DR. CAROLYN MEDINE is the inaugural All Shall Be Well Professor in Religion and the Director of the Institute for African American Studies. Her research interests are in Arts, Literature, and Literature, particularly in Southern and African American women's religious experience. She has written extensively on Toni Morrison, Harper Lee, and others. Dr. Medine's research interests also include religion and politics, theory from the classical to the postmodern, and the intersection of classical and modern literature. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia and teaches courses on Religion and Literature, African American Religions and Literatures, Religious Theory and Thought, and Women's Spirituality and Writings.

Dr. Robert Foster is Senior Lecturer in Religion and New Testament at the University of Georgia, where he has taught since 2013.  Prior to coming to UGA, Foster taught at Abilene Christian University, Southern Methodist University, and Texas Christian University.  His research and writings cover material in both the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible, including Wrestling with God and World: The Struggle for Justice in the Biblical Tradition (Journey Publications, 2013) and We Have Heard, O Lord: An Introduction to the Theology of the Psalter (Fortress Academic Press, 2019). His latest work The Theology of the Books of Haggai and Zechariah (Cambridge University Press, 2020) focuses on the theological message of each book and their implications for modern, ethical concerns.  He is currently writing the commentary on the Gospel of Mark for the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Series (Society of Biblical Literature Publications). He also serves on the editorial board for the journal Horizons in Biblical Theology.

Dr. Foster teaches introductory courses in religion and New Testament as well as upper-level New Testament courses including Jesus, Life and Letters of Paul, Apocalyptic Literature, and the New Testament World.  His research interests include biblical theology, biblical interpretation, comparative religious ethics, and Christianity and racial justice.  He is a fellow in the UGA Center for Social Justice, Human and Civil Rights and was the recipient of the UGA Black Male Leadership Society Faculty Member of the Year award for 2015-2016. He is active within the Athens community and North Georgia in partnerships focused on racial justice and the rights of undocumented immigrants. 

Nanette R. Spina

Associate Professor, Religious Studies, South Asia

Faculty, Department of Religion and Centre for Asian Studies

University of Georgia

Dr. Spina’s research areas include religious traditions in India, Sri Lanka, and North America. Her research is interdisciplinary, engaged with South Asian studies, and sub-disciplines including Indian Philosophy, Sociology, and the Anthropology of Religion. She utilizes historical and social scientific research methods and has conducted field studies in the US, Canada, and South Asia with Hindu and Buddhist communities. Her current research explores transcultural theory, and transnational studies in religion at the intersection of religion, migration and gender. Her academic interests include religion, culture, and identity, text and context, authority and gender, and Hindu temples/ritual. Dr. Spina teaches in both graduate and undergraduate programs in the Religion Department. She supervises student projects in qualitative and quantitative research and is an affiliate faculty member for the Qualitative Research Studies Certificate program at UGA. 

Dr. Spina served as Unit Co-Chair for the AAR Religion & Migration Unit (2018-2025).

Links to her books are included in the section below: 

Monograph: “Women’s Authority and Leadership in a Hindu Goddess Tradition,” New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.  

Co-edited volume: "Gendered Agency in Transcultural Hinduism and Buddhism," London: Routledge, 2024.

Wayne Coppins is Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Georgia, where he has taught since 2007. His current research and teaching interests are focused on the Synoptic Gospels, as well as topics related to the intersection between German-language and English-language scholarship. Graduate students wishing to work on the Synoptic Gospels are especially welcome to apply. 

Dr. Coppins' scholarly work can be divided into three main phases. 

In the third, current phase of his scholarship (2024-present), Dr. Coppins is continuing his work of promoting and facilitating scholarly communication between German-language and English-language scholarship. With Jacob Cerone, he is co-editing a new open access journal titled Accessible German New Testament Scholarship (AGNTS), which they launched on Sept 23, 2025. He is also currently translating a collection of Ruben Zimmermann's essays on miracles. 

In the second phase of his scholarship (2013-2023), Dr. Coppins especially contributed to the field through his creation and development of the academic book series Baylor-Mohr Siebeck Studies in Early Christianity, which he co-edited with Prof. Simon Gathercole and for which he was the principal translator. The ten volumes published in the series are J. Schröter, From Jesus to the New Testament (2013), M. Konradt, Israel, Church, and the Gentiles in the Gospel of Matthew (2014), C. Markschies, Christian Theology and its Institutions in the Early Roman Empire (2015), M. Wolter, The Gospel According to Luke (2 volumes; 2016/2017), J. Frey, The Glory of the Crucified One (2018), M. Hengel and A.M. Schwemer, Jesus and Judaism (2019), E.-M. Becker, Paul on Humility (2020), O. Wischmeyer, Love as Agape (2021), and M. Konradt, Christology, Torah, and Ethics in the Gospel of Matthew (2022). Outside of the BMSEC series, Dr. Coppins also translated three additional books in this phase of scholarship, namely, J. Schröter, Jesus of Nazareth (2014; Link); J. Schröter, The Apocryphal Gospels (2021; Link); and F. C. Baur, The Christ Party in the Corinthian Community, the Opposition between Petrine and Pauline Christianity in the Earliest Church, the Apostle Peter in Rome (2021; Link); as well as book chapters by O. Wischmeyer (PDF; PDF) and P. Stuhlmacher (PDF). 

In the first phase of his scholarship (2009-2012), Dr. Coppins contributed especially to the study of freedom in the New Testament and the interpretation of 1 Corinthians. His publications from this phase included his book The Interpretation of Freedom in the Letters of Paul: With Special Reference to the 'German' Tradition. WUNT II/261. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2009 (paperback; online; reviews); his journal articles “Doing Justice to the Two Perspectives of 1 Corinthians 15:1-11.” Neotestamentica 44 (2010): 282-291 (online), “To Eat or Not to Eat Meat: Conversion, Bodily Practice, and the Relationship between Formal Worship and Everyday Life in the Anthropology of Religion and 1 Corinthians 8:7.” Biblical Theology Bulletin 41 (2011): 84-91 (Link), “Paul’s Juxtaposition of Freedom and Positive Servitude in 1 Corinthians 9:19 and Its Reception by Martin Luther and Gerhard Ebeling.” Lutherjahrbuch 78 (2011): 277-298 (Link), and “Sitting on Two Asses?: Second Thoughts on the Two-Animal Interpretation of Matthew 21:7.” Tyndale Bulletin 63 (2012): 275-290 (online; PDF); his encyclopedia articles on freedom in the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (vol. 9, pp. 675-677) and The Oxford Encyclopedia of Bible and Ethics (vol. 1, pp. 313-318); his translations of four articles by or about Martin Hengel (Link); and his RBL reviews of books by Jochen Flebbe, Gerd Theissen, and Ernst Käsemann (Link).

For further information about Dr. Coppins, please see his blog https://germanforneutestamentler.com.