Dr. Jina Kang Appointed to McCormick Faculty
09-09-2019
On May 2, 2019 the McCormick Theological Seminary Board of Trustees approved faculty appointment of Dr. Jina Kang to a tenure-track faculty position of Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Dr. Kang will begin her service with McCormick's on July 1, 2019.
“Dr. Kang brings extraordinary gifts to McCormick,” says President David Crawford, and adds: “She is an engaging lecturer and teacher. Her scholarship is profound and personal, revealing and relevant. We are delighted that Dr. Kang has accepted this appointment and we are excited to welcome her to the McCormick family.”
Currently, Dr. Kang teaches at Loyola Marymount University as a postdoctoral faculty fellow. At Loyola Marymount, she has also served on their faculty as a visiting assistant professor and a lecturer.
In 2017, Dr. Kang earned a Ph.D. in Theology with a major in Old Testament from Fuller Theological Seminary, passing with distinction. She was awarded her M.Div. from Fuller in 2007 and a B.A. in Development Studies from University of California-Berkeley in 2004.
Dr. Kang has published an essay on the “Bible in Korean Resistance against the Japanese Empire (1910-1945)" in the Oxford Handbook of Postcolonial Biblical Criticism (2018). She is in the process now of revising for publication her dissertation, “Bokeumjali in Exile: Transnational Readings of Ezekiel 40-48 and Sa-I-Gu.”
Dr. Kang holds membership in the Society for Biblical Literature (SBL) and has presented at five annual SBL meetings. She has also given over 11 presentations at colleges, churches, and two Catholic dioceses within metropolitan Los Angeles. She served as a youth pastor at the Oriental Mission Church where she served as the director of middle school ministries.
After having her revised dissertation published, Dr. Kang next research project will study the prohibition of exogamous marriage in Ezra 9-10 and Nehemiah 13 as an issue in the negotiation of “communal and national identities” by the exiled Israelites who were returning to Jerusalem. By navigating between the ancient context and contemporary reading of these texts, she hopes to “gain critical insights into these issues by exploring the experiences of Korean women who had mixed-race children with American soldiers during the Korean War.”
Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Steed Davidson says, “Dr. Kang possesses a profound commitment to teaching and clear calling to prepare women and men for ministry. As a Bible scholar, she brings expertise in her field from rhetorical criticism, migration studies, landscape analysis, and postcolonial studies. We are thrilled she has agreed to join McCormick. Dr. Kang will bring additional vital experiences, learnings and interpretations of the Old Testament for our students.”
