Virginia Commonwealth University’s College of Humanities and Sciences is pleased to announce the appointment of Samuel J. Kessler, Ph.D., as the Harry Lyons Chair in Judaic Studies and Meryl "Mimi" Winick, Ph.D., as the Powell-Edwards Chair for Religion and the Arts. 

“The study of religion is essential to understanding the complexities of our world. Drs. Kessler and Winick will offer profound insights into human history, culture, and values, fostering a deeper appreciation for the diversity of beliefs and practices that shape societies,” said Dean Catherine Ingrassia, Ph.D. “I look forward to welcoming them to campus and supporting their scholarship and teaching initiatives, knowing these hires will benefit our students who live in an increasingly multifaceted and interconnected global community.”

Kessler and Winick will join Andrew Chesnut, Ph.D., the Bishop Walter Sullivan Chair of Catholic Studies, and Andrew Crislip, Ph.D., the Blake Chair in the History of Christianity, in the creation of the Center for the Study of Global Religions and Spiritualities. The center will focus on the academic and transdisciplinary exploration of religion, spirituality, culture, history and identity.

The Harry Lyons Chair in Judaic Studies

Dr. Samuel J. Kessler is the incoming Harry Lyons Chair in Judaic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. His work focuses on the interaction of religion and modernity in European history and literature, and he writes on topics in Jewish history, history of science, travel writing, postmodern theory, Holocaust and American literature. He is the author of The First Modern Rabbi: The Life and Times of the Nineteenth-Century Scholar and Preacher Adolf Jellinek (Brown Judaic Studies, 2022) and co-editor of Modern Jewish Theology: The First One Hundred Years, 1835-1935 (JPS/Nebraska, 2023). He is currently editing the travel diary of James George Frazer and writing a book on modern midrash. He comes to VCU after having previously taught at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, and at Virginia Tech. 

The Harry Lyons Chair in Judaic Studies was established with gifts by Harry Lyons, DDS (DDS 1923, School of Dentistry) former dean of the VCU School of Dentistry, and supports the study of Judaism and university-sponsored programs on Judaic culture, ethics, history and tradition.

The Powell-Edwards Professorship for Religion and the Arts

Meryl "Mimi" Winick, Ph.D., is the incoming Powell-Edwards Professorship for Religion and the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. Winick was recently an American Council of Learned Societies Grantee which enabled her to advance her book project on late Victorian feminist theorists of religion and their invention of a secret history of feminist spirituality. Prior to that, she was a research associate in the Women’s Studies in Religion Program at Harvard Divinity School and an inaugural fellow on the Transcendence and Transformation initiative at Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of World Religions. Her essays on religion and literature have appeared in journals including MLQ, Nineteenth-Century Literature, and Modernism/modernity, and in edited collections such as “The Edinburgh Companion to Modernism, Myth, and Religion” (2023). Winick was also a selected participant in the New Museum (NYC) research and development seminar, "Speculation," and curated the exhibition, “Scholarly Collaboration for a Feminist New Age: Women Scholars at the Cambridge University Press” at Cambridge University Press (UK). She serves on the executive committee for the Anthropology and Literature Forum of the Modern Language Association and the editorial board for the Political Theology Network’s Literature & Political Theology symposia.

The Powell-Edwards Professorship for Religion and the Arts was established through generous gifts within the Religious Studies Program at VCU in 2008, and aims to foster serious inquiry into the relation of the world's diverse religions and spiritualities to the arts. It is named for emeritus professor of religious studies Cliff Edwards, Ph.D., and adjunct French instructor Marcia Powell. Powell and Edwards frequently collaborated on projects concerning religion and art.