Status of Women in the Profession Committee Activities

The SBL Status of Women in the Profession Committee was constituted to assess the status and encourage the participation of women in all professional areas of biblical studies. In pursuit of this mandate, the Committee continues its efforts in areas of mentoring and networking, opening the Society to greater participation by women, and calling attention to the ways in which the Society through its various activities speaks to and about women.

Advocacy with SBL
CSWP advocates for the development of programs and policies that support the full inclusion of women in the activities of SBL. CSWP collaborates with other women's groups and program unit chairs to design and implement programs focusing on issues specific to women. Also, it assists in developing policies and monitoring complaints of sexual harassment and ethical misconduct.

At the Survivor Session we conducted an interview of four professors/deans who are involved in tenure-related decisions at their institutions: Alice Hunt, Risa Levitt Kohn, Adele Reinhartz, and Greg Sterling. We began with questions about their institutions, the tenure requirements, the process and other institution-related questions and answers. Our discussion then moved to a discussion of instances that went smoothly and those that didn’t and why. Throughout, the panelists were able to discuss not only personal experiences but also their vast institutional knowledge in order to give us a complete picture of tenure. We spent the last 45 minutes or so on audience questions, which were both theoretical and practical. The audience found the discussion very interesting and although the number of participants was small, almost each person came up to me some time during the conference to tell me how much they learned from it and how much they appreciated our having done the session.

Mentoring
Each year at the SBL Annual Meeting, CSWP honors women who have been excellent mentors to women in the field. These mentors have provided invaluable guidance, advice, and encouragement. They serve as role models and assist other women in navigating career choices, building professional networks, and developing strategies for work-life balance. CSWP honors mentors in order to recognize their contributions and to encourage mentoring relationships.

During the SBL Women Members’ Breakfast at the 2008 Annual Meeting, we presented a mentor award to:
Carol Meyers, Duke University

If you would like to nominate a mentor, please send your nomination with a descriptive letter of endorsement to Risa Levitt Kohn. Nominations must be received by March 1st. Nominations received after the deadline will be considered for the following year.

Networking

• 2009 Breakfast

  The well-attended breakfast in New Orleans offered women scholars an opportunity to network, meet friends, and hear enlightening and engaging presentations from Professors Yairah Amit and Nancy Bowen on the topic “Becoming A Writer: Finding a Voice, Developing a Craft.”

  Dr. Kathleen O’Brien Wicker received the mentoring award, on the nomination by Althea Spencer-Miller.

  The breakfast concluded with raffles of books and a free registration for next year’s annual meeting.

  Join us in Atlanta!

  
  
  

   

  Student Orientation   
  The CSWP sponsored its annual student coffee once again in New Orleans. Approximately 40 women students gathered for an hour of sharing stories and strategies for success. This year's conversation focused on the role of writing in biblical scholarship. Participants discussed the pain and pleasures of writing and shared tips and advice that had helped them become better writers. Courtesy of the SBL we were once again able to provide some recent books as door prizes to a few lucky winners.
  We look forward to seeing you all in Atlanta!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Listserv:
  CSWP maintains a moderated list serve for SBL women members. This list serve is devoted to the discussion of a variety of topics related to the status of women engaged in biblical scholarship. The list includes senior and junior faculty, administrators, and graduate students. To subscribe, send a blank email to: sbl-cswp-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
  
  For the listserve archive, see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sbl-cswp/

Increasing Participation

• For helpful tips on giving presentations
• For tips on navigating the Annual Meeting
• International Meeting
  SBL-CSWP held a session at the SBL International Meeting in Auckland, New Zealand in July 2008. For questions regarding CSWP’s international activities, contact Claudia Camp.
• Travel Grant
  CSWP sponsors travel grants for international women to attend the Annual Meeting. The grant provides transportation, hotel accommodations, and other expenses for women who would otherwise not be able to attend the Annual Meeting. CSWP members serve as hosts during the Annual Meeting and provide ongoing mentoring to grant recipients. Travel grant recipients share their experiences with women in their home countries and submit a report to CSWP.
  If you are a woman in biblical studies from a developing country, Eastern Europe, or Asia, please see travel grant application details.
  
  For questions contact Barbara Bowe
  
  The following four women were able to attend the Annual Meeting in San Diego because of the travel grants awarded by the CSWP:
  
  
  • Mercy Itohan Idumwonyi - Nigeria - 2007 Grant Awardee transferred to 2008
    
    Mercy is currently Assistant Lecturer in Religion with a specialization in Old Testament studies at the University of Benin in Benin City, Nigeria. She received her BA (1998) and MA (2002) in Religious Studies from the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. Her professional experience includes work as a research fellow for the Centre for Democracy & Development in Benin City, and a year as Senior Program Officer for the African Women Empowerment Guild, also in Benin City.
    
