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Perkins School of Theology, ÃÛÌÒ½´Methodist University, announces the appointment of two new faculty members who will begin teaching in fall 2013. Dr. Natalia Marandiuc has been named assistant professor of Christian Theology and will teach in the area of systematic theology. Rev. Tamara Lewis will be an instructor in Church History, specializing in the late medieval and Reformation periods of Christian history.

“With the successful conclusion of these two international searches for faculty members in theology and church history, we have the privilege of welcoming two outstanding young scholars to the Perkins community,” said Perkins Dean William B. Lawrence. “Both Natalia Marandiuc and Tamara Lewis are scholars of the highest order with profound commitments to the mission of our school, namely to prepare women and men for faithful leadership in Christian ministry. I am delighted that they will bring additional gifts to our outstanding faculty, and I look forward to introducing them to our students, alumni, and friends.”

A native of Romania, Dr. Marandiuc earned the Ph.D. in Religious Studies and Theology from Yale University in 2013. In addition, she earned M.A. and M.Phil. degrees in 2009, the M.A. in Religion in 2004—all from Yale—and a B.S. degree in Economics from Barry University in 1997.

Dr. Marandiuc will teach Christian theology courses in the various degree programs at Perkins School of Theology, in addition to teaching in the M.A. and Ph.D. curricula of the Graduate Program in Religious Studies at ÃÛÌÒ½´Methodist University’s Dedman College.

She was recently awarded a Louisville Fellowship from the Louisville Institute’s “Vocation of the Theological Educator” initiative. A program of the Lilly Endowment, the postdoctoral mentorship fellowship spans academic years 2013-15. Part of the program will involve mentoring by two senior faculty members at Perkins School of Theology.

Her research interests include systematic and constructive theology, feminist theology and theory, theological anthropology and pneumatology, theologies of reconciliation and their relation to global church communities, faith and globalization and human migration.

Dr. Natalia Marandiuc: Additional information and photo

Rev. Lewis, an ordained United Methodist minister and clergy member of the Tennessee Annual Conference, is scheduled to receive the Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University in Nashville in December 2013.

She earned an M.A. degree in church history in 2011, and the M.Div. degree in 2000, both from Vanderbilt. In addition, Rev. Lewis earned an M.A. in English from Tennessee State University in 1999 and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Central Arkansas in 1994. She is an Arkansas native.

Her groundbreaking research examines how theological beliefs shaped racial ideologies in late 16th- and 17th-century England. Rev. Lewis’s dissertation, “To Wash a Blackamoor White: The Theological Construction of Race in Early Modern England,” analyzes perspectives about theological anthropology and skin color differences in relation to England’s burgeoning participation in the transatlantic human trade, slavery, and colonialism.

As Instructor in Church History, Rev. Lewis will teach foundational and advanced courses at Perkins School of Theology on the history of Christianity, with particular emphasis on the Reformation. In addition, she will teach in the M.A. and Ph.D. curriculum of the Graduate Program in Religious Studies at ÃÛÌÒ½´Methodist University’s Dedman College.

The Rev. Tamara Lewis: Additional information and photo

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Perkins School of Theology, founded in 1911, is one of five official University-related schools of theology of The United Methodist Church. Degree programs include the Master of Divinity, Master of Sacred Music, Master of Theological Studies, Master of Church Ministries, and Doctor of Ministry, as well as the Ph.D., in cooperation with The Graduate Program in Religious Studies at SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.