Wilda Gafney
Ph.D. Candidate, Religion
Wilda Gafney has done more exploration intellectually and career-wise in the fourteen years following her college graduation than many people will take on in a lifetime. She’s currently a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Religion department, and her career at Duke has been filled with fellowship, so to speak—Gafney has been a James B. Duke Fellow, a Women’s Studies Fellow, and a Foundation for Theological Education Doctoral Fellow.
Like many graduate students, Gafney is not defined by that role. She is also an ordained Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, serves on the ministerial staff of the Kyles Temple A.M.E. Zion Church in Durham, and is the pastor and chaplain of the 3274th U.S. Army Hospital/Detachment 1, a Reserve Unit also located in Durham. “My involvement in the Durham community has given me an outsider’s view of Duke which complements and informs my insider’s perspective. I am perhaps more keenly aware of the University’s role as citizen and charge to serve the surrounding community in a number of ways. Responsible use of natural resources, providing living wages, a respectful and humane working environment, and benefits that reflect the dignity of employees come to mind,” says Gafney.
Gafney received a Bachelor’s in Biology from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, then worked as a research biologist for seven years. During this period she worked as a contract researcher for the Navy; Gafney explains that the issues she investigated as an immunologist included “using saliva to detect drugs of abuse, biological warfare defense, wound repair enhancement, and the development of a liposome encapsulate hemoglobin blood substitute.”
Her time as a biologist ended, Gafney says, when she “accepted a call into Christian ministry and received a Master’s of Divinity from the Howard University School of Divinity in 1997. At Howard, I became enchanted with Biblical Hebrew and began to pursue an academic vocation along with my ecclesiastical vocation.” She goes on to explain that “early in my ministry and in my seminary preparation I developed an appreciation for the seemingly inexhaustible areas of academic inquiry with regard to biblical texts: language and literature, context and culture.
“In my second career,” she says, “I researched one of the few oracles of a woman-prophet preserved with full attribution in the Hebrew Scriptures for a professor who was writing a commentary on that biblical book. I also began applying feminist, womanist, and liberationist critiques to religious texts, their interpreters, and institutions.” These interests are the background to the work she’s doing at Duke, where, Gafney says, “I am currently writing on the womenprophets of ancient Israel and the Ancient Near East. I have completed a certificate in Women’s Studies and am also interested in how women in religious communities interpret biblical texts for themselves.” Gafney is also a member of the Women’s Studies Graduate Scholars group.
The working title of Gafney’s dissertation is “And She Declared to Them ‘Thus Says the Lord, the God of Israel’: An Examination of Women-Prophets in Ancient Israel.” In explication of the title, she says that “a synopsis of a work in progress is by definition a risky undertaking. Some of the topics I hope to address include redefining prophecy; exploring the social, cultural, biological, reproductive, environmental, political, and military stimuli that prompted individuals to seek out women religious functionaries and intermediaries; analyzing the types of professional religious occupations women held and the ways in which they were rendered legitimate or illegitimate by the dominant cult; attributing some anonymous prophetic discourses to women-prophets and examining biblical and Ancient Near Eastern texts which refer to specific examples of women-prophets.”
Professor Carol Meyers chairs Gafney’s dissertation committee, which is only natural, considering the way Gafney was introduced to Duke’s program. According to Gafney, “One of my mentors, Roland Murphy, is a Professor Emeritus who first suggested that I work with Carol. I had already read her work and was interested in her social science, cultural anthropological and archaeological approaches to ancient Israel.” Her work with Professor Meyers, Gafney says, “has led me to focus on women beyond the biblical text instead of just focusing on those who are mentioned within it. My work with Professor Beth La Rocca-Pitts has led me to consider the ways in which societies exchange ideology and ritual.
“My first year was wonderful,” Gafney says of Duke. “It was so wonderful that I wondered about all of the stories I had heard about graduate school. My second year was much more challenging, learning to navigate my department. Most of the professors that I have studied with have been supportive, helpful in focusing my project, and willing to spend time and share resources. There are a few who have not been helpful, but some simply share different approaches, while one in particular does not believe that feminist inquiry is valid scholarship.” She goes on to say that the “other students in my field have been wonderful, particularly two who have now finished and share many of the commitments that I do. In particular the Reverend Dr. Madeline McClenney-Sadler, who also does feminist scholarship and who wrote her dissertation with Carol, has become one of my strongest bases of support.”
With several of her irons in different fires, Gafney concedes that “I do occasionally feel overwhelmed. By making time for all of the aspects of my life that are essential to me, I am able to maintain some balance. I block out time for my spiritual life, physical exercise, and lunch dates. I have also set a fairly rigid timetable for my program, with some flexibility. On a weekly or even monthly basis, I may be way off schedule, but at the end of every semester I have found that I accomplished my goals.” For example, she loves to dance, and has taken a dance course each semester she’s been at Duke. Gafney says she also loves “science fiction and vampire movies. And I’m rather fond of 70’s guitar rock.”
Once she finishes her dissertation and revises it into book form, Gafney wants to work on intertestamental and rabbinic literature. “I hope to teach in a divinity school at a university with a women’s studies department or program. And I plan to continue in pastoral ministry, both as a civilian pastor and an Army Reserve Chaplain. I will remember nostalgically all the time that I had as a graduate student to follow my own pursuits. It is a rare privilege to engage in the life of the mind,” she says.
Carol Meyers
Professor, Religion
Not long ago I had the occasion to introduce Wilda to a colleague of mine, and I referred to her as a graduate student. Later Wilda remarked to me that she is on her way to moving beyond that designation. She is a visiting member of the UNC-Chapel Hill faculty this semester, teaching the introductory Hebrew course. She is also immersed in the research that will result in her dissertation. In addition she contributes valuable expertise and energy to the Graduate Program in Religion by serving as a student representative to its governing bodies. In short, she is doing all the things that faculty do—teaching, research, service.
Few students begin their graduate programs as focused on what their ultimate project will be as did Wilda. Her interest in using methodologies from various disciplines to understand the prophetic roles of women in ancient Israel has been sustained and expanded as she has worked with me and other faculty in our program. She is clearly discovering new ways to investigate this aspect of an ancient culture; and, just as important, she is not afraid to challenge long-held positions.
(This profile originally appeared in the Spring 2002 issue of The GRIND.)