Director

Peter Choi

Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
M.Div., Calvin Theological Seminary
B.A., Pomona College

Peter Choi is Dean of Newbigin House, Associate Professor of American Christianity, and a member of the Consortial Faculty at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. He has taught history of Christianity courses at Calvin Theological Seminary and the University of Notre Dame. Prior to that, he served for seven years as a pastor in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

A historian of eighteenth century North America, Peter’s areas of specialization include transatlantic revival religion, early evangelicalism, and world Christianity. His research has been funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Huntington Library, and the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Selected Publications
• Subverting Faith: Early Evangelicals and the Making of Race (under contract with Oxford University Press).
• “Tearing Down Evangelical Icons,” Religion Dispatches, July 16, 2020.
• George Whitefield: Evangelist for God and Empire (Eerdmans, 2018).
• “The City’s Grace,” in Urban Ministry Reconsidered: Contexts and Considerations (Westminster John Knox Press, 2018).
• “Whitefield, Georgia, and the Quest for Bethesda College,” in George Whitefield: Life, Context, and Legacy (Oxford University Press, 2016).
• “Revival Preacher, Pop Idol, and Revolutionary, Too?” Books & Culture 21.1 (January/February 2014): 17.

Teaching Fellow

Kristin Du Mez

B.A., History and German, Dordt College
Ph.D., American History, University of Notre Dame

Kristin Kobes Du Mez is a New York Times bestselling author and Professor of History and Gender Studies at Calvin University. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Religion News Service, and Christianity Today, and has been interviewed on NPR, CBS, and the BBC, among other outlets. Her most recent book is Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. 

Her first book, A New Gospel for Women: Katharine Bushnell and the Challenge of Christian Feminism (Oxford 2015) traces the remarkable life and innovative theology of Katharine Bushnell (1855-1946), an intrepid social reformer and anti-trafficking activist.

She is currently working on Live Laugh Love, a cultural study of white Christian womanhood. 

Teaching Fellow

Lisa Sharon Harper

From Ferguson to New York, and from Germany and South Africa to Australia and Brazil, Lisa Sharon Harper leads trainings that increase clergy and community leaders’ capacity to organize people of faith toward a just world. A prolific speaker, writer and activist, Ms. Harper is the founder and president of FreedomRoad.us, a consulting group dedicated to shrinking the narrative gap in our nation by designing forums and experiences that bring common understanding, common commitment and common action.

Ms. Harper is the author of several books, including Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican…or Democrat (The New Press, 2008); Left Right and Christ: Evangelical Faith in Politics (Elevate, 2011); Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith (Zondervan, 2014); and the critically acclaimed, The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong can be Made Right (Waterbrook, a division of Penguin Random House, 2016). The Very Good Gospel, recognized as the “2016 Book of the Year” by Englewood Review of Books, explores God’s intent for the wholeness of all relationships in light of today’s headlines.

A columnist at Sojourners Magazine and an Auburn Theological Seminary Senior Fellow, Ms. Harper has appeared on TVOne, FoxNews Online, NPR, and Al Jazeera America. Her writing has been featured in CNN Belief Blog, The National Civic Review, Sojourners, The Huffington Post, Relevant Magazine, and Essence Magazine. She writes extensively on shalom and governance, immigration reform, health care reform, poverty, racial and gender justice, climate change, and transformational civic engagement.

Ms. Harper earned her Masters degree in Human Rights from Columbia University in New York City, and served as Sojourners Chief Church Engagement Officer. In this capacity, she fasted for 22 days as a core faster in 2013 with the immigration reform Fast for Families. She trained and catalyzed evangelicals in St. Louis and Baltimore to engage the 2014 push for justice in Ferguson and the 2015 healing process in Baltimore, and she educated faith leaders in South Africa to pull the levers of their new democracy toward racial equity and economic inclusion.

In 2015, The Huffington Post named Ms. Harper one of 50 powerful women religious leaders to celebrate on International Women’s Day. In 2019, The Religion Communicators Council named a two-part series within Ms. Harper’s monthly Freedom Road Podcast “Best Radio or Podcast Series of The Year”. The series focused on The Roots and Fruits of Immigrant Labor Exploitation in the US. And in 2020 Ms. Harper received The Bridge Award from The Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth and Reconciliation in recognition of her dedication to bridging divides and building the beloved community.

Her much anticipated book, Fortune: How Race Broke My Family And The World–And How To Repair It All, is now available!

Teaching Fellow

Mihee Kim-Kort

Mihee Kim-Kort is co-pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Annapolis, MD along with her spouse Andrew Kort (MDiv, 2003). She is a University of Colorado-Boulder grad (BA 2000), Princeton Theological Seminary alum (MDiv, 2004 and ThM, 2008), and currently a doctoral candidate at Indiana University in Religious Studies interested in American religious history, Asian American literature, Black feminist theory, queer theory and political theologies. She was also the Managing Editor of the American Religion journal (Indiana University Press) in 2019-2021. In the past, she has been a participant of the FTE Professional Development, an FTE Dissertation Fellow, a recipient of a Louisville Institute Doctoral Fellowship, and a 2017-2018 fellow with the Wabash Pastoral Leadership Program.

Mihee has served as Associate Pastor for College Hill Presbyterian Church in Easton, PA (2006-2011) and United Presbyterian Church in Flanders, NJ (2005-2006). She was Director and co-founder of the UKirk Campus Ministry program at Indiana University from (2012-2017). She has written and published for various venues including the New York Times, Time Magazine, Huffington Post, Christian Century, Faith and Leadership, the Revealer, Bitch Media, and Sojourners, preaching and biblical commentaries, and the author of Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith (Fortress Press, 2018) and Making Paper Cranes: Toward an Asian American Feminist Theology (Chalice Press, 2012), and editor of Streams Run Uphill: Conversations with Clergywomen of Color (Judson Press, 2014).

