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GTU News

Announcing The 2024 Borsch-Rast Prize Winner, Dr. Julia Watts Belser

Berkeley, CA – December 16, 2024 The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is proud to announce that Dr. Julia Watts Belser (PhD ’08) has been awarded the eighth annual Borsch-Rast Book Prize and Lectureship for her 2023 publication, Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole (Beacon Press). In this groundbreaking work, Dr. Belser offers a radical rethinking of disability in biblical literature and contemporary culture, challenging political and religious marginalization of disabled people. Through fresh interpretations of sacred texts,...
GTU AlumsNews & Events
GTU News

Dr. David Batstone Named Alum of the Year

BERKELEY, CA – September 13, 2022 – The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is pleased to announce Dr. David Batstone as the 2022 Alum of the Year. Dr. Batstone began his studies at the GTU in 1985, earning his PhD in 1989. He is the Professor Emeritus of the School of Management at the University of San Francisco (USF) and CEO of Blackstone Technologies, an innovative battery technology company using 3D printing technology to create energy-efficient and sustainable lithium-ion battery cells. Prior to his emeritus appointment at USF’s School of Management, Dr. Batstone served as Professor of...
Life at GTUNews & EventsGTU Alums
GTU News

The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library at 35 Years: Celebrating, Remembering, and Preparing for the Future

Celebrating: A Name to Be Proud Of  Thirty-five years ago, a landmark event took place in North Berkeley. After decades of planning, collaboration, and construction, the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library dedication ceremony on Holy Hill celebrated the completion of a centralized library that could serve the entire Graduate Theological Union consortium, creating a physical landmark to attest to the spiritual and academic fellowship that had guided the work of the GTU since its formation in 1962.      The GTU Common Library was named the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library in 1987,...
AcademicsAdmissions & AidLife at GTUNews & EventsSupport the GTUGTU AlumsFaculty & Staff ResourcesLibraryCurrent Student Resources
GTU News

GTU Announces 2021 Alumnus of the Year: Rev. Dr. Al Tizon

BERKELEY, CA – August 3, 2021 – The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is pleased to announce the selection of Rev. Dr. Al Tizon (PhD ‘05) as the 2021 Alumnus of the Year. Dr. Tizon is executive minister of Serve Globally, the international ministries arm of the Evangelical Covenant Church, and affiliate professor of missional and global leadership at North Park Theological Seminary. He has engaged in community development, church leadership, advocacy, and urban ministry in the United States and in the Philippines. “Dr. Tizon’s selection as the GTU Alumnus of the year is well deserved,” said...
GTU Alums
GTU News

Dr. Cecilia González-Andrieu Named 2020 GTU Alumna of the Year

The Graduate Theological Union is pleased to announce the selection of Dr. Cecilia González-Andrieu (PhD, ’07) as the GTU’s 2020 Alumna of the Year. Dr. González-Andrieu is a professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University, one of the leading scholars of theological aesthetics, and an advocate for issues of Latinx Theology, immigration, and educational justice.  “I am proud to honor Dr. González-Andrieu as Alumna of the Year,” said Dr. Uriah Kim, President of the GTU. “As a leader in her field, a rigorous thinker, and a tireless activist and advocate, she truly embodies the...
GTU Alums
GTU News

GTU Announces Dr. Kamal Abu-Shamsieh as Director of Interreligious Chaplaincy Program

Berkeley, CA – November 22, 2019 - The Graduate Theological Union is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Kamal Abu-Shamsieh as Director of the new Interreligious Chaplaincy Program and Lecturer in Practical Theology. The founder and director of Ziraya Muslim Spiritual Care, Dr. Abu-Shamsieh has extensive international experience in primarily Arab and Muslim countries as a trainer for spiritual-care providers, and has served since 2012 as a relief chaplain at Stanford Hospital and Clinics. He completed his PhD in Practical Theology and Islamic Studies (with a focus on chaplaincy) at the...
AcademicsNews & EventsGTU AlumsGraduate Theological UnionThe Center for Islamic Studies (CIS)Interreligious Chaplaincy Program
Kamal Abu-ShamsiehInterreligious ChaplaincyChaplaincyAlumniCIS | Center for Islamic Studies
GTU News

Dr. Debra J. Mumford Named GTU Alumna of the Year

September 3, 2019 – Berkeley, CA   The Graduate Theological Union is pleased to announce that the Rev. Dr. Debra J. Mumford (PhD, ‘07) has been selected as the GTU’s 2019 Alumna of the Year. Dr. Mumford is the Frank H. Caldwell Professor of Homiletics at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, where she has taught since 2007. Since 2014, Dr. Mumford has also served as Director of the Money Matters for Ministry program at Louisville Seminary, a Lilly funded effort that seeks to help seminary students, pastors, and congregations learn to manage their money more...
Life at GTUGTU AlumsBerkeley School of Theology (BST)
Debra MumfordAlumniAlumni of the Year
GTU News

