People

Alexiana Fry (she/her) is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen for the project “Divergent Views of Diaspora in Ancient Judaism.” She writes at the intersection of feminism, trauma, and migration studies. She defended her dissertation in 2021 from Stellenbosch University; this dissertation is scheduled to be published with T&T Clark’s LHBOTS series in 2026, entitled Defining the Sin of Gibeah: Trauma, Migration, and an Intertextual Reading of Judges 19 and Hosea. Her first book, Trauma Talks in the Hebrew Bible: Speech Act Theory and Trauma Hermeneutics, released in 2023 with Lexington Books, and her second book, Esther Keeps the Score: Trauma, Body, and Politics, also releases in 2026 with SCM Press. Fry is deeply committed to public scholarship, and has participated in a grant-funded training for scholars of gender, sexuality, and religion through Sacred Writes.

Sung Hyun Lee is Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology and Psychology at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, IN. She is the author of The Power of Mature Empathy: In Response to Sexual Violence in Faith Communities (PickWick, 2025), an ordained Methodist pastor, and a Korean immigrant feminist scholar. Her primary research focuses on the moral use of emotions, particularly empathy, in social activism, daily justice-seeking actions, and church life; Motherhood and its psychosocial and moral implications and practices; and decolonial practices for unlearning and undoing racism, linguicism, sexism, xenophobia, and many more. She is also committed to bringing marginalized voices and stories to the social, religious, institutional, and ethical discourses through various channels.

Sung Hyun Lee is a graduate of Drew University, Madison, NJ, for a PhD in Religion and Society with a graduate certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies. Before her PhD, we attended Emory University, Atlanta, GA, for a Master of Theological Studies, and of Methodist Theological University, Seoul, South Korea, for a B.A. and an M.Th. She is living with her spouse and a four-legged daughter in Mishawaka, IN, spending her extra time for contemplative prayers, attending to nature, and watching K-dramas and thriller movies.

Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi is Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Gender & Sexuality Studies at Vanderbilt University. An expert on sexual ethics, she uses unconventional readings of classical rabbinic text to study the ethics of sex and sexuality, disability, and neurodiversity. In her copious free time, she enjoys cooking unnecessarily complicated meals and sharpening her overly large collection of kitchen knives.

El/yse Ambrose, PhD (they/them)* is a blackqueer ethicist, artist, and educator whose research, art, and teaching lie at the intersections of blackness, sexuality, gender, and spiritualities/the religious/the sacred. Ambrose is the author of A Blackqueer Sexual Ethics: Embodiment, Possibility, and Living Archive and creator of the Black Trans Ethical World(un)making Lab. Ambrose is most recently the recipient of the Black August Arts Residency (Toronto, 2025 Cohorts). Their ongoing photo-sonic series, “Spirit in the Dark Body: Black Queer Expressions of the Im/material,” premiered during the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion at the L Street Fine Arts Gallery (San Diego, CA) and has shown with the House of Mark West (Bronx, NY)— one of the few black queer-owned galleries in the country. Their work has also shown in New York City and São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. 

Ambrose currently serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Black Study and the Department for the Study of Religion at University of California, Riverside. Their research has been supported by the Mellon Foundation and the Center for Ideas and Society at UC Riverside, the Louisville Institute for the Study of American Religion, the Forum for Theological Exploration, Columbia University’s Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics, and Social Justice, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Yale University LGBT Studies Fellowship, and the Center for Black, Brown, and Queer Studies (BBQ+). 

Ambrose’s work and commentary have been featured in the Huffington Post, the Christian Century’s podcast Contemplating Now, ForHarriet.com, Vice, and CBC Radio One’s Tapestry, as well as artistic venues as BMoreArt and Religious Studies Review.