Journal of Ecumenical Studies Staff

Consultants

Dr. Swidler retired as a Professor of Catholic Thought and Interreligious Dialogue in the Religion Department of Temple University, where he taught since 1966. At Temple, and as a visiting professor at universities around the world – including Graz, Austria; Tübingen, Germany; Fudan University, Shanghai; and the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur – he has mentored a generation of U.S. and international scholars in the work of interreligious dialogue. He has a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the University of Tübingen and received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin; he also holds honorary doctorates from St. Norbert’s College and LaSalle University. Dr. Swidler continues to teach in retirement at the University of Sulaimani in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Leonard has published/edited more than 200 articles and 75 books, including:   Jewish‑Christian‑Muslim Dialogue (1978); Religious Liberty and Human Rights (1986); After the Absolute: The Dialogical Future of Religious Reflection (1990); A Bridge to Buddhist-Christian Dialogue (1990); Muslims in Dialogue: The Evolution of a Dialogue over a Generation (1992); Jesus Was a Feminist (2007). View Dr. Swidler’s Curriculum Vitae (updated July 2022) HERE.

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David M. Krueger is a scholar, author, and educator who is passionate about public history, religious literacy, and dialogue. His areas of academic expertise include American religious history, religious pluralism, race, and ethnicity. Dr. Krueger is a sought-after lecturer and speaker and has frequently served as a narrator and scholarly contributor on the Science Channel. He received an M.Div from Palmer Theological Seminary, a ThM from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a PhD in religious studies from Temple University. His book, Myths of the Rune Stone: Viking Martyrs and the Birthplace of America, was published by the University of Minnesota Press. Dr. Krueger is a versatile and seasoned educator who has taught at several area colleges, universities, and community-based settings. He also served as a faculty trainer and education consultant for the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program based at Temple University. Although he grew up as a farm kid in Minnesota, he has come to love Philadelphia and its fascinating history since moving there in 1995. His articles and essays have appeared in several publications, including Religion Dispatches and The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. He enjoys offering tours of diverse religious and historical sites in the city.

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Andi Laudisio is the Program and Administrative Director at the Dialogue Institute and a scholar on themes such as Sectarianism, Islam, Dialogue, Nationalism, Democracy, and Pluralism. She curates, executes, and manages our Dialogue Institute programs for High School, College, and adult educators. Andi also creates custom programming for community groups, members of international agencies, manages DI conferences and contracts locally and abroad.

Andi earned her PhD in Religion from Temple University exploring sectarian violence in Iraq post 2005, received her MA in Religious Studies from Arizona State University with a focus on the Bremer Period of Iraq, and earned her BA in Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics at SUNY University at Buffalo. Andi began her work with the Dialogue Institute in 2016 as a Program Associate for the Study of the US Institute (SUSI) student and scholars programs on Democracy and Religious Pluralism. Andi has worked with international groups for over a decade and taught ESL to adult refugees for years in Buffalo and Philadelphia while helping them prepare for the United States Citizenship exam. Andi loves helping others bridge a cultural gap through dialogue and education. 

Andi is an Editorial Associate for the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, where she leverages her extensive background in research and program management to support the publication's mission. With a scholarly focus on sectarianism, Islam, dialogue, nationalism, democracy, and pluralism, Dr. Laudisio brings a rich perspective to the editorial team. 

In her role, Dr. Laudisio assists with content development, editing, and the curation of scholarly articles that resonate with contemporary issues in religion and society. Andi will be a point of contact for authors, assisting in the peer review, schedule, and submission processes. 

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Miriam Fisher, CPA, has more than 40 years’ experience in the non-profit world, serving as Chief Financial Officer of Friends Central School, The Chemical Heritage Foundation, and the American Friends Service Committee, as well as Board Treasurer for a variety of non-profits including Historic Fairhill, Intercultural Journeys and Germantown Friends School. She recently retired and is enjoying working part time as both an accountant and a gardener.

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Sayge attended Albright College and graduated with an interdisciplinary degree of Video Game Design/Simulation and Digital Media, as well as a minor Religious Studies. She specializes in software management, social media management, marketing, and web development and management. By evaluating the unique ways her interests intersect, Sayge hopes to contribute to the growth of digital learning initiatives in the Humanities.