Caring for the Community

  Caring for the Community A conversation with Anthony Makana Paris (MA, ’11) by Laura Dunn From the Spring 2019 edition of Skylight See PDF of this article  Recently, we caught up with GTU/JST alum, Anthony Makana Paris (MA, ’11) in Honolulu to learn how he uses his experiences and education at the GTU toserve the Native Hawaiian community. Born and raised in Hawaiʻi, Makana calls himself a true conossieur of learning, having studied engineering at MIT, law at the University of Hawaiʻi, as well as theology and philosophy at theGTU/JST. Makana has served as a farmer and fisherman, as a...
GTU Alums
AlumniAnthony Makana Paris
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Visiting Scholars at the GTU

For more than a decade, the GTU has offered its Visiting Scholar program to faculty from academic institutions who are visiting temporarily in the area and who are not employed locally either by the GTU or any other institution as well as to GTU alumni. The program is intended to enable and facilitate the research projects of those involved which could not be done otherwise.  Visiting Scholars are granted full privileges at the GTU's Flora Lamson Hewlett Library and access to the libraries at the University of California, Berkeley. Members of the program have access to audit a course for a...
AcademicsLife at GTUNews & EventsFaculty & Staff ResourcesLibraryGraduate Theological UnionGTU Alums
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Borsch-Rast Book Prize and Lectureship

The Borsch-Rast Book Prize and Lectureship of the Graduate Theological Union has as its purpose the encouragement of the writing and publication of theological scholarship by GTU graduates and current faculty. The endowment for the Borsch-Rast Book Prize and Lectureship comes from the sale of Trinity Press International, a venture dedicated to the publication of scholarly and often interdisciplinary theological studies. The prize and lectureship honor the joint example and collaboration of Frederick Houk Borsch (1935-2017) and Harold W. Rast (1933-2004). Hal Rast, after years as a senior...
AcademicsLife at GTUNews & EventsGTU AlumsGraduate Theological Union
Borsch-Rast Book Prize and Lectureship
GTU News

Alumni News

From the Fall 2018 issue of Skylight View PDF article here Matt Boswell (PhD, '16) celebrated the publication of his first book: The Way to Love: Reimagining Christian Spiritual Growth as the Hopeful Path of Virtue (Cascade Books, October 2018), a revised version of his GTU dissertation. Boswell is pastor of Camus Friends Church, a Quaker meeting in Camas, Washington.  Erin M. Brigham (PhD, '10) published a revised edition of See, Judge, Act: Catholic Social Teaching and Service Learning (Anselm Academics, September 2018). Brigham is director of The Joan and Ralph Lane Center for Catholic...
News & EventsGTU Alums
AlumniAlumni PublicationsMatt BoswellEric BrighamMerissa Nathan GersonJonathan HomrighausenJennifer Howe PeaceMicah JacksonKevin KeatingNancy Pineda-MadridJhos SingerHarry Singleton IIIGregory SterlingChristine PaintersRich Wood
GTU News

CJS Alum Launches Yom Kippur Campaign Opposing Sexual Violence

Alumna Merissa Nathan Gerson (MA, ’13), who earned her degree in association with the GTU’s Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies, is the driving force behind a campaign that encourages Jewish communities to oppose sexual violence and declare that “Consent is a Jewish value.” Among the recommended actions for Jewish communities involved in the “Ken Means Yes” campaign is to incorporate a brief reading of a Talmud-based script into services on Yom Kippur. You can find the recommended reading for Yom Kippur and other information on the campaign at www.kenmeansyes.org.   Merissa Nathan...
The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies (CJS)News & EventsGTU Alums
CJS | The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish StudiesAlumniMerissa Nathan GersonYom KippurSexual ViolenceKen Means YesConsent is a Jewish Value
GTU News

Dr. Gregory E. Sterling Named GTU Alumnus of the Year

Berkeley, CA - September 4, 2018  The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is pleased to announce that Gregory E. Sterling (PhD, ’90) has been selected as the GTU’s 2018 Alumnus of the Year. Dr. Sterling is the Reverend Henry L. Slack Dean of Yale Divinity School, where he also serves as Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament. Before assuming the deanship at Yale Divinity School in 2012, Dr. Sterling taught theology for more than twenty years on the faculty at the University of Notre Dame, where he also served as the first dean of the independent Graduate School from 2008 to 2012. A New...
AcademicsLife at GTUNews & EventsGTU AlumsGraduate Theological Union
Gregory SterlingAlumni of the YearGTU AlumYale Divinity School
GTU News

