Research Faculty & Visiting Minister


(photos: left to right, Rev. Dr. Alicia McNary Forsey, Dr. Clare Benedicks Fischer, Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock, Dr. Amina Wadud and Rev. Sean Parker Dennison)

Research Professor of Historical Studies

Alicia McNary Forsey

B.A. San Francisco State University
M.Div. Starr King School for the Ministry
Ph.D. The Union Institute

A lifelong Unitarian Universalist and a Starr King graduate, the Rev. Dr. Forsey holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies with an emphasis on Unitarian History. She conducts research on the movement's history, Humanism, the Radical Reformation and related subjects. She is the chair of the Unitarian Universalist Scholars' Panel, an associate faculty member of the Humanist Institute and a trustee of the Church of the Larger Fellowship. The Rev. Dr. Forsey is currently working on a book documenting 16th century cross-cultural influences between Queen Isabella Sforza Zapolya and Sultan Suleyman of the Ottoman Empire.

Dr. Fischer served as Starr King School's Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Professor of Religion and Culture from 1981 to 2005, focusing her teaching and research on the question of religion and moral community.

She has written and published on feminism and work, and created a major bibliography about women in religion entitled, "Of Spirituality: A Feminist Perspective." Her latest project is a book about 20th century mystic Simone Weil and her social philosophy of "otherness." Fischer also works on questions of civil society in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia.

In 2005, the Graduate Theological Union honored her with the Sarlo Award for Excellence in Teaching, noting her exemplary commitment to interdisciplinary and interreligious teaching methods.

Visiting Scholars

Rita Nakashima Brock

B.A. Chapman College
Ph.D. Claremont Graduate School

Dr. Brock is the founding co-director of Faith Voices for the Common Good (www.faithvoices.org), an organization dedicated to creating a nationwide community of conscience. She was a Fellow at the Harvard Divinity School Center for Values in Public Life, directed the Fellowship Program at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and taught religion and women's studies at a number of colleges and universities.

Dr. Brock is the author of "Journeys By Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power" and co-author, with Susan Thistlethwaite, of "Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States."

She and Starr King President Rebecca Parker published "Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us" in 2002 and are currently at work on "Saving Paradise," an investigation of early Christian ideas of paradise, holy war and violence.

Glenna Matthews

B.A. San Jose State University
M.A. Stanford University
Ph.D. Stanford University

Dr. Matthews taught American history at Oklahoma State University for 20 years. Since returning to California, where she was born, has been a visiting associate professor of history at UC Berkeley, Stanford University, UCLA, UC Irvine, and UC Davis. In 2006, she taught a mini-course at Starr King.

Dr. Matthews is the author of five books about U.S. women's history, as well as nearly 20 articles, and has received fellowships from ACLS and the National Endowment for the Humanities for her work.

She first became acquainted with Thomas Starr King when she curated an exhibiton on the history of San Francisco for that city's public library. As a result, she's now doing research for a scholarly biography of King.

Susanne Scholz

B.A. (equivalent) University of Mainz, Germany
M.Div. (equivalent) University of Heidelberg, Germany
S.T.M. Union Theological Seminary
M.Phil. Union Theological Seminary
Ph.D. Union Theological Seminary

Dr. Scholz has taught at Union Theological Seminary, Fordham University, the College of Wooster, Merrimack College, and the Graduate Theological Union’s summer session program. She is currently preparing a manuscript on rape in the Hebrew Bible and in the planning stage for a book on biblical hermeneutics in contemporary Western societies. She is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, American Academy of Religion, European Society of Women in Theological Research (chairing the North American section), and the Catholic Biblical Association. Dr. Scholz is the author of two books: "Introducing the Women’s Hebrew Bible" (forthcoming in 2007) and "Rape Plots: A Feminist Cultural Study of Genesis 34" (2000). She served as editor of "Biblical Studies Alternatively: An Introductory Reader" (2003) and co-editor, with Katharina von Kellenbach, of "Zwischenräume: Deutsche feministische Theologinnen im Ausland" (2000).

Amina Wadud

B.S. University of Pennsylvania
M.A. University of Michigan
Ph.D. University of Michigan

Dr. Wadud, who specializes in Islam, gender and Qur'anic studies, taught at the Religious Studies Program at Virginia Commonwealth University and the International Islamic University in Malaysia. Her background also includes advanced Arabic studies at American University in Cairo.

She's the author of “Inside the Gender Jihad: Reform in Islam”; “Introduction to Islam: A Reader”; and “Qur’an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective.” 

Her current research focuses on gender as a category of thought in Islamic intellectual history and development, with a particular focus on Islamic ethics and gender.

Visiting Minister, Spring 2007

Sean Parker Dennison

B.S., Iowa State University
M.Div., Starr King School for the Ministry

The Rev. Sean Parker Dennison currently serves as minister of the South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society, a growing congregation in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has served as chair of the association's Journey Toward Wholeness Transformation Committee, as secretary of the Mountain Desert District Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association, and currently serves on the Starr King board of trustees. He speaks regularly in the Salt Lake Valley and to Unitarian Universalists about his experiences as a transgender man and minister. Visit his blog.

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