At the Dialogue Institute, Sayge manages all media, marketing, and digital learning platforms. She supports our community by producing content for our social media accounts, as well as designing and implementing a consistent brand for promotions, appeals, reports, and other correspondence. Since starting with the DI, her work has been a vital part of our organization's communications process.

In addition to social media and marketing management, Sayge provides computer/technical support for virtual and in-person program logistics. She assists with troubleshooting problems, as well as orienting staff to new software and digital tools.

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Zain Abdullah is an independent scholar, consultant, curator, and associate professor emeritus of Religion & Society and Islamic Studies at Temple University. Dr. Abdullah has held national directorships and convened numerous programs. He is currently co-directing an NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) summer institute for K-12 educators sponsored by the Dialogue Institute titled, The City of Brotherly Love: Religious Diversity, Freedom, and the Founding of the Nation in Philadelphia.

Zain has been quoted in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Atlantic magazine, along with making radio and television appearances. He has earned awards from agencies like the Smithsonian Institution and the Ford Foundation, curated programs and exhibitions for arts institutions, organized film festivals, and planned national conferences on public issues. Dr. Abdullah was granted the New Jersey State Assembly Resolution in recognition of distinguished service, leadership, and commitment on behalf of the citizens of the State. As a Muslim Chaplain and interfaith activist, he served on the Bishop’s Commission on Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs in Trenton, NJ, the Chaplaincy Consulting Committee, which is the State Advisory Board of Ministry for New Jersey State institutions, a consultant for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and NJ State Troopers, the NJ Attorney General’s Stop Hate Crimes Committee, among other agencies. In 2017, he was inducted into the East Orange (NJ) Hall of Fame among luminaries like Queen Latifah, Dionne Warwick, John Amos, and the late Whitney Houston. In film, he is consulting for and appearing in a PBS series on Muslim Americans and advised a six‑part series on Malcolm X for Netflix.

Besides his ethnographic work, Black Mecca: The African Muslims of Harlem (Oxford U Press), he has published numerous book chapters and top-tiered articles for journals such as the Harvard Divinity Bulletin and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JAAR). He has edited and contributed to a historic special issue for The Muslim World entitled, Black Muslim Portraiture in the Modern Atlantic. His recent volume, The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Race, includes nearly 50 international authors covering 30 countries on 6 continents. His other book projects include a study of Islam and Black freedom struggles and another on Muslim visual history and culture.

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Nancy E. Krody was born in 1939 in Cincinnati, Ohio.  She received a B.A. in political science and sociology from Ohio State University in 1960, followed by two years of course work toward an M.A. degree in sociology but not a thesis. During this time, she was active in the Baptist-Disciples Student Fellowship and in a statewide ecumenical student group. In 1962, she enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, PA. Though at the top of her second-year class, she was unable to complete the academic program at Crozer because she had come out as a lesbian, which in 1964 the faculty could not handle.

Moving to Philadelphia, she spent nine years working as a secretary in the national setting of the United Church of Christ and joined a local UCC congregation in the mid-'60's because of its justice and ecumenical stances, leaving the American Baptist Church of her birth. She was the first woman elder and consistory president of the congregation and has been involved with the UCC at regional and national levels subsequently. From 1973 through 2018, she was on the staff of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies at Temple University, now serving pro bono as copy editor of J.E.S. She currently serves on the Board of the North American Academy of Ecumenists, the Advisory Board of the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network, and as treasurer and registrar of the Philadelphia Association of the UCC.

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Sean is the Administrative Assistant Director at the Dialogue Institute and a scholar on themes such as School Administration, Student-centered Pedagogy, Scholastic Journalism, Civic Dialogue, Religion and African American Culture. He assists in the curation, execution, and management of the Dialogue Institute’s Study of the US Institute (SUSI) summer programs on Democracy and Religious Pluralism.

Sean is also a PhD student at Va. Tech in ASPECT (The Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical & Cultural Thought) focusing on friendship formation and cultural expression among urban Baptist Black men. He earned his MA and MFA in Creative Writing from Manhattanville College, and earned his BA in English Language & Literature from the University of Virginia.

