{"id":11805,"date":"2020-01-24T08:56:37","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T16:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/wilkinson\/2020\/01\/24\/professor-karen-jo-torjenson-joins-wilkinson-college-as-griset-chair\/"},"modified":"2020-01-24T08:56:37","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T16:56:37","slug":"professor-karen-jo-torjenson-joins-wilkinson-college-as-griset-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/2020\/01\/24\/professor-karen-jo-torjenson-joins-wilkinson-college-as-griset-chair\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Karen Jo Torjesen Joins Wilkinson College as Griset Chair"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Griset Chair in Bible and Christian Tradition was the first endowed chair at Chapman University, established in 1984 in the name of Belle Griset, whose son Francis Griset served as a Chapman Trustee for many years. This Chair was held formerly by our esteemed colleague Prof. Marvin Meyer until his untimely passing in 2012. Now as a visiting position, this Chair allows Chapman students the unique opportunity to take courses with leading biblical scholars from around the world.<\/p>\n

This spring, Professor Karen Jo Torjesen will join Wilkinson College as the latest holder of the Griset Chair.<\/p>\n

Professor Torjesen is a leading authority on women in early Christianity, with her groundbreaking work When Women Were Priests:\u00a0 Women\u2019s Leadership in the Early Church and the Scandal of their Subordination in the Rise of Christianity <\/em>(1993) published in at least fifteen editions and translated into Spanish and German.\u00a0 Professor Torjesen\u2019s research and publications focus on gender and sexuality in early Christianity, authority and institutionalization in the early churches, hermeneutics and rhetoric in late antiquity, and comparative study of Greek and Latin patristic traditions. Now professor emeritus, she founded MA and PhD programs in Women\u2019s Studies in Religion as well as an MA in Applied Women\u2019s Studies at Claremont Graduate University and taught courses in the area gender, religion, and transnational feminism. She has received numerous grants and awards throughout her career, including a Fulbright Fellow Award for a project \u201cCultural Roots of HIV Stigma: Gender and Religion,\u201d which she carried out as a visiting faculty member at Kenyatt University in Nairobi in 2014.<\/p>\n

Teaching REL 324: Interpretation of the New Testament<\/strong> only offered this spring, Professor Torjesen will challenge students with the following questions: What stories were collected into the New Testament? Who told these stories? In what contexts? How were these stories read in later contexts and across different cultures?<\/em> The course will use contemporary issues to explore the topics debated in the New Testament stories:<\/p>\n