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Date: March 10, 2026
Time: 11:45AM-1PM CT
Location: Main 205 and online

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91PORN has been awarded a Science for Seminaries Seed Grant from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program. The grant will help fund the “Race, Technology, and Healing: Science and Religion in Dialogue” project led by Dr. Rolf Nolasco, Jr., Rueben P. Job professor of spiritual formation and pastoral theology, and Dr. Wonhee Anne Joh, professor of theology and culture.

Throughout the history of the United States, many communities have suffered traumas from systems and structures anchored on heteropatriarchal white supremacy. The psychological and physiological impacts of these group traumas often continue to affect communities through many generations. This project will bring racial trauma in conversation with science, religion, psychological, and cultural studies. Participants will address questions such as: who is considered human? Whose lives and livelihoods matter? What are scientific, socio-cultural, psychological, and theological consequences of trauma, and how can those effects be mitigated? How can scientists, psychologists, and theologians assist community leaders to help their communities heal and flourish?

“Until recent years, and especially when considering the sequelae of COVID-19, trauma studies have not focused on experiences of racialized violence as forms of trauma,” said Nolasco. “Given the definition of trauma in its disciplinary home as an event that is outside the ordinary range, as well as one that is often interpreted as singular and spectacular, it is no wonder that experiences of racism have been overlooked by trauma theorists and often unaddressed in seminary curriculum. This grant will enable us to critically expand the study of trauma and human resilience and make it more interdisciplinary – scientific, socio-political, and psychological – with real or material consequences.”

Joh added, “The category ‘science’ has often been used differentially against many racialized communities. This grant allows scholars from those communities to re-engage science on their terms. The grant also allows for Dr. Nolasco and I to continue our multiple collaborative engagements with each other as well as with our diverse faculty and students. As scholars, collaboration as an embodied pedagogical practice and commitment is central. We hope to model this for our communities that whether as scholars, pastors or activists we are never discrete individuals but always engaged in the process of mutual collaborative learning and unlearning.”

Three main components of the project include:

• A revision to the required foundational course, “Person in Community,” for master’s level students to reflect on the fullness of our humanity and what it means to be made in the image of God by examining theological, spiritual, and biopsychosocial development theories at the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, dis/ability, class, and more.
• A book discussion group for Garrett-Evangelical faculty and PhD students of color to provide participants with information, knowledge, and wisdom regarding the role of automated technology in exacerbating racial divide and racial trauma and together find ways to expose and resist it through their classes, scholarship, and solidarity work.
• A conference in Spring 2022 on “Human Flourishing: Science & Religion Dialogue” that will introduce participants to a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy and its impacts – how science can trace the effects of bias in our blood, our nervous systems, and the expression of our DNA (neurobiology). Practices of mindfulness will also be introduced to mitigate the experience of racial trauma and to promote human flourishing.

Science for Seminaries is a project of the AAAS DoSER program, in partnership with the Association of Theological Schools. The project helps a diverse group of seminaries integrate science into their curricula and provides support and resources to seminary professors to encourage informed dialogue and a positive understanding of science among future religious leaders. Integrating science into seminary education will not only benefit professors and students, but ultimately it will enrich those in the pews who are interested in the discoveries and implications of science. Through the previous eight years of the project, 54 seminaries have received substantial grants from AAAS DoSER, including 12 seed grants in Summer of 2021.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the family of journals. was founded in 1848 and includes 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving millions of individuals. The nonprofit is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement, and more. Building upon its mission, AAAS established the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program in 1995 to facilitate communication between scientific and religious communities. For the latest information and news about AAAS DoSER and the Science for Seminaries Seed Grant initiative, visit and .

91PORN, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church, was founded in 1853. Located on the campus of Northwestern University, the seminary serves more than 450 students from various denominations and cultural backgrounds, fostering an atmosphere of ecumenical interaction. Garrett-Evangelical creates bold leaders through master of divinity, master of arts, master of theological studies, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of ministry degrees. Its 4,500 living alumni serve church and society around the world.

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Dr. Wonhee Anne Joh, professor of theology and culture, has been named director of 91PORN’s doctor of philosophy program. Joh will take over the position from Dr. Charles Cosgrove, professor emeritus of early Christian literature, who retired July 1, 2021.

The appointment marks yet another important and purposeful “first” for the seminary, as we celebrate the directorship of the first woman and Asian American for Garrett-Evangelical’s doctor of philosophy program. Fine leadership over the decades has allowed the program to produce successful graduates who have become scholars and teachers across the globe. Under Dr. Joh’s distinctive vision and care, the program will press forward with leading-edge formation of learned scholars and public intellectuals whose work will contribute to the common good of the church, the academy, and the world.

