Sympathy to Kerry Waller Dueholm (2000) and Ben Dueholm on the death of Kerry's mother, Kathy Waller, in Spring Hill, Kansas, on September 30.

Former resident Braxton Shelley was featured in a Harvard Gazette article, “Giving Harvard a little more groove.” This fall, he became is the Stanley A. Marks and William H. Marks Assistant Professor at the Radcliffe Institute, and assistant professor of music in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and he is teaching a graduate seminar entitled, "Groove." As he explains in the article, “The phenomenon of groove is embedded in a long history of music and dance.” Shelley said, “At some level groove is thought to result from the interaction between instrument and/or performers. In this case, groove seems to be understood as both a feeling and a musical entity that facilitates the production of that feeling....In a broader sense, it’s a cut or ridge that facilitates movement, so I want to see what happens when we put together all of the conversations of the way we think of groove.” He was recently ordained in his home congregation in North Carolina.

Congratulations to current Scholar and PhD student Rachel Abdoler and Matt Brothers, who were married September 30 in Providence, Rhode Island.

J. Kwest, aka Julian DeShazier (trustee), performed at Wrigley Field for HBCU Day, September 29.

Judith Guy (2013) has been called to Mackinaw (Illinois) Christian Church, beginning on October 1. She was the keynote speaker for the Women's Retreat of the Christian Church in Illinois and Wisconsin, September 22-24, at Camp Walter Scott. 

Spencer Dew (1998) is spending his sabbatical in Chicago and will speak at DDH on October 23. He is Associate Professor and Chair of Religious Studies at Centenary College of Louisiana. 

Kristel Clayville (2001) is Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at Eureka College and a fellow at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. 

Congratulations to Joe Blosser (2005) who has received tenure at High Point University in North Carolina. He is the Robert G. Culp, Jr. Director of Service Learning and Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy.

Yvonne Gilmore (2001; associate dean) preached and led a workshop on “The Practice of Testimony” on September 24 at First Christian Church, Jefferson City, Missouri, where Beau Underwood (2006) is the senior minister. The event was part of a series funded by a grant from the Calvin Institute of Worship.

Congratulations to current House Scholar Andrew Langford who completed his midpoint dissertation colloquium on September 18. His dissertation considers how medicalized language (language of disease and disability) is used to pathologize religious opponents in the Pastoral Epistles.