Margaret Elwell

Dr. Margaret (Maggie) Elwell arrived at Bethany in the fall of 2022. She previously taught at University of Maryland from 2019-2022. She earned her BA from Swarthmore College, her MA in teaching from Johns Hopkins University, and both her MDiv and PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary. Her dissertation was titled, The Timing of Violence: A Critical-Literary Intervention. She is a critical theorist of violence and a narratologist.

At Bethany, her courses are broadening the offerings in both Peace Studies and Theopoetics, and she is the Director of Bethany BOLD, funded by a $1M grant from the Lilly Endowment. She has served as director of the Center for Theology, Women, and Gender at Princeton Seminary, taught English and humanities in Baltimore City Public Schools, and provided leadership to projects focused on social justice and disaster relief.

Education

PhD, Princeton Seminary

MDiv, Princeton Seminary

MA, Johns Hopkins University

BA, Swarthmore College

Teaching and Research Interests

Religion and Literature; 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; Pedagogy and the Arts.

Elwell Margaret CV February 2024 (1)