wfn.org | United Methodist becomes Yale Divinity's first woman dean

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

March 20, 2001 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.     10-71BP{132}

NOTE:  A photo is available for use with this story.

By United Methodist News Service*

The Rev. Rebecca Chopp, a United Methodist, has been named dean of Yale
University Divinity School in New Haven, Conn. 

Chopp, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at United
Methodist-related Emory University in Atlanta, will assume leadership of
Yale's interdenominational graduate divinity school July 1. She is the 13th
dean of the school and the first woman to hold that position. She will also
be the Titus Street Professor of Theology and Culture.

A scholar of Christian theology, Chopp graduated with a bachelor's degree
from Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina in 1974.  She earned her master of
divinity degree from United Methodist-related Saint Paul School of Theology
in Kansas City, Mo., in 1977 and her doctorate from the University of
Chicago Divinity School in 1983.

During the 1980-1981 academic year, Chopp received a Dempster Graduate
Fellowship from the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and
Ministry's Office of Loans and Scholarships.  The fellowships are given
annually to United Methodists who plan to teach in seminary or to teach
religion and related subjects in universities or colleges. Qualifications
for the fellowship include showing "promise of usefulness in teaching
careers."   

Before joining the Emory faculty in 1986, Chopp was an assistant professor
of theology at the University of Chicago. She held several appointments at
Emory, including faculty positions in the Candler School of Theology and
Graduate Division of Religion, the Institute for Liberal Arts and the
Institute for Women's Studies. She was director of graduate studies at the
institute from 1991 to 1993.  

Chopp became dean of faculty and academic affairs at Candler in 1993 and was
named the Charles Howard Candler Professor in Theology in 1996. In 1998, she
became provost and executive vice president of Emory.

A scholar of theology and culture with a special interest in rhetoric,
pragmatism and feminist theory, Chopp is editor of Differing Horizons:
Feminist Theory and Theology (with Sheila Davaney, Fortress Press, 1997).

She has written several other books and is widely published in the areas of
women's studies, Christian theology and the role of religion in American
public life. Chopp is editor of the Quarterly Review. She has been theology
editor for Religious Studies Review and editor-at-large for the Christian
Century, in addition to serving on the editorial boards of several journals
in her field.

She is president of the American Academy of Religion and a member of the
board of trustees of the Carnegie Foundation.

Yale President Richard C. Levin said Chopp "brings an extraordinary array of
strengths to her new position at Yale, and we are extremely fortunate to
have attracted a person of such distinction."  He described her as an
"outstanding scholar as well as an energetic and capable administrator." 

Emory President Bill Chase said, "I am certain that Yale and the formation
of religious leaders will be the better for her decision. At the same time,
I am certain also that I speak for all of her colleagues at Emory who join
me in lamenting her departure as well as in bidding her Godspeed."  

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*The communications offices at Yale and Emory provided information for this
story.

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United Methodist News Service
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