Religion & Philosophy Faculty
Full-time Faculty
Janet R. Nelson
Professor and Head of the Department of Religion and Philosophy.
Dr. Nelson teaches courses in religious ethics and social issues, biomedical ethics,
ethics of love and justice and the psychology of religion. She has published articles on ethics and mental health in the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics and the Clergy Journal. Her recent research focuses on the work of theologians Walter Rauschenbusch and Reinhold Niebuhr and their significance to 21st century economics. Dr. Nelson is the program coordinator for the interdisciplinary minor in Ethics and the Public Interest. She is also Director of the Meredith Center for Women, Ethics and Public Life.
Degrees Held: B.F.A. Emerson College; M.A. University of South Florida; Ph.D. Syracuse University.
Contact: Joyner 209, (919) 760-8326, NelsonJ@meredith.edu
Steven Benko
Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy
Dr. Benko teaches courses in ethics, religious ethics, business ethics, theories of religion, and world religions. His interests include the intersection of technology and religion, popular culture and religion, comedy and religion, and philosophy of religion.
Degrees Held: B.A. Loyola University; M.A. and Ph.D. Syracuse University
Contact: Joyner 209A, (919) 760-8801, benkos@meredith.edu
Shannon Grimes
Assistant Professor of Religion & Philosophy
Dr. Grimes joined the Department of Religion & Philosophy in Fall 2006. She teaches courses in biblical studies, early Christianity, world religions, and environmental ethics. Her research interest include religion and philosophy in the Greco-Roman period and late antiquity; religious views of nature and the cosmos; and categorizations of magic, science, and religion. Her current research projects focus on alchemy and astronomy in antiquity, and the ways in which these sciences have sparked the religious imagination. Dr. Grimes is also the faculty advisor for the Meredith chapter of Theta Alpha Kappa, the national honor society for religious studies.
Degrees Held: B.A., University of Puget Sound; M.A., California Institute of Integral Studies; M.Phil. and Ph.D., Syracuse University
Contact: Joyner 206, (919) 760-8749, GrimesSh@meredith.edu
Margarita M. W. Suárez, Ph. D.
Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy
Margarita Suarez joined the Meredith faculty in 2001 and received tenure in 2008. Her area of concentration is religion and culture, specializing in contextual concerns within global liberation theologies. Her dissertation, "’Hasta la Victoria Siempre’: Birthing Cuban Feminist Theology,” is an ethnographic view into the lives and religious thought of three Cuban women –pastor/theologians.
Dr. Suarez is faculty advisor for Spectrum, Meredith’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Friends student group and the new Jewish Student’s Organization.
The Dr. Suarez teaches courses in historical and contemporary Christianity including: global liberation theologies, women in Christianity, and Christian Theology and courses in religion and culture: Anthropology of Religion and Religions in the United States. Her most recent publication is the article, “Cubana/os,” in the Handbook on Latino/a Theologies. Edited by Edwin David Aponte and Miguel A. De La Torre. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2006.
Her current research interests are the variety of religious expression in Cuba and the use of ethnographic research methodologies within religious scholarship.
Degrees Held: B.A., Fordham University; M.Div., Harvard Divinity School; Ph.D., Northwestern University
Contact: Joyner 208, (919) 760-8063, SuarezM@meredith.edu
Robert L. Vance
Professor of Religion and Philosophy
Dr. Vance teaches courses in philosophy (Introduction to Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Critical Thinking, Problem of Evil) and religion (Theology, Philosophy of Religion). His academic interests lie in 19th and 20th century religious thought. His publications include the book, Sin and Self-Consciousness in the Thought of Schleiermacher. He is currently engaged in research that links the fields of philosophy of mind and moral development.
Degrees Held: B.A., Davidson College; M.Div., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; Ph.D., Emory University
Contact: Joyner 204, (919) 760-8313, vanceb@meredith.edu
Adjunct Faculty
Dr. Tammerie Day
Dr. Day teaches courses in religious ethics and social issues at Meredith, and has taught constructive and liberative theologies. Her interests include the intersection of justice and religion, particularly with regard to issues of racism and white privilege; Latina feminist theologies; feminist epistemologies; and gender theory.
Degrees held: B.J. University of Texas at Austin; M.Div. Brite Divinity School; Ph.D. Southern Methodist University.
Contact: Joyner 201E, 214-676-7062, tammerie@meredith.edu
Ms. Rebekah Velazquez
Degrees held:
Contact: Joyner 201E, (919) 760-8826, velazque@meredith.edu
