Bethany Theological Seminary Announces New Faculty Member in Peace Studies

Dr. Margaret (Maggie) Elwell will join Bethany Theological Seminary this fall as Assistant Professor of Peace Studies. Chosen from an international search, Elwell comes to Bethany from the University of Maryland where she has been an assistant clinical professor in the University Honors program since 2019.   
 
“I’m pleased to welcome Dr. Elwell to Bethany,” says Dean Steve Schweitzer. “She comes with an educational experience that includes undergraduate work in English and Religion, an MA in Teaching, an MDiv, and a PhD in Religion and Society. Her teaching experience includes courses at the University of Maryland focused on issues of violence in stories and narrative approaches to theological concerns. She also taught middle school for four years in Baltimore City Public Schools. Maggie will bring creativity to courses in Peace Studies as well as contribute to our expanding offerings in Theopoetics. She exhibits excellent pedagogy, insightful approaches to complex topics, and a commitment to issues of social justice and peacemaking from a theologically informed perspective. I am confident that she will be a wonderful addition to Bethany’s faculty.” 
 
Dr. Elwell, whose teaching and scholarship often makes connections between religion and literature, earned degrees from Swarthmore College, Johns Hopkins University, and Princeton Theological Seminary. Her dissertation is entitled, The Timing of Violence: A Critical-Literary Intervention. 
 
Drawing on a wide range of interests and methodologies, Dr. Elwell’s teaching and research examines such subjects as: frameworks of social injustice and violence; narrative ethics; creative writing and theopoetics; memoir and traumatic memory; literary theory; feminisms and gender; post-holocaust Jewish and Christian theologies; and pedagogy and the arts. She has shared her scholarship through published articles, conference presentations, invited lectures, and consultations. Her works under review, or in preparation, include scholarly articles and a novel.   
 
While completing her graduate studies at Princeton Seminary, Dr. Elwell earned the Senior Fellowship for Best Thesis and a Doctoral Merit Fellowship. She served as director of the Center for Theology, Women, and Gender and in several other administrative roles at Princeton. 
 
As a member of the Bethany faculty, Dr. Elwell will contribute courses in both Peace Studies and Theopoetics across Bethany’s various degree and certificate programs. 
 
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