Dr. Mary Foskett, a long-time member of PANAAWTM, has been given the 2021 Status of Women in the Profession Mentor Award by the Society of Biblical Literature. This award recognizes mentors who have provided invaluable guidance, advice, and encouragement to other women. She has been a mentor to students and younger faculties at PANAAWTM and we want to congratulate her for this recognition by her guild.
Dr. Foskett is Wake Forest Kahle Professor at Wake Forest University, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate MA students in the Department for the Study of Religions and served as a founder and inaugural director of the WFU Humanities Institute. At PANAAWTM, she serves on the Finance Committee.
What are the issues junior faculties and students face in the field of biblical studies?
One of the challenges for those who want to teach in undergraduate settings is to make the case for why biblical studies is a relevant area of study. We have to be able to make the connections for students who may not take more than one course related to biblical studies, and administrators who may think the field no longer bears significance for today's students. I think younger biblical scholars and faculty are well positioned to help us do this work. They are already making important connections in their research that previous generations did not.
What are your hopes for the future?
I hope that the field will take on the challenge I've just mentioned, think outside the box of reproducing ourselves as biblical scholars, and address the ways in which biblical studies can help students engage the world, no matter where the future may lead them.