On the Job Market
This page introduces advanced doctoral candidates from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill currently seeking teaching appointments in the following fields:
Ancient Mediterranean Religions
Jason Staples
B.A., Florida State University
M.A., Florida State University
Research Interests: New Testament, Second Temple Judaism, Paul and Israel, Paul and the Torah, Jewish-Christian Relations, Hebrew Bible, Apocalypticism, Exile and Restoration, Race and Ethnicity, Imperial Platonism, Wisdom & Apocalyptic Literature, Hebrew Bible Prophets, Gospels, Historical Jesus, Dead Sea Scrolls
Dissertation: "Paul, the Gentiles, and the Restoration of Israel"
Summary: The dissertation reexamines the apostle Paul’s statements about Israel and his mission to the Gentiles from the perspective of apocalyptic restoration eschatology. My thesis is that Paul believed that the “new covenant” restoration of all twelve tribes of Israel promised in the prophets was coming to pass as a result of the death and resurrection of Jesus—but since the northern house of Israel had long before intermarried with the nations into which they had been scattered by the Assyrians and thereby become ethnically indistinct from the Gentiles, Paul comes to the radical conclusion that Israel’s full restoration could happen only through the ingathering and incorporation of faithful spirit-filled Gentiles into the community of the redeemed. The dissertation thus shows Paul’s proclamation and Gentile mission to be firmly grounded within the “restoration eschatology” familiar to students of first-century apocalyptic Judaism and the early Jesus movement while also making sense of Paul’s seemingly contradictory statements about the fate of Israel.
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Religion and Culture
Vincent Gonzalez
B.A., Arizona State University
M.A., Emory University
Research Interests: Religion in America; religion and media; Jewish studies; science and technology studies; theories of play; critical theory; cultural studies; ethnography
Dissertation: "Born Again Digital: The Video Game Worlds of Bible Believing America"
Summary: My dissertation explores the creative engagements of American Evangelicals with digital technologies and the cultural narratives of promise and danger that surround them. Since 1982 approximately 300 video games have been created for Evangelical players, and my dissertation applies methods from both religious studies and science and technology studies to give them their first systematic theoretical elaboration. These games are sites where diverse expert systems interact - players, programmers, game critics, and computer programs themselves colluding to create new theological formations and religious worlds. Thus they offer critical vantage upon the diverse ways that contemporary religious practice is changing and being changed by digital media more generally, from kosher cel phones, to Pagan online dating.
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Curriculum Vitae
Megan Goodwin
B.S., Boston University
M.A., Drew University
M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: North American religions; religion and gender/sexuality; religious intolerance; minority religions; religion and language/literature; contemporary critical thought
Dissertation: "Good Fences: American Sexual Exceptionalism and Marginal Religions" (draft submitted; defense scheduled April 2013)
Summary: My work explores the ways normative sexuality complicates American religious pluralism. I focus on three popular narratives that portray minority religions (Islam, Mormonism, and witchcraft) as predatory, coercing or duping vulnerable American women and children into religious nonconformity and sexual transgression. I use these narratives to show how liberatory rhetorics rooted in "good old American values" may also work to constrain Americans' sexual and religious freedoms while doing little to prevent violence against women and children.