    
    
    
    
    

   

  • Maricel Ibita - Philippines
    
    Maricel is currently a Ph.D/S.T.D. student in Old Testament at Leuven University in Belgium. She holds an MA in Religious Studies from Leuven and an MA in Old Testament from the Institute of Formation and Religious Studies (IFRS) in Manila, Philippines. She has studied at the Bat Qol Institute in Jerusalem and is an active member of the Catholic Biblical Association of the Philippines. Maricel has published contributions in the Leuven Colloquia Proceedings and in a festschrift for her mentor at IFRS, Helen Graham, MM.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
  • Marisol Navidad - Philippines
    
    Sol holds an MA in Religious Studies from Maryhill Graduate School of Theology in Manila and is completing pre-requisites for the Ph.D. in New Testament Exegesis at Loyola School of Theology in Manila. Since 2005 she has been a Lecturer in Religious Studies at De La Salle University, Manila and Miriam College, Manila.  From 2004 - 2008 Sol has been a contributing member of the New Testament Group of the Catholic Biblical Association of the Philippines.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
  • Viktoria Soltesova - Slovak Republic
    
    Viktoria is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Religious Education with biblical emphasis at Matej Bel University, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia where she also holds a doctorate in Pedagogy and an MA in Religious Education. Viktoria is serving as a Research Assistant and teaches courses in New Testament Greek, Introduction to the Bible, and Discipleship and Evangelization.  She is also a member of the Bible Translation team for the International Greek New Testament Project.
    
    
  
  
  
  
  
  

CSWP
The CSWP looks forward to providing innovative programming for women SBL members. If you have suggestions, questions, or concerns relating to women student members, please contact chair Risa Levitt Kohn.


Members of CSWP:

• Jennifer Bird (Ph.D., Vanderbilt University; M.Div., Princeton Theological Seminary) is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Greensboro College. She has contributed the chapter on Ephesians for A Postcolonial Commentary of the New Testament and one for Marxist Feminist Criticism of the Bible and is currently revising her dissertation for publication (T&T Clark).
• Barbara E. Bowe (Th. D. and M.T.S. Harvard University; M. Ed. Boston College) is Professor of Biblical Studies and Director of the Master of Divinity Program at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. In 2003 she published Biblical Foundations of Spirituality (Sheed & Ward) and is currently writing the Hermeneia commentary on First Clement (Fortress Press).  
• Nancy Bowen (Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary) is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana. She served as co-chair of the SBL Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible Section for six years and is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church.
• Claudia Camp (Ph.D, Duke; M.Div., Harvard) is John F. Weatherly Professor of Religion at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas. She is the author of Wise, Strange and Holy: The Strange Woman and the Making of the Bible (2000), Wisdom and the Feminine in the Book of Proverbs (1985), and other articles on feminist criticism of the wisdom and narrative literature of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. She joined CSWP in 2007.
• Deborah A. Green (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is the Greenberg Assistant Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature at the University of Oregon. Her research focuses on the history of interpretation from the Hebrew Bible through rabbinic interpretation (midrash). She is currently working on a monograph, The Aroma of Righteousness, that explores images related to perfume and incense in rabbinic literature and attempts to synthesize these images with the archaeological record in Palestine. She is also co-editor of Commemorating the Dead: Texts and Artifacts in Context: Studies of Roman, Jewish, and Christian Burials (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2008) and Scriptural Exegesis: The Shapes of Culture and the Religious Imagination: Essays in Honour of Michael Fishbane (Oxford: University of Oxford, forthcoming 2009).
• Nyasha Junior (Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary) is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at the Howard University School of Divinity. She has served on the CSWP since 2002. 
• Seung-Ai Yang (Ph.D. University of Chicago Divinity School) is an Associate Professor of New Testament at Chicago Theological Seminary. She is co-editor with Rita Nokashima Brock, Jung Ha Kim and Kwok Pui Lan: Off the Menu: Asian and Asian North American Women's Religion and Theology (Westminster John Knox, 2007).
• Rannfrid I. Thelle (Dr. art, M.A., Oslo), is the author of Ask God. Divine Consultation in the Literature of the Hebrew Bible (2002). She has taught at the University of Oslo and at Luther College, and currently lives and works in Wichita, KS. Her current research projects include a study on Deuteronomy and a project about the excavation of Babylon. Through the Women’s League of the Norwegian Labor Party, Thelle is responsible for a project of democracy development called “Women Can Do It”.
  
  
• Molly Zahn : is a PhD Candidate in Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity at the University of Notre Dame and a lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas. Her dissertation, supervised by Professor James VanderKam, focuses on the rewriting of the Pentateuch in the Dead Sea Scrolls. She has published articles on the Temple Scroll on 4QReworked Pentateuch and on the relevance of Second-Temple texts to an understanding of pentateuchal legal texts such as Exodus 13.