2011

Graduate Students: The Tikvah Fund is currently accepting applications for the Tikvah Fellowship, a fully-funded year-long fellowship devoted to serious intellectual inquiry into the challenges facing the Jewish people in Israel and in the Diaspora. Based in New York City, the fellowship offers advanced coursework, high-level work placements, and frequent opportunities to meet and work with respected figures in journalism, policy, academia, and communal and religious life. Each fellow receives a stipend of between $30,000 and $75,000, depending on age, experience, and financial need. All those with undergraduate degrees are eligible. The application deadline is February 15. The application and additional information is available here.

Undergraduates and Graduates: The Clark Award is a competitive essay contest sponsored by the Theta Alpha Kappa National Honor Society for Religious Studies and Theology. Winning authors (one graduate, one undergraduate) receive $500, and their papers will be published in the Journal of Theta Kappa Alpha. Papers should be no longer than 20 pages. The deadline for submission is January 15. Papers must be submitted through a chapter moderator; please contact Dr. Maureen O'Connell (amaoconnell@fordham.edu) if you are interested in submitting an essay.

PhD student Michael Azar has returned to New York after two months conducting research at the Tantur Institute in Jerusalem. He gave two presentations while he was abroad: In October, he presented "The Fourth Gospel and the 'Jews': Exegesis and Preaching" for Tantur's Continuing Education Program; in November, he presented "Die Juden im Johannesevangelium und die Kirchenväter" at St. Scholastika Benedictine Abbey in Dinklage, Germany.

PhD student Kathryn Reinhard's review of Lewis Ayres's book Augustine and the Trinity will appear in the December 18 issue of The Living Church.

The following is a list of those students of the Fordham Department of Theology that presented papers at the joint meeting of the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature in San Francisco the weekend before Thanksgiving.

• Andy Ballard gave the paper "The Power of Knowledge and the Curse of Ignorance in 4QInstruction and the Wisdom of Solomon" in the Wisdom and Apocalypticism in Early Judaism and Early Christianity section. He also presented "Acts of Mania in the Acts of the Apostles: Plutarch, a Pythic Maiden, and Prophetic Madness" in the Acts of the Apostles section.
• Heather DuBois gave the paper: “An Introduction to Catholic Peacebuilding: Distinctive, Rooted and Global” in the Theology and Religious Reflection section.
• Scott MacDougall gave a paper on “Questioning ‘Communion’: Eschatological Ecclesiology and the Anglican Covenant Debate” in the Eccelsiological Investigations Group.
• Catherine Osborne was a panelist in the Roman Catholic Studies Group and spoke on the theme “Finding a Place for Spatial Theory” in the American Catholic Studies group.
• Catherine Petrany gave a paper on “Instruction, Performance, and Prayer: The Didactic Function of Psalmic Wisdom” in the Book of Psalms section.
• Daniel Rober gave a paper in the Ricoeur group on “Ricoeur, Metz and the Future of Dangerous Memory.”

PhD student Nate Wood will be presenting his paper "The Beauty of Theology: Religious Speech as an Invitation to Communion" at the annual meeting of the Sophia Institute for Orthodox Thought and Culture at Union Seminary on Dec. 2. Thetheme of this year's conference is "Beauty Will Save the World."

PhD student Catherine Osborne has been awarded one of two graduate student travel grants from the American Catholic Historical Association to present her paper "Lay Patrons of Church Architecture in 20th-Century American Catholicism" at their annual meeting in January. Meanwhile, she presented the paper "Transforming Space, Transforming Faith: The Interfaith Center at Columbia, MD" at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association in October. Next week she will present the paper "Spatial Theory in the Fourth Dimension" as part of a roundtable at the American Academy of Religion (Roman Catholic Studies Group), and in December she will present "A Tent in the Desert? Roman Catholics and Flexible Worship Spaces in the 1960s and 70s" at a symposium on Modern Catholic Space in London.

Union Theological Seminary will be hosting its first Annual Union Seminary Quarterly Review Graduate Student Conference on February 24. The conference theme is "The Future of Liberation Theology." They are currently accepting proposals for presentations; the presented essays will also be published in the Union Seminary Quarterly Review. The deadline for proposals is December 1. Additional information is available athttp://utsnyc.edu/unionconference.
 
