Describe your “connection” to the work and researchers of the DTCRSJ
An essential research component of my books and teaching is on Desmond Tutu’s theology and spirituality.

What are your current research, teaching, and academic service projects?
I recently finished my book, Desmond Tutu: A Spiritual Biography of South Africa’s Confessor. My next book project is on a theology of atonement. I teach courses and offer Tutu Travel Seminars from the Desmond Tutu Center at General Theological Seminary in New York. I am currently working on making the Theology of Desmond Tutu a formal unit at the American Academy of Religion.

How do you plan to use your new position to enhance research, teaching, and academic service between the Centre and your networks?
I would like to offer joint courses (in-person and virtually) between the Centre and theological institutions in which I teach. I would also like to facilitate courses in prisons, both in South Africa and the United States.

In what way (s) do you feel your research examines the intersections of and overlaps between religion and social justice?
In the same way that Archbishop Tutu’s life and work engender intersection between religion and social justice, my research seeks the same.

What advice can you offer post-graduate students and emerging scholars?
I encourage post-graduate students and emerging scholars to develop specific relationships with established scholars. In these tumultuous times in the academy in which jobs are difficult to establish, such relationships are important to build upon. Therefore, simple practices like email correspondence, guild meetings, and occasional visits provide a vital network in establishing a vocation in theology and religious studies.

“I look forward to working with DTCRSJ and joining this highly esteemed community of teaching and learning!”