WSRP names research associates, visiting faculty

The Women’s Studies in Religion Program (WSRP) at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) has announced its five research associates for the 2003-04 academic year. They include Kecia Ali of Brandeis University; Ana María Bidegain of National University of Colombia; Kelly Chong of Yale University; and Sharon Gillerman of Hebrew Union College. In addition, Hanna Herzog of Tel Aviv University has been named the program’s Colorado Scholar for the 2003-04 academic year.

Ali’s project, titled “Marriage in Early Muslim Law: The Consolidation of Male Authority,” investigates some of the ways in which a specific hierarchical view of marriage came to predominate between the 7th and 12th centuries C.E.

Bidegain’s project – “Recovering Historical Memory: Latin American Women in Religious Life, 1959-99” – will examine profound changes in the lives and sense of identity of Latin American religious women in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, when many of those who left convents became missionaries among the poor.

Chong’s project, titled “Agony in Prosperity: Evangelicalism, Women, and the Politics of Gender in South Korea,” will investigate the politics of conversion and the negotiation of patriarchy among contemporary South Korean Evangelical women.

Sharon Gillerman’s project, titled “Narratives of Motherhood: Nation, Religion and the Modern Jewish Woman,” aims to produce a gendered understanding of themes of assimilation, community, and identity in Jewish life.

Hanna Herzog’s project, titled “Gender, State and Religion,” is a socio-historical study offering a feminist perspective on the relationship of religion, state, and gender, suggesting that the three categories are shaped in part by their encounter.