Experiences

Doctoral student Rachelle Syed reflects on attending the International Conference on Cohesive Societies in Singapore in June 2019, and what her experiences suggest about the interreligious opportunities available at the GTU. 

"In addition to scholar-practitioners, there are many students like me who don’t practice the traditions we study. As outsiders, we have a unique perspective to employ in our research, and the GTU embraces our contributions wholeheartedly."

As she prepares to celebrate her final Commencement as the GTU's Dean of Students, Kathleen Kook reflects on the individuals and experiences that have made her 27 years at the GTU so memorable.

Doctoral student Gordon Gilmore reflects on the wealth of interreligious conversation that surrounds him each day at the GTU, and the way that diverse community shapes his own scholarly work.

"As the son of a first-generation immigrant, I walk a delicate tightrope when it comes to cultural identification: Am I Mexican or American? . . .  Liminal space defines a large portion of my identity. Now, interestingly, it is shaping the way I do my work as a biblical scholar."

GTU President Daniel Lehmann reflects on his March 2019 trip to South Korea."I was struck by the extensive institutional infrastructure of the Christian communities in South Korea and the powerful role church communities play in the lives of so many South Korean parishioners . . . . Through its alumni and current students, the GTU is making a powerful impact on Korean religious life." 

"My role as Assistant Curator at the GTU’s Center for the Arts & Religion (CARe) and Doug Adams Gallery has given me the opportunity to combine my two professional interests: academic museums and the study of religion. This job has been an incredible learning opportunity for me in more ways than I anticipated."

"Students need librarians more than ever to help navigate and determine the authority of content, so they are using sources appropriate for graduate-level research. This is my favorite part of my job, using the teachable moments to help students learn how to research, and then seeing them again later as they ask increasingly complicated questions as they grow as scholars."

"When the steering committee for our GTU’s Women’s Studies in Religion Program had its first meeting of Spring 2019, we set aside the majority of our time to talk about our whys: Why Women’s Studies in Religion at the GTU? Why is each of us involved in women’s studies in general? Why offer the Women’s Studies in Religion seminar course for GTU students?" WSR Chair Jennifer Davidson shares some of the responses...

Sheryl Johnson reflects on her time as a teaching assistant at the GTU: "I am so grateful for the opportunities I have had to be a teaching assistant at the GTU. Being a TA is a profound, liminal space between being a student and being a professor."