Sean supports pro-social causes outside of academia. In 2022-23 he hosted “Men on the Main Line,” a talk show on public access channel MLTV 21 in Radnor, PA, and served as VP of the interfaith dialogue and community education group CommUNITY Breakfast Collaborative in Villanova, PA. Sean also was a 2023 poet in residence at the Open Door in Door County, WI, and serves on the residency selection board of directors. His residency workshop theme was “Putting a Funk Ethos in Your Poetry Process.”

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John Bright is a scholar of religion who has worked for years as a public historian at sites associated with Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, including a church that is likely the single most historic religious congregation in the U.S. John has broad experience in communications in both the nonprofit and for-profit worlds. His current role with the DI focuses on the development and funding of new programs connecting the historical sites of colonial and Revolutionary Philadelphia to the unique religious congregations of the era. John has an undergraduate degree in anthropology and religion studies from Lehigh University, and a Master’s degree in religion from United Lutheran Seminary, located in Philadelphia’s historic Germantown. He has done doctoral work in religion at both The General Seminary of the Episcopal Church in Manhattan and at Temple University.

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Effiong Joseph Udo, Ph.D, currently teaches New Testament Literature, Hermeneutics, and Dialogue at the Department of Religious and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. He is a Director at the Centre for Deep Dialogue and Critical Thinking of the same University and The Pan-African Dialogue Institute. His doctoral thesis on St Luke’s Soteria (salvation) concept grounded his understanding of the ministry of Jesus as a spirit-filled campaign for a prioritization of justice and human wellbeing in the society of his days. This inspired Dr. Udo’s research interests in biblical exegesis to promote social justice, human rights, peacebuilding, interfaith relations and well as ecumenism. Dr. Udo became an associate of Dialogue Institute after his study visit to DI/Temple University in 2016. He, along with colleagues in Dialogue Institute and University of Uyo, worked assiduously to establish a thriving Center – Centre for Deep Dialogue and Critical Thinking – at his University in May 2017. He is an Ambassador for Peace of the Universal Peace Federation, New York, a member of Professors World Peace Academy, as well as a postdoctoral International dialogue fellow of King Abdullah Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), Vienna, Austria. He is the founder/CEO of a youth-based interfaith hub called RELIGIONNEXT FOUNDATION FOR YOUTH AND PEACEBUILDING, dedicated to interreligious literacy and activism. This platform enables young people who belong to different religions in university and college campuses and religious houses to build bridges of understanding, respect, tolerance, friendship and cooperation to foster religious harmony, social cohesion and sustainable peace and development in African countries and the world at large. Prior to joining the academia in 2013, Dr. Udo had served the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria as an ordained minister for twenty-five years occupying several leadership positions. He belongs to learned professional bodies, nationally and internationally; and now serves Dialogue Institute as a Consultant for African Region.

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Ben Sax serves as the Head of Scholarship and the Jewish Scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore. Ben is an experienced professor, university administrator, scholar, award-winning teacher, public speaker, and practitioner and facilitator of interreligious dialogue. Before arriving at the ICJS, Ben was director of the Malcolm and Diane Rosenberg Program in Judaic Studies and the founding faculty principal at the West Ambler Johnston Residential College at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. In addition to publishing on topics relating to Jewish philosophy, German-Jewish history and culture, Jewish-Christian relations, and interreligious dialogue, Ben has discussed his work on PBS and Baltimore’s NPR affiliate WYPR. He has been invited to lecture all around the world including Oxford, Rome, Heidelberg, Jerusalem and beyond, and, has been a speaker in United States State Department’s Speaker Program, most recently at the US Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was interviewed for Martin Dobblemeier’s film Spiritual Audacity: The Abraham Joshua Heschel Story and served as a consultant for his film The Sabbath.

Ben currently serves as the co-chair for the Religion, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies Unit for the American Academy of Religion (AAR); on the steering committee for the Interreligious and Interfaith Studies Program Unit for the American Academy of Religion (AAR); and on the advisory council for the Association for Interreligious/Interfaith Studies (AIIS). He serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Ecumenical Studies.

