DEAN NAMED 2024 BSIR DISTINGUISHED FELLOW

Rev. Dr. Loida I. Martell, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean and Professor of Constructive Theology, has been named a Baptist Scholars International Roundtable (BSIR) Distinguished Fellow for 2024.

The BSIR promotes scholarship from Baptist perspectives across the ages and around the globe by facilitating a scholarly forum for the exchange of ideas. Each year, scholars and fellows have an opportunity to engage with a senior scholar. The Distinguished Fellow presents an opening keynote on the chosen theme and serves as an Integrative Commentator at the conclusion of the Roundtable.

“It is an honor to be chosen to be the 2024 Roundtable Distinguished Fellow, following a long line of senior scholars and theologians such as Dr. George Pillay, Dr. Paul Fiddes, and Rev. Dr. Karen Smith,” said Dr. Martell. “I am grateful to Roundtable Co-Directors and Fellows Dr. João Chaves, Assistant Professor of the History of the Americas, and Dr. T. Laine Scales, Professor of Social Work at Baylor University, for extending this invitation. It is with great pride that I represent Lexington Theological Seminary and American Baptist Churches/USA as a scholar. I look forward to a rich dialogue on how Baptists, and indeed the Church, should understand missions in a globalized world.”

The 2024 Baptist Scholars International Roundtable will take place Aug. 4-7, 2024, at Christ Church, University of Oxford. The theme will be “Baptists and Global Missions.”

Read more here. You can sent a note of congratulations to Dr. Martell at Lexington Theological Seminary, 230 Lexington Green Circle, Suite 300, Lexington, KY 40503 or email her.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Scholars from a broad array of disciplines are invited to respond to the Call for Proposals for the 2024 BSIR conference. They are asked to consider how Baptists worldwide have thought about missions and engaged in missionary work – as well as how locals of different backgrounds appropriated, resisted, and/or disseminated the message and work of Baptist missionaries. The conference conveners are particularly interested in approaches centered around Baptist groups outside the United States and Europe, even if such groups are studied in relation to Baptists in the West. Proposals will be selected based on the quality and clarity of the proposal content, the relationship of the paper to the conference theme, and publication potential. Lodging and meals are provided, and accepted scholars receive assistance with travel costs. For more information, read the guidelines here.