Wednesday Nov. 9, 2011, at noon in Duane 140, the TGSA will be hosting a professional development workshop entitled "How to Propose." Drs. Christiana Peppard and Franklin Harkins will be on hand to discuss writing proposals for conferences, grants and books.

Commonweal Magazine is seeking interns for spring and summer 2012. The program is open to undergraduate and graduate students in any discipline, as well as those who have completed degrees in the past two years. They are looking for applicants who can demonstrate active engagement with the intellectual life of the Catholic Church and a commitment to journalism and writing. Applicants should send a letter describing their interest, their religious background, and their familiarity with Commonweal, and should detail their academic and writing qualifications (including writing samples if relevant). Applications and questions should be sent to interns@commonwealmagazine.org More information is available at www.commonwealmagazine.org/interns Several Fordham faculty and students have experience writing for Commonweal and interested students are strongly encouraged to apply.

PhD student Jack Downey has had an article entitled "The Strong Meat of the Gospel: 'Lacouturisme' and the Revival of Asceticism in North America" accepted for publication in the Winter 2011 issue of American Catholic Studies. He also gave a presentation on the subject of practical post-colonialism in contemporary social activist movements at the meeting of Catholics and Evangelicals for the Common Good at Georgetown University on Sept 30. Finally, he has co-authored a forthcoming manual on the subject of tactical scouting for non-violent direct action, to be published soon online by the Ruckus Society (www.ruckus.org).

PhD student Dan Rober has been awarded a Catholic Theological Society of America Convention Scholarship, which will pay for the costs associated with traveling to the Annual Convention next June in St. Louis. Dan will present a paper entitled "Rediscovering Sacramentality in a (Post)Secular Age: Listening to the Margins."

PhD student Eric Meyer will be giving a paper on Friday, September 30 at the Drew Transdisciplinary Theology Conference. The theme of the conference is "Divinanimality: Creaturely Theology"; Eric's paper is entitled "The Logos of God and the End of Man: Animality as Light and Life." The conference is free for those who register: http://depts.drew.edu/tsfac/colloquium/2011/schedule.html.

PhD student Eric Meyer's essay "Jacques Derrida, Gregory of Nyssa, and the Human-Animal Distinction in the Song of Songs" will appear in a forthcoming Semeia Studies series volume entitled The Bible at Humanity's Limits.

PhD students Matthew Briel and Jonathan Stanfill applied for and received admission into an exclusive summer study program at the American Academy in Athens. Both Jonathan and Matthew have received full scholarships from the A.G. Leventis Foundation to be member’s of the 2011 Medieval Greek Summer Session at the Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.  In addition to the study of late antique and medieval Greek texts, they received an introduction to Greek paleography and had private tutorials based on their own research interests. They were also introduced to Byzantineart and architecture through visits to the Byzantine monuments and museums of Athens, Corinth, Hosios Loukas, Mistra, Sparta, and Thessaloniki. 

2010

Phd student Matthew Baker has published "The Eternal ‘Spirit of the Son’: Barth, Florovsky and Torrance on the Filioque" in the International Journal of Systematic Theology in the October, 2010, issue.

Phd student Catherine Osborne has had her article, "Migrant Domestic Careworkers: Between the Public and the Private in Catholic Social Teaching," accepted for the Journal of Christian Ethics, a prestigious, double-blind peer reviewed journal.

Phd student Kathryn Reinhard presented a paper on "apophatic revelation" in Maximus the Confessor and Barth as part of the Christian Systematic Theology section at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion November 1 in Atlanta.

Phd student Jack Downey presented a paper, "AWorld of Pain: Self-mortification and the Cult of Martyrs in Militant Irish Nationalism," to the Religion, Social Conflict andPeaceWorking Group of the American Academyof Religion November 2 in Atlanta.

Phd student Dan Rober presented "Ricoeur, the Recognition of the Gift, and the Experience of Grace" to a joint session of the Religion and Humanism Consultation and the Ricoeur Consultation at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Atlanta November 2, 2010.

