.

 

Monica A. Coleman, Ph.D.: Scholar and activist committed to connecting faith and social justice. An ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Monica has earned degrees at Harvard University, Vanderbilt University and Claremont Graduate University.  Monica is currently Associate Professor of Constructive Theology and African American Religions and Co-Director of the Center for Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology in southern California. She is also Associate Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University.  Her writings focus on the role of faith in addressing critical social issues. Monica wrote about church responses to sexual violence in The Dinah Project: a Handbook for Congregational Response to Sexual Violence.  In Making a Way Out of No Way: a Womanist Theology, Monica discusses inter-religious responses to the joys and pains of black women’s lives. She is the co-editor of the forthcoming Creating Women’s Theologies: A Movement Engaging Process Thought and editor of the forthcoming Ain’t I a Womanist Too?: Third Wave Womanist Religious Thought.

 

Elise M. Edwards: Ph.D. candidate in Theology, Ethics, and Culture at Claremont Graduate University and registered architect in the State of Florida.  She does interdisciplinary work in the fields of theology, ethics, and aesthetics, examining how they inform and shape each other and express the commitments of their communities.

 

 

 

John Erickson: Doctoral student in women’s studies in religion at Claremont Graduate University.  His research interests involve an interdisciplinary approach and are influenced by his time as the director of a women’s center and active member in the GLBTQ and women’s rights movements.  His work is inspired by the intersectionality of the feminism, queer identity, and religious political and cultural rhetoric.  He is the author of the blog, From Wisconsin, with Love and can be followed on Twitter at @jerickson85.

 

 

Sara Frykenberg, Ph.D.: Graduate of the women studies in religion program at Claremont Graduate University, Sara’s research considers the way in which process feminist theo/alogies reveal a kind transitory violence present in the liminal space between abusive paradigms and new non-abusive creations: a counter-necessary violence.  In addition to her feminist, theo/alogical and pedagogical pursuits, Sara is also an avid fan of science fiction and fantasy literature, and a level one Kundalini yoga teacher.

 

Cynthie Garrity-Bond: Feminist theologian and social ethicist, is completing her doctorate at Claremont Graduate University in women studies in religion, with a secondary focus in theology, ethics and culture. For the past two years Cynthie has been teaching in the department of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University where she completed both her BA and MA in Theology. Her research interests includes feminist sexual theology, historical theology with particular emphasis on religious movements of women, agency and resistance to ecclesial authority, embodiment, Mariology and transnational feminisms. Having recently returned from Southern Africa, Cynthie is researching the decriminalization of prostitution from a theological perspective.

 

Corinna Guerrero is a 5th year doctoral student at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Biblical Studies with specializations in Hebrew Bible and Literary Theory. She will be proposing her dissertation on Adoni-bezek and Characterization Theory in the near future. In addition to her studies Ms. Guerrero is currently a Newhall Teaching Fellow at the GTU and an Adjunct Instructor at theAmerican Baptist Seminary of the West. In her personal life Ms. Guerrero is also a wife and mother of a 3 year old daughter named Eva.

 

 

 

Stacia Guzzo: A homesteading theologian/stay-at-home mother, Stacia received her Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Loyola Marymount University and is currently working toward a Master of Divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary. Stacia has been a teacher and speaker in the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese and has served as managing editor for Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality. Her areas of interest include embodiment theology, ecological justice, food ethics, and the spirituality of birth. Stacia’s perspective offers unique insight into the raw, fresh theological undertones of every day life; coming from a Jesuit background, she embraces the Ignatian attitude of “finding God in all things.” In addition to her theological studies, Stacia currently works part-time as a doula, childbirth educator, and apiarist.

 

Ivy A. Helman, Ph. D.: A feminist scholar and faculty member at Boston College teaching in its Perspectives Program and an Adjunct Lecturer at Merrimack College.  Ivy attended Beloit College (B.A), Yale University (M.A.R.) and ClaremontGraduateUniversity (Ph.D.).  Her research interests range from the relationship between anti-modernism and anti-feminism in religious traditions and the rise of various fundamentalisms to queer theology and religious eco-feminism.  Her most recent publications include:  “Queer Systems: The Benefits of a More Systematic Approach to Queer Theology,” in CrossCurrents (March 2011) and Women and the Vatican: An Exploration of Official Documents (2012).  In addition to teaching and research, Ivy spends considerable amounts of time trying out new vegetarian and vegan recipes and going to the dog park with her Australian Cattle Dog mix, Mini.

 

Grace Yia-Hei Kao, Ph.D.: A second generation Taiwanese American, Christian feminist, and pacifist, Grace is Associate Professor of Ethics at Claremont School of Theology in the Claremont Lincoln University Consortium and Associate Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University.  Since earning a B.A. in philosophy & religious studies at Stanford University and a Ph.D. in theology with a subspecialization in philosophy at Harvard University, her scholarly interests have remained at the intersection of philosophical and theological ethics.  Her research and publications can be grouped under four major areas: (1) rights, human and animal, (2) religion in the public sphere, (3) ecofeminism, and (4) Asian American Christianity.  Grace is the author of Grounding Human Rights in a Pluralist World (Georgetown University Press, 2011) and is working on a second book project on introducing and developing Asian American Christian Ethics—a subfield that she and some of her colleagues in the Society of Christian Ethics recently inaugurated.

