Meet The Scholars
The 35 scholars of the Enhancing Life Project are an interdisciplinary and international group who will research, write, and teach on the enhancement of life in their specific disciplines, while working collaboratively to make all projects stronger. In various ways, they will tackle the two Big Questions of the Enhancing Life Project: 1) What does it mean to enhance life, including spiritual life? 2) Correlatively, what are the strategies, social mechanisms, and technologies that enable us to enhance life in its many dimensions and in measurable ways?
Pamela Sue Anderson
In Memoriam: 1955 - 2017
Professor of Modern European Philosophy of Religion, Fellow in Philosophy, Regent's Park College University of Oxford, Faculties of Philosophy and Theology
Oxford, United Kingdom
Maria Antonaccio
Presidential Professor of Religion
Bucknell University, Department of Religious Studies
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Sarah Bianchi
Post-Doctoral Fellow in Philosophy
Humboldt University, Department of Philosophy
Berlin, Germany
Andrea Bieler
Professor of Practical Theology
University of Basel
Basel, Switzerland
Menahem Blondheim
Professor of Communications, Head of Truman Institute, HU
Hebrew University, Departments of Communication and History
Jerusalem, Israel
Elizabeth Bucar
Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion
Northeastern University, Department of Philosophy and Religion
Boston, Massachusetts; United States of America
Nick Couldry
Professor Of Media, Communications and Social Theory
London School Of Economics and Political Science
London, United Kingdom
Kristine Culp
Associate Professor of Theology, Dean of the Disciples Divinity House of the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago, The Divinity School
Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Jason Danely
Senior Lecturer of Anthropology
Oxford Brookes University, Department of Anthropology
Oxford, England
Ruth Farrell
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Cleveland Clinic, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Bioethics
Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America
Jeffrey Haynes
Associate Dean of Faculty, Director of Research Centre
London Metropolitan University, Faculty of Social Sciences
London, United Kingdom
Michael Hogue
Professor of Theology
Meadville Lombard Theological School
Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Michael Ing
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Indiana University, Department of Religious Studies
Bloomington, Indiana; United States of America
Paul Dafydd Jones
Associate Professor of Religious Studies
University of Virginia, Department of Religious Studies
Charlottesville, Virginia; United States of America
Christoph Krönke
Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Assistant of Law
Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Institute of Public Policy and Law
Munich; Germany
Stephen Lakkis
Adjunct Associate Professor of Systematic Theology; Director, Center for Public Theology
Tainan Theological College and Seminary
Tainan, Taiwan
Michael Luchs
Associate Professor of Marketing; Director, Innovation and Design Studio
College of William & Mary, School of Business
Williamsburg, Virginia; United States of America
Karline McLain
Associate Professor of Religious Studies; Chair of Religious Studies Department
Bucknell University, Department of Religious Studies
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania; United States of America
Monique Mitchell
Director of Translational Research & Curriculum Development
The Dougy Center: The National Center for Grieving Children & Families
Portland, Oregon; United States of America
Anne Mocko
Assistant Professor of Religion
Concordia College, Department of Religion
Moorhead, Minnesota; United States of America
Alexander-Kenneth Nagel
Professor of Religious Studies
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Social Science Department
Göttingen, Germany
Matthew O’Hara
Associate Professor of History
University of California, Santa Cruz, Department of History
Santa Cruz, California; United States of America
Aasim Padela
Associate Professor of Medicine; Director, Initiative on Islam and Medicine
University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine
Chicago, Illinois; United States of America
Amit Pinchevski
Senior Lecturer of Communication and Journalism
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Communication and Journalism
Mount Scopus, Jerusalem; Israel
Barbara Rossing
Professor of New Testament
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Biblical Studies
Chicago, Illinois; United States of America
Sebastian Sattler
Research Assistant for Sociology and Social Psychology; Post-Doctoral Fellow, Cologne Graduate School in Management, Economics and Social Sciences (CGS)
University of Cologne, Institute for Sociology and Social Psychology
Cologne; Germany
William Schweiker
Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics
The University of Chicago, The Divinity School
Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Lea Schweitz
Associate Professor of Systematic Theology/Religion and Science; Director of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Department of Systematic Theology/Religion and Science
Chicago, Illinois; United States of America