Phd student Nathaniel Wood presented "Truth, Kenosis, and the Unity of the Churches: On the Ecumenical Implications of Khomiakov’s Sobornost Ecclesiology" to the Ecclesiological Investigations Group at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Atlanta on Nov. 1, 2010.

Phd student Ashley Purpura presented "Verbal Iconography: Mary of Egypt in Byzantine Hagiography and Hymns"  to the 36th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference at the University of Pennsylvania 9 October, 2010.

Phd student Jonathan Stanfill presented "Baiting the Hook: John Chrysostom’s Defense of His Barbarian Mission"  to the 36th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference at the University of Pennsylvania 9 October, 2010

Phd student Michael Azar presented "John Chrysostom and the Johannine Jews" at the Annual International Meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature in Tartu, Estonia in July. It will be published in the near future.

Phd student Sarah Spangler published "'The Firstfruits of Our Activities': 'Examination of the Gospel' and the Pedagogical Functions of Scripture in Origen’s Prologue to the Commentary on the Gospel according to John." Origenaiana Nona: Origen and the Religious Practice of his Time. Ed. G. Heidl, R. Somos. Louvain: Peeters, 2009. pp. 337 -344. 

Phd student Monica Schaap Pierce received a Calvin College Summer Fellowship for Summer, 2010, in support of her research. 

2009

Phd student Kathryn Reinhard's paper proposal was accepted by AAR. This fall, she will be presenting on "apophatic revelation" in Maximus the Confessor and Barth as part of the Christian Systematic Theology section at the AAR annual meeting.  

Phd student Michael Azar read “'You are from Your Father the Devil'”: John 8:31-47 According to Origen, John Chrysostom, and Cyril of Alexandria " to the International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Rome in July, 2009. 

Phd student Sarah Spangler’s "Christology as the Basis of Metaphysics in Origen's Commentary on John" was accepted for publication in Studia Patristica, which publishes the best papers from the most recent Oxford Quadrennial Patristics Conference. 

Phd Student Mark Nixon has recently published two articles: "Christian Responsibility and the Economic Crisis" in the upcoming (July/August 2009) issue of The Clergy Journal and "Proclaiming and Performing the Gospel: Language,Truth and Action in Postmodern Christian Faith" in The Heythrop Journal 50/3 (May 2009).

Phd student Daniel Rober has presented a paper entitled "Ecumenism and Theological Method: A Catholic Proposal" at the Boston Theological Institute's Conference, New Challenges in Faith and Order,April 4, 2009.

Phd students Monica Pierce, Catherine Osborne, Michael Canaris, and Erica Olson have had papers accepted for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Montreal, November, 2009.

Phd student Catherine Petrany has had a paper accepted for presentation to the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in New Orleans in November, 2009.

Phd student Daniel Kim presented a paper entitled “The Disappearance of the Jew: The Glossa Ordinaria on Genesis 22 and the (Dis)continuity of Signification" to the Inter-University Doctoral Consortium Colloquium in Medieval Studies on March 20, 2009 at the CUNY Graduate Center. 

Phd student Eric Meyer's paper "Gregory of Nyssa an Adam's naming the animals (Genesis 2:19-20)" has been accepted for reading at the July 2009 Conference, "Genesis and Christian Theology" at St. Andrew's Univesity, Scotland.

Phd student Jukka Kaarianen has published written "In Memory of My Teacher, Avery Cardinal Dulles." in the June 4, 2009 issue of Crossings. 

Phd student Ann Michaud's article, "Sex and Love as a Pathway to God: Toward a Vision of the Catholic Vocation of Marriage Today," has been accepted for publication in the upcoming 54th Annual Volume of the College Theology Society.

Phd student David Paul Deavel published an article "Bad Neighbor, Good Neighbor" in the Sept. 2008 issue of America Magazine.

Phd student Michael Azar, has published a review of Byzantine Orthodoxies: Papers from the Thirty-sixth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Durham, 23–25 March 2002 in Church History  77:2 (2008), 438-440.