She says:  “In all times, the Church gives me hope. I don’t understand it most days, this hope, how it comes from something that seems so fallible and imperfect, but I do know in my bones and cells that it is because God is present there in the places that I least expect, and always, in those places that are the most human. It’s these places and people that teach me to keep hoping, keep looking, and keep showing up, and that always stays with me.” 

Teaching Fellow

Liz Lin

Ph.D., Fuller Theological Seminary
B.A., University of Michigan

Liz is a Senior Fellow at Newbigin House of Studies and a writer and speaker on the topics of race and culture. She has a PhD in clinical psychology, as well as master’s degrees in psychology and theology, from Fuller Theological Seminary. Previously, she taught in Fuller’s Graduate School of Psychology and worked in high school ministry. She is also the co-founder of Progressive Asian American Christians, an online community of 5,000 people with local meetups in 17 cities, a podcast, an annual conference, and a 9-month fellowship program.

Teaching Fellow

D.L. Mayfield

D.L. Mayfield lives and writes on the outskirts of Portland, OR, with her husband and two children. Her first book of essays, Assimilate or Go Home: Notes from a Failed Missionary on Rediscovering Faith was released by HarperOne in 2016. Her second book, The Myth of the American Dream: Reflections on Affluence, Autonomy, Safety, and Power was released in May of 2020. Her writing has appeared in a variety of places, including McSweeney’s, Christianity Today, Sojourners, the Washington Post, Image Journal, The Christian Century, and many more. Since 2008, she has taught English to speakers of other languages, specializing in working with non-literate communities. She is trying very hard to be a good neighbor in an unjust and inequitable world. You can learn more about D.L. on her website, Instagram, or Twitter.

Teaching Fellow

Riana Shaw Robinson

Rev. Riana Shaw Robinson is a pastor,  preacher, and prophet. Riana is passionate about speaking the truth (in love) and offering invitations for people to love God, self, and neighbor.

Riana recently served as the Associate Pastor of Formation and Oakland City Church where she spearheaded efforts to help the community live more deeply into its anti-racist values. She expanded the church’s community partnerships and commitment to solidarity with marginalized communities in Oakland.

Riana is ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Reformed Church in America. She holds a Masters of Divinity from Pacific School of Religion and a B.A. in Ethnic Studies from Mills College. Before stepping into vocational ministry, Riana worked at non-profits focused on racial, social, and environmental justice.

Riana is an East Bay native and currently lives in Oakland with her husband, 10-year-old son, and four-year-old twins. She is extremely proud of her oldest daughter, who is a recent graduate of Howard University.

Teaching Fellow

Julie Rodgers

Julie is a Teaching Fellow at the Faith and Justice Network and a writer and speaker on faith and sexuality. She has a Masters in English from the University of Dallas and she’s written about topics related to LGBTQ Christians in The New York Times and Washington Post, among other publications. Previously, Julie served in the Chaplain’s Office at Wheaton College and worked in high school ministry in West Dallas. She is the author of Outlove: A Queer Christian Survival Story.

Teaching Fellow

Shirin Shafaie

Ph.D., SOAS, University of London

Dr Shirin Shafaie studied Philosophy (BA) and Philosophy of Art (MA) in Iran, and Middle East Politics (MSc), and Film and TV (MA) in the UK. She completed her doctoral research on ‘Contemporary Iranian War Narratives: A Dialectical Discourse Analysis’ at SOAS, University of London, where she has taught Middle East Politics to post-graduate students. She is a research fellow at the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies (CMCS) in Oxford where she has worked as a member of the research group on ‘Reading the Bible in the Context of Islam’ and is currently writing a monograph on ‘Reading Gen. 37- 50 in conversation with Shia Islam’ focusing on topics such as Genealogy, Nation-Building, Dream and Interpretation, Seduction, Imprisonment, Leadership, amongst others. Shirin is also the founder and director of Visual Academics Ltd., an independent film production and training organisation that helps academics to use video as part of their research to increase impact and improve public engagement.

Scholar in Residence

Devin Singh

Devin is Associate Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College, where he teaches courses in religion in the West, philosophy of religion, ethics, organizational dynamics, and the connections among religion, economics, and politics. He is also faculty associate in Dartmouth’s Consortium of Studies in Race, Migration, and Sexuality. He has been a guest lecturer at Tuck School of Business, and has also held positions at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Devin received his PhD from Yale, MA from University of Chicago, MDiv from Trinity Divinity School, and BA from Pomona College.

He is the author of Divine Currency: The Theological Power of Money in the West, which examines the influential connections between Christianity and economics, and uncovers roots to money’s power today. His work has been nationally and internationally recognized, and has appeared in periodicals such as Time, Washington Post, Huffington Post, and Patheos, and journals such as Harvard Theological Review, Political Theology, Journal of Religious Ethics, and Telos. Devin is currently at work on a second book, for Harvard University Press, on religion and debt.

Ever passionate about people development, personal growth, mentorship, and training, Devin is also founder and president at Leadership Kinetics, LLC, which partners with individuals and organizations to provide critically informed leadership development, coaching, and training, drawing on insights from the humanities and social sciences.

Devin lives in New Hampshire with his family, and—when he’s not stuck reading or writing—enjoys gardening, cooking, running, and practicing martial arts.