Ben’s book, Winged Words: Benjamin, Rosenzweig, and the Life of Quotation, was published in July, 2023  (Brill). He is currently at work on a book about antisemitism.

Ben holds degrees from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (B.A., Social Thought and Political Economy), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.A., Jewish Thought), and the University of Chicago (Ph.D., History of Judaism). He also studied at Middlebury College’s Summer Language School, where he received a Zertifikat ÖSD Mittelstufe, M.D. in German Language and Culture. For access to Ben’s publications, please visit his Academia.edu webpage.

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Gabriel Raeburn is a Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard and the Legacy Slavery Initiative at Harvard University. He previously served as a Senior Fellow in the Religious Studies department at the University of Pennsylvania and a Dean's Fellow for Teaching Excellence. He works at the intersection of American religion and politics and researches the histories of race, inequality, and evangelicalism. Gabriel is in the process of turning his dissertation into a book manuscript that explores Pentecostal movement building and political activism across the twentieth century.

Gabriel gained his Ph.D. in Religious Studies and History from the University of Pennsylvania. Originally from England, he earned a B.A. in American Studies and Politics from the University of Sussex and a M.St. in U.S. History from the University of Oxford.

Alongside historical research and writing, Gabriel has taught several Religious Studies and History courses. These include “Religion and Politics in America,” “God and Money,” and “American Jesus.” In his spare time, he can be found getting thoroughly outclassed on Philadelphia’s amateur soccer fields.

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In his own words: “My education has been centered in religious studies, American studies, and American history with specialization in the religious history of the United States. I’ve lived in Philadelphia for twenty years.  I’ve taught courses at Temple University, Thomas Jefferson University and Chestnut Hill College related to the religious history of America as well as the history of American Immigration, World Religions, and the cultural history of the United States. 

I adore and respect the sacredness Americans afford the story of our foundational city.  I hope to unveil its mysteries and diversity.

I can share various sacred spaces related to Philadelphia’s diverse religious history and population.  We could explore Catholic and Protestant churches, synagogues, places related to early Muslim and Lenape communities, along with Hindu and Buddhist temples and sites related to new religious movements.”

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Che Pieper is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Religion and a graduate certificate in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies from Temple University.

Their scholarly interests lie at the intersection of the studies of religion, gender, popular culture, childhood, and mass media. Outside of academia, Che works as a freelance game designer interested in immersive experience, TTRPGs, and LARP. 

Che graduated from Kenyon College in 2021 with a BA in Religious Studies and has since worked in a motley assortment of educational roles from public schools to public libraries.

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Armin Firouzi is currently pursuing an interdisciplinary PhD in Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought at Virginia Tech. His scholarly interest lay at the intersection of historical preservation in religious cultural settings and politics of identity. Before moving to the United States, Armin finished his master’s in Cultural Heritage Studies in Cyprus, where he also collaborated in heritage documentation and urban regeneration projects. His master’s thesis questions politics of everyday life regarding Zoroastrian heritage community in context of Yazd, a UNESCO World Heritage City. Armin is currently transforming his thesis into a book chapter in the book series of the DFG Research Training Group. In this chapter, he delves into the intricate dynamics influenced by politics regarding the representation of Zoroastrian cultural identity and the impact of religion-led dominant perspectives on their socio-cultural rights. The research establishes an analytical framework for evaluating the current status of Zoroastrians' Right to the City in Yazd. He contends that despite the legal protection of such rights, the practical measures within Iran's Islamic theocratic power structure reveal the marginalization and erosion of their cultural identity.

Affiliation: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, Department of Religion and Culture, PhD student in Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought

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Caitlin Zielinski is a rising junior at Temple University pursuing a degree in Global Studies with a minor in Political Science. Within her major she has a concentration in global cultures, with particular scholarly interest in the intersection of religion, politics, feminism, and queerness.

She is an active member of Temple’s Global Studies Society and will be joining the organization’s executive board as the club Secretary next semester. In this organization, Caitlin and other like-minded students discuss current global affairs as well as provide professional development support for those entering the global studies field. Caitlin also participates in Temple’s chapter of the American Marketing Association, where she is a student consultant for the organization’s student-led marketing firm, Cherry Consulting.

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