Each year the Boisi Center provides an intellectual home for visiting scholars working on significant projects related to religion and public life. Visiting scholars participate in the intellectual life of the Center, which includes numerous public events, and may have an opportunity to present their own research as well. For more information about the visiting scholars program, or to apply for a position in the 2009-2010 academic year, please see the application information.
VISITING SCHOLARS 2008-09
John H. Summers
John H. Summers earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Rochester in 2006. He has taught at Harvard University, Columbia University and The Cooper Union. He is the editor of The Politics of Truth: Selected Writings of C. Wright Mills (Oxford, 2008) and the author of Every Fury on Earth, a collection of his essays on history and politics. During his year at the Boisi Center, Summers will finish writing the manuscript An American Loneliness: C. Wright Mills and his Times. Summers's essays have been published in The New Republic, New York Times Book Review, Boston Review, The Nation, Journal of American History, and many other periodicals. An online archive of his writing can be found at his website: jsummers.net, and he can be contacted at: summersj@bc.edu.
Thia Cooper (Summer 2008)
Thia Cooper is Assistant Professor of Religion at Gustavus Adolphus College, teaching in the area of Religion, Culture and Society. Her research interests include theology and liberation, theology and development, faith and practice in faith-based aid agencies, non-western Christianities, and religion in Latin America, particularly Brazil. Her background lies in Development Studies as well as Theology; she holds an M.Th. and Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh-Scotland, an M.Sc. in Development Studies from SOAS in London, and an A.B. in International Relations from Brown University. Her first book, Controversies in Political Theology: Development or Liberation, was published with SCM Press in 2007. During Summer 2008 at the Boisi Center, she is working on a project exploring theologies of immigration. Her next work will develop these themes with particular reference to the Brazilian-American community.
Marcel Koeppli (Spring 2009)
Marcel Koeppli is a research assistant and Ph.D. student at the University of Berne, Switzerland. His dissertation explores how Swiss protestant entrepreneurs in the 19th century addressed the social question, i.e. the problems arising from an expanding industrialization. As such he is interested in the interaction of religion, politics and economics. During his stay at the Boisi Center, he will continue working on his dissertation. Marcel holds an MTh from the University of Zurich. He has also studied at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
For a list of past visiting scholars, click here.