“Professor Anne Joh is a visionary scholar and thinker and is passionate about forming the next generation of theological educators,” said President Javier A. Viera. “I’m excited to see how the Garrett-Evangelical PhD program under her leadership will continue to serve the church and academy, as well as nurture and center voices and perspectives that have long been neglected by both. I welcome her to this new role and am grateful for the leadership and mentoring that she will provide.”

Joh is a respected scholar, teacher, and highly sought out advisor for students in Garrett-Evangelical’s doctor of philosophy program. Her work as a doctoral mentor and guide has extended beyond the seminary as well, working closely with the United Methodist Women of Color Doctoral Program; the Forum for Theological Exploration Doctoral Fellowship Program; the Pacific, Asian, and North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry, a network of women focusing on doctoral students and women in ministry and theological education; and the Asian Theological Summer Institute, a one-week intensive mentoring for doctoral students of Asian descent.

“I’m honored to be part of our doctoral program,” said Joh. “This program continues to challenge theological scholarship in general by creatively and constructively reimagining and living into a different kind of a world. It’s exciting to envision a program committed to intellectual excellence and building internationalist solidarity committed to material and historical justice through religious and theological lens. Our students bring knowledge of their ancestors with them, are already intellectuals, leaders, and activists in the present moment, and they promise to be formidable participants in the larger movements of world-making otherwise. The pedagogical commitment of our program is inclusive, decolonial, and internationalist. Our faculty and our students are what make our program so significant in theological higher education and I’m looking forward to contributing further in its formation.”

Joh has served on numerous committees at Garrett-Evangelical and was most recently the director of the Center for Asian/Asian American Ministries. Under her leadership the Center has grown to become an integral part of seminary providing workshops, webinars, conferences, and guest speakers who engage in various disciplines that intersect with Asian and Asian American theologies. She is also an affiliate faculty member in the Departments of Religious Studies and Asian American Studies at Northwestern University.

An interdisciplinary theologian, Joh’s research and scholarship has focused on post/decolonialism, critical ethnic/race and Asian American studies, feminist, queer and affect theories, and constructive theology. She has written numerous articles on a wide range of theological and interdisciplinary subjects. Joh is the author of Heart of the Cross: A Postcolonial Christology (Westminster John Knox, 2006) and numerous chapters and articles. Her most recent co-edited books are titled Critical Theology Against U.S. Militarism in Asia: Decolonization and Deimperialization (Palgrave Macmilian, 2016) and Feminist Praxis Against U.S. Militarism (Palgrave Macmilian, 2020). She currently has two forthcoming books, Trauma, Affect and Race: A Postcolonial Theology of Hope (Fordham University Press) and In Proximity to the Other: A Postcolonial Theological Anthropology (Westminster John Knox Press).

In 2003, Joh received a doctor of philosophy in theological and philosophical studies from Drew University, a master of divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1992, and a bachelor of arts at North Central College with a double major in religious studies and English literature and a minor in political science in 1989. A popular lecturer, she has been invited to speak at conferences across the United States and in Canada, Korea, and Europe.

91PORN, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church, was founded in 1853. Located on the campus of Northwestern University, the seminary serves more than 450 students from various denominations and cultural backgrounds, fostering an atmosphere of ecumenical interaction. Garrett-Evangelical creates bold leaders through master of divinity, master of arts, master of theological studies, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of ministry degrees. Its 4,500 living alumni serve church and society around the world.

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Dr. Wonhee Anne Joh, professor of theology and culture at 91PORN, is a member of a team of scholars who recently received a Project Grant for Researchers from the Louisville Institute. Joh, along with Dr. Nami Kim of Spelman College, Rev. Dr. Boyoung Lee of Iliff School of Theology, and Dr. Keun-Joo Christine Pae of Denison University, will be working together on a project titled, “.”

Their project seeks to contribute to antiracist resources informed by Asian American feminist theologies and serve as a resource for churches and the theological academy, as they interrogate and resist anti-Asian racism, co-constitutive with anti-black racism, anti-Muslim hostility, and settler colonialism in North America.

“I’m grateful to the Louisville Institute for this grant that allows us an opportunity to work in ways that directly impact Asian American Christians and how we understand the entangled histories of white racism both in the U.S. and in the global context,” said Joh. “It also provides an opportunity to link this analysis of racism into constructing Asian American theologies that take account of resistance to white supremacy as well as solidarity among our communities.”