 

Caroline Kline: A Mormon feminist, Caroline is completing her coursework for her Ph.D. in religion with a focus on women’s studies in religion.  Her areas of interest revolve around the intersections of Mormon and feminist theology and the study of contemporary Mormon feminist communities. She is the co-founder of the Mormon feminist blog, The Exponent, and is a committed believer in the importance of online feminist forums and communities.

 

 

Amy Levin: A graduate student in religious studies at New York University with an interdisciplinary focus on American religion, gender and queer theory, secularization, spirituality, and consumption, Amy is a regular contributor to The Revealer, a practicing feminist, and can be followed on Twitter @levinam.

 

 

 

Gina Messina-Dysert, Ph.D.: Feminist theologian, ethicist, and activist, Gina received her Ph.D. in religion at Claremont Graduate University focused in the areas of women’s studies in religion and theology, ethics, and culture.  She is the Visiting Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics at Loyola Marymount University and co-founder and co-director of Feminism and Religion. Gina has authored multiple articles, the forthcoming book Rape Culture and Spiritual Violence, and is a contributor to the Rock and Theology project sponsored by the Liturgical Press. Her research interests are theologically and ethically driven, involve a feminist and interdisciplinary approach, and are influenced by her activist roots and experience working with survivors of rape and domestic violence.  Gina can be followed on Twitter @FemTheologian and her website can be accessed at http://ginamessinadysert.com.

 

Rosemary Radford Ruether, Ph.D.: Professor of Feminist Theology at Claremont Graduate University and Claremont School of Theology.  She is also the Carpenter Emerita Professor of Feminist Theology at Pacific School of Religion and the GTU, as well as the Georgia Harkness Emerita Professor of Applied Theology at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. Rosemary has enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a scholar, teacher, and activist in the Roman Catholic Church, and is well known as a groundbreaking figure in Christian feminist theology.  Ruether is the author of multiple articles and books including Sexism and God-Talk, Gaia and God, Women Healing Earth and The Wrath of Jonah: The Crisis of Religious Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Her most recent books include Catholic Does Not Equal the Vatican: A Vision for Progressive Catholicism(2008), Many Forms of Madness: A Family’s Struggle with Mental Illness(2010), and Women and Redemption: A Theological History, 2nd ed. (2011).

Michele Stopera Freyhauf:  Adjunct Professor in Religious Studies at Ursuline College and is doing post-graduate work at the University of Akron in the area of History of Religion, Women, and Sexuality.  She is a feminist scholar, activist, and author of several articles including “Hagia Sophia: Political and Religious Symbolism in Stones and Spolia.” Michele has an M. A. in Theology and Religious Studies from John Carroll University and student representative on the Board for Eastern Great Lakes Biblical Society (EGLBS).   Her research interests involve ethics, human rights, and issues of feminism, gender, and sexuality influenced by religion and the Bible.   She also publishes an on-line paper called “Reclaiming Herstory.”  Michele can be followed on Twitter @msfreyhauf and @reclaimherstory.  Her website can be accessed here and is visible on other social media sites like LinkedIn and Google+.

 

Sarah Sentilles is a scholar of religion, an award-winning speaker, and the author of three books including A Church of Her Own: What Happens When a Woman Takes the Pulpit (Harcourt, 2008) and Breaking Up with God (HarperOne, 2011). She earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale and a master’s of divinity and a doctorate in theology from Harvard, where she was awarded the Billings Preaching Prize and was the managing editor of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. At the core of her scholarship, writing, and activism is a commitment to investigating the roles religious language, images, and practices play in oppression, violence, social transformation, and justice movements. She is currently at work on a novel and an edited volume that investigates the intersections of torture and Christianity.

 

Najeeba Syeed-Miller, J.D.: Professor of Interreligious Education at Claremont School of Theology. She has extensive experience in mediating conflicts among communities of ethnic and religious diversity, and has won awards for her peacemaking and public interest work.  Najeeba also writes her own blog, “Najeeba’s world,” and can be followed on Twitter @najeebasyeed.

 

 

 

Karen Torjesen, Ph.D.: Margo L. Goldsmith Professor of Women’s Studies in Religion at Claremont Graduate University where she has helped establish graduate programs in Women’s Studies in Religion and Applied Women’s Studies. For ten years she served as Dean of the School of Religion, partnering with religious communities to create programs in comparative religion. She has published extensively on women, gender and sexuality within Christianity.  Her research interests include constructions of gender and sexuality in early Christianity, authority and institutionalization in the early churches, hermeneutics and rhetoric in late antiquity, and comparative study of Greek and Latin patristic traditions. During her tenure as assistant professor of patristic theology at the University of Goettingen (Germany), her book Hermeneutical Procedure and Theological Structure in Origen’s Exegesis was published by de Gruyter. Her most recent book is When Women Were Priests: Women’s Leadership in the Early Church and the Scandal of their Subordination in the Rise of Christianity.