Bexley Seabury Seminary Selects GTU Alumnus as President

May 17, 2018 - Bexley Seabury Seminary, a Chicago-based seminary affiliated with the Episcopal Church, has announced the selection of the Rev. Dr. Micah T.J. Jackson as the school's next president. Dr. Jackson earned his PhD in Homiletics from the Graduate Theological Union in 2012. He will assume the presidency at Bexley Seabury on June 1, 2018. "Micah is a powerful, committed, joyful spirit and an innovative scholar; he brought all that to us as a doctoral student and member of the GTU community" recalled GTU Dean of Students Kathleen Kook. "It is so rewarding to see him join his...
News & EventsGTU Alums
Micah JacksonAlumniBexley Seabury Seminary
GTU News

Celebrating the GTU Class of 2018

On Thursday, May 10, 2018, the Graduate Theological Union honored forty-three graduates at its 2018 Commencement Exercises. The graduating class included twenty-three scholars receiving the Doctor of Philosophy degree, nineteen receiving the Master of Arts degree, and one receiving the Master of Arts with a concentration in Biblical Languages. This year’s commencement exercises were held in the Le Conte Sanctuary at Zaytuna College. You can watch a replay of the live video stream above, or review the list of graduates and their thesis or dissertation topics. The graduates entered the...
AcademicsLife at GTUNews & EventsGTU AlumsGraduate Theological Union
Commencement 2018CommencementKhalia Jelks WilliamsWilliam O'Neill
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2017-2018 GTU Graduates

On May 10, 2018, the Graduate Theological Union honored forty-three MA and PhD graduates at its 2018 Commencement Exercises held in the LeConte Sanctuary at Zaytuna College. Graduates are listed below by degree, along with each graduate's thesis/dissertation title, area of study or school of affiliation, committee members, and thesis/dissertation abstract; language specialization is noted for MABL graduates in lieu of thesis information.
AcademicsGTU Alums
GTU News

GTU Celebrates Women's Voices

From the Spring 2018 issue of SKYLIGHT See PDF of this article To celebrate Women’s History Month, we invited GTU alumnae to share stories, reflections, and highlights from their GTU experience. Below are just a few excerpts. Read many more at www.gtu.edu/womens-voices-campaign “What stands out most for me from my time at the GTU was the community and support for learning. I had excellent ethics professors who mentored me and who continue to be close colleagues today. Even more important were my fellow student colleagues. We had study groups together, shared notes on the readings for...
GTU AlumsWomen's Studies in Religion
WSR | Women's Studies in ReligionAlumni
GTU News

CJS at 50: A Place to Discover Your Voice

From the Spring 2018 issue of SKYLIGHT See a PDF of this article Words are inadequate to express the impact that the GTU—and, more specifically, the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies—has had on my life. During my time at CJS, I have grown both as a person and as an academic. CJS is a place where one learns from others’ vast academic wealth as well as from their rich personal experiences and viewpoints. I have sat at many tables (usually with some form of good food), and have listened to others present their views and interpretations on a wide array of topics. I grew so much simply...
GTU AlumsThe Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies (CJS)
CJS | The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish StudiesCJS@50Glennis LammAlumni
GTU News

Celebrating Women's History Month at the GTU

The GTU is celebrating Women’s History Month in March by highlighting the voices of GTU alumnae through our “Women’s Voices Campaign.” Beginning on International Women’s Day (Thursday, March 8) and extending through the month, we will feature a short quote from a different GTU alumna each weekday on our Facebook page—and we’ll compile all the quotes on the "Women's Voices Campaign" page of the GTU website. You’ll want to check back every day as these GTU graduates reflect on how their GTU experiences prepared them for the work they are now doing. In addition, the GTU Women's Studies in...
Admissions & AidLife at GTUGTU AlumsWomen's Studies in Religion
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Women's Voices Campaign

The GTU boasts one of the largest contingents of female theology students and alumnae in the country. Beginning on International Women's Day 2018 and continuing for more than six weeks, we featured a different quote from one of our alumnae each weekday on social media--and we've collected them all on this page. Thanks to all who took the time to share their stories! The GTU is proud of the work of all its female scholars--past, present, and future--and we look forward to seeing how you will continue to shape our world and make it a better place!
Admissions & AidAcademicsLife at GTUGTU Alums

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