Contributing Artists & Scholars

July 24, 2009

After reviewing an impressive stack of entries, we’re excited to announce our participating artists and scholars. We’re overjoyed at the diversity and expertise of our contributors.

  • Trey Allen serves as Director of Spiritual Formation at Sugar Land First United Methodist Church. Though neither artist or academic, he attempts to be both through preaching, his ultimate passion. He currently resides in Houston, TX, with his wife, Erin, and his Walter Brueggemann books.
    • Trey will present “Romans 12:1-2 A Call and Guide for Artists within a Community”
  • Julie Clawson is a writer, mother, and former church planting pastor who currently lives with her family in Austin, TX.  She is involved in the Emergent church transformerconversation where she has found the opportunity to explore how theology impacts everyday living.  She is the author of Everyday Justice (IVP 2009) and blogs at http://julieclawson.com.
    • Julie will present “This Is My Body – Nourishment, Sustainability, and Sacrifice as Response to Eucharist.”
  • Dr. Jeff Dueck serves as Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Mount Ida College in Newton, MA, where he teaches courses in Ethics, Epistemology, and Aesthetics, among others. His interest in Christian studies has been inspired not only by his work in academia but his service in ministry positions involving worship, teaching, and the arts.
    • Jeff will present “The Imagination of Faith ‘As If’”
  • Dr. Dena Davis Freed is a theatre scholar, artist, and educator currently working in youth theatre, religious education, performance studies, and performing arts education. Her interests include theatre pedagogy and practice, the construction of childhood, theatre for social change, and relationships between religious education/practice and the arts.
    • Dena will present “What if Jesus Had Used the Forum Theatre of Augusto Boal?”
  • Kevin Meaux teaches at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. His writing has received numerous awards, including a Ruth Lilly Fellowship and a Louisiana Division of the Arts Artist Fellowship. His poems have appeared in such journals as The Southern Review, Poetry, and Shenandoah. He won the 2004 Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize for his collection of poetry Myths of Electricity (Texas Review Press).
    • Kevin will read and discuss a selection of recent poems.
  • Joshua Meier is a multi-disciplinary artist who currently resides in Claremore, OK.  His work is primarily concerned with the human condition and deals in matters of creation/destruction, communication, redemption, meaning in absurdity, and futility.
    • Joshua will present his installation titled “A Cabinet to Hold the Memory of a Tree” as well as a collection of recent photographic images.
  • Matt Recla is a PhD student in Religious Studies at the University of California – Santa Barbara . He studies the Roman Empire and Early Christianity. His areas of interest are in questions of Christian identity, particularly in relation to martyrdom and violence.
    • Matt will present “Holding the Body as Living Sacrifice: Imitatio Christi in the Postmodern Age.”
  • Dr. Mark Tazelaar serves as Professor of Philosophy at Dordt College in Sioux Center, IA, where he has taught for twelve years. His specialization is in Kierkegaard and contemporary French and German philosophy.
    • Mark will present “To Be the Deeply Defeated by Ever Greater Things: Hebrews 12 in Light of Delacroix and His Painting Jacob Wrestling with the Angel.”
  • Thomas Turner is the Editor, Literary Arts of GENERATE Magazine, blogs at Everyday Liturgy, and is the cohort leader of EmergentNJ.  He lives in NJ with his wife Sarah and worships at The Plant Church.  He studied English and Bible at Philadelphia Biblical University and has a MA English from Rutgers University.
    • Thomas will present his paper “When is Marriage Really Divorce?: Marriage as a Little Church in a Post-Christian Society”
  • David Versluis has been teaching graphic design and art at Dordt College in Sioux Center, IA, since 2001. Versluis studied art at Calvin College (BFA degree) and Western Michigan University (MFA degree). He is a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA).
    • David will present his recent typographic images exploring our relationship with God.

Check out our other Matter ‘09 Presenters