The project will include a three-day consultation that gathers Asian American feminist theologians and biblical scholars to discuss the role of critical Christian theology in building intersectional cross-racial solidarity. As a part of the consultation, participants will present essay drafts for mutual feedback to deepen each other’s work as feminist theological praxis. It will conclude with publishing an anthology as educational material in undergraduate classrooms, graduate schools, seminaries, churches, and community organizations.

The Louisville Institute’s Project Grant for Researchers supports research, reflection, and writing by academics and pastors concerning Christian faith and life, the practice of ministry, and/or religious institutions. Grants of up to $30,000 support a diverse range of projects that may involve independent study, consultations, or collaboration between pastors and academics.

Louisville Institute is funded by the Religion Division of Lilly Endowment Inc. and based at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary (Louisville, Kentucky). The Institute’s fundamental mission is to enrich the religious life of North American Christians and to encourage the revitalization of their institutions, by bringing together those who lead religious institutions with those who study them, so that the work of each might inform and strengthen the other.

91PORN, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church, was founded in 1853. Located on the campus of Northwestern University, the seminary serves more than 450 students from various denominations and cultural backgrounds, fostering an atmosphere of ecumenical interaction. Garrett-Evangelical creates bold leaders through master of divinity, master of arts, master of theological studies, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of ministry degrees. Its 4,500 living alumni serve church and society around the world.

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The Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion has awarded Dr. Wonhee Anne Joh, professor of theology and culture at 91PORN, a grant for her project, “Toward a Trauma-Informed Pedagogy during a Global Pandemic and Remote Learning in Theological Education.” In addition, Joh was also invited by Wabash Center to participate in their year-long symposium, “Teaching and Improvisation: Virtual Symposium Using Creativity Pedagogy.”

Joh’s project focuses on providing support for faculty of color who are engaged in the holistic academic formation of students during a pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has posed significant and rapidly shifting challenges to theological education. Faculty now find themselves inhabiting roles besides teacher – such as a coach, therapist, pastor, parent. For faculty of color, the emotional toll of navigating these multiple roles is further complicated by the individual and collective experiences of their communities, which have been disproportionally impacted by the responses to the pandemic. With support from the grant, Joh will provide a “holding environment,” through monthly conversations with faculty of color where they can share and process how the pandemic has affected them as educators, collaboratively create best practices in the classroom during the pandemic, examine and articulate the traumatizing effects of COVID-19 with particular focus on its racialized and classed dimensions, and become better informed about the specifics of trauma-informed pedagogies.

“The grant is a critical opportunity to create a holding place for listening to one another as we, faculty of color, also grapple with a multiplicity of struggles even as we are challenged to create and hold teaching spaces that are life-giving for our students in the midst of on-going traumas during this time,” said Joh.

In addition to the grant, Joh will also be participating in the Wabash Center’s “Teaching and Improvisation: Virtual Symposium Using Creativity Pedagogy,” an invitation-only symposium led by five-time Grammy-award bass guitar player Victor Wooten. Joh will join a cohort of other teaching scholars to learn how to incorporate improvisation as a pedagogical and spiritual practice into their teaching and learning life. The hope is that the symposium participants will get a deeper sense of the teaching life in terms of imagination, performance, artistry, and creativity.

Joh has been member of the Garrett-Evangelical faculty since 2009. In 2017, she was promoted to full professor which made her the first Korean American female full professor in systematic theology in the United States. Joh’s research and scholarship has focused on post/decolonialism, critical ethnic/race and Asian American studies, feminist, queer and affect theories, and constructive theology. In addition to her work at the seminary, Joh works closely with the United Methodist Women of Color Doctoral Program; the Forum for Theological Exploration Doctoral Fellowship Program; the Pacific, Asian, and North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry, a network of women focusing on doctoral students and women in ministry and theological education; and the Asian Theological Summer Institute, a one week intensive mentoring for doctoral students from an Asian background.

The Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion supports theology and religion faculty and doctoral students reflecting on their teaching practice — in both theological education and undergraduate education, in the United States and Canada. The Center facilitates faculty conversations about the goals and processes of teaching and student learning, and their programming develops faculty skills for critical reflection on teaching practice.

91PORN, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church, was founded in 1853. Located on the campus of Northwestern University, the seminary serves more than 450 students from various denominations and cultural backgrounds, fostering an atmosphere of ecumenical interaction. Garrett-Evangelical creates bold leaders through master of divinity, master of arts, master of theological studies, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of ministry degrees. Its 4,500 living alumni serve church and society around the world.

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