Christopher Scott
Associate Director of Health Policy at the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas, United States of America
Nazar Shabila
Research Fellow of Public Health
Hawler Medical University, Department of Community Medicine
Erbil; Iraq
Daniel Sulmasy
Andre Hellegers Professor of Biomedical Ethics
Georgetown University
Washington, DC, United States of America
Günter Thomas
Professor of Systematic Theology and Ethics
Ruhr-University Bochum
Bochum, Germany
Nicole Vincent
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Law, and Neuroscience; Chief Investigator, Enhancing Responsibility Project
Georgia State University, Department of Philosophy
Atlanta, Georgia; United States of America
Martin Wendte
Privatdozent in Evangelical Theology
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Evangelisch-theologische Fakultät
Tübingen; Germany
Ruben Zimmermann
Professor of New Testament Studies
Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, New Testament
Mainz-Kostheim, Germany
Meet the Staff
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William Schweiker
Principal Investigator
William Schweiker is the Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of Chicago.
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Günter Thomas
Principal Investigator
Günter Thomas holds a chair for Theology specializing on Systematic Theology and Ethics at Ruhr-University Bochum / Germany.
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Sara Bigger
Associate Director
Sara Bigger directs budgetary activities, communications, public relations, and reporting for the Project and provides strategic oversight.
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Markus Höfner
Project Coordinator and Research Associate
Markus Höfner is research associate at Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, at the Faculty of Protestant Theology and managing research associate at the Institute for Hermeneutics and Philosophy of Religion, University of Zurich, Switzerland
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Heike Springhart
Research Associate and Project Consultant
Heike Springhart is Dean of Theologisches Studienhaus Heidelberg and Lecturer of Systematic Theology at Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg / Germany.
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Meet the Interlocutors
In order to strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration and to disseminate the work of The Enhancing Life Project, we invite “public interlocutors” who bring specific expertise in the spheres of media, religion, business, culture and the arts, to engage the members of the Project over a three-day period, at the end of each two-week residency seminar. Interactions with these interlocutors help to hone the scholars’ arguments and render them more cogent and publicly accessible.
2016
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Dean Bell
Dean P. Bell is Provost, Vice President, and Professor of History at Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership.
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Christian Chautard
Christian Chautard started his career supervising operations for two leading groups in the metallurgy industry.
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Evelyn Finger
Evelyn Finger is senior editor for the section “Glauben und Zweifeln” (“Believing and Doubting”) of DIE ZEIT, a leading German weekly newspaper.
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Gretchen Helfrich
Gretchen Helfrich is a lawyer based in Chicago, Illinois.
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Piet Naudé
Piet Naudé is Director of the University of Stellenbosch Business School in South Africa.
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Ellen Ueberschär
Ellen Ueberschär is minister of the United Church of Berlin- Brandenburg and has been working as General Secretary for the German Protestant Convention (Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag) since 2006.
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2015
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Greg Cootsona
Gregory Cootsona has taught comparative religion and humanities at Chico State University, California, USA since 2014.
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Ronne Hartfield
Ronne Hartfield is an author, essayist, and international museum consultant.
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Steve Kloehn
Steve Kloehn is vice president for Marketing and Communications at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
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Amy Northcutt
In Memoriam: 1959-2017
Amy Northcutt holds a JD from Boston College Law School, an MA from the University of Chicago Divinity School, and a BA from Smith College.
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Heike Springhart
Heike Springhart is Dean of Theologisches Studienhaus Heidelberg and Lecturer of Systematic Theology at Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg / Germany.
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Christian Wolff
Christian Wolff has been a Protestant minister since 1977, first in Western Germany (Mannheim), and then in Eastern Germany (Leipzig, Thomaskirche).
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