# SLP Program Team ## expand\_more ## 2026 Teaching Staff ### Beatrice Chrystall ![Beatrice Crystall](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-03/B.%20Crystall%20Headshot%20square.jpg?itok=btkqvE_7) *Lecturer on Pali* Beatrice Chrystall has been teaching Pali at Harvard Divinity School, both during the academic year and at the Summer Language Program, since 2014. Before that she was teaching at Harvard’s Department of South Asian Studies, from where she also received her PhD. Her doctoral thesis, entitled “Connections without limit: The refiguring of the Buddha in the ‘Jinamahānidāna,’” was a study of a biography of the Buddha written in Pali in Thailand. The thesis examined the relations between literary form and ethics, and, as the *Jinamahānidāna* is a composite text, the role of intertextuality in Pali texts. Her particular interests are Buddhist narrative, ethics, literary traditions, language, and intertextuality. English by birth, she previously studied in Oxford and Paris. Beatrice very much enjoys creating a collegial and collaborative environment where students support each other’s learning in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. For her comments about the Summer Language Program, please see “[Separated in Flesh, Together in Spirit](/news/2020/08/12/summer-language-program-separated-flesh-together-spirit "'Separated in Flesh, Together in Spirit'").” Beatrice is also very interested in the pedagogy of learning languages, and in developing a range of teaching methods that will allow people of all levels of language-learning aptitude to thrive in and enjoy learning Pali. She is also preparing a new primer for first year Pali, and working on a translation of the *Jinamahānidāna*. ### Giovanni (Gio) DiRusso ![Gio D](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-04/Gio%20Formal%20Grad%20picture.jpg?itok=pFACY69R) *Lecturer on Coptic* Giovanni DiRusso is a PhD Candidate (ABD) in the Study of Religion at Harvard University and William R. Tyler Fellow in Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks. His research broadly examines the transmission of philosophy, theology, and narratives between Greek-, Syriac-, and Arabic-speaking Christian and Muslim communities in the long late antiquity. His dissertation, provisionally entitled “Modular Textuality: Variance, Reception, and the Apostolic Past in the Arabic Apocalypse of Peter,” combines computational, historical, and philological methods to theorize textual variance and re-use in one of the most popular Christian apocalyptic writings in Arabic. In addition to his core languages, Giovanni works heavily with Coptic, Ethiopic, and Latin, with particular attention to the applicability of digital methods and studies of translation technique and reception in these languages. ### Karin Grundler-Whitacre ![Karin Grundler-Whitacre](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/hds2/files/karin_grundler-whitacre.jpg?itok=vt6VGv_d) *Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, Director of the Summer Language Program, and Lecturer in German* Karin Grundler-Whitacre, a native of Germany, started her teaching career in German language and culture, pedagogy, and philology as a doctoral student at Brandeis University in 1995. She received her master’s degree in Women’s Studies and Comparative Literature and her doctoral degree in Interdisciplinary Literary Studies (with a concentration on modern German and American Jewish comparative literature) for her dissertation, entitled, “Islands in a Sea of Exile: The Life and Works of the Writer and Painter Barbara Honigmann” in 2002 from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. In 2004, Karin started to teach in the Summer Language Program at HDS. She has been teaching the SLP German every summer since 2004, and as of 2006 has been teaching first-year German translation courses during the academic year at HDS. With additional staff and administrative changes, Karin took on the administration of the regular-year language program and the language qualifying exams at HDS. She has been the director of the Summer Language program at HDS since 2009. Her teaching focuses on instructing students to learn how to read and translate German into English by using original texts, poems, newspaper reports, works by Paul Tillich, Karl Barth, Max Weber, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorthee Sölle, Argula von Grumbach, Immanuel Kant, Martin Luther, and others. Her classes also regularly visit the Harvard Divinity School Library to view originals and pamphlets dating from earlier centuries, including the Reformation era (1521), to learn how to read, interpret and translate Fraktur script. Her teaching method combines German culture, contemporary topics, history, “oddities,” film, food, holidays, and fun facts, as well as very little emphasis on grammar (or only as much as needed) to make encountering language patterns and methods of translation easily accessible to everyone in the class, even for less grammar-inclined students. ### Judy Haley *Lecturer on Intermediate New Testament Greek* Judy Haley has taught Greek and Latin as well as New Testament courses in a variety of settings in the Boston area, including Harvard Divinity School, the Summer Language Program at HDS, Andover Newton Theological School, and Lowell Catholic High School. Her classroom goals include helping students to gain tools they need for their work, emphasizing ancient language as a means for people to communicate across time, and building a supportive learning community. She continues to study advances in second language acquisition and the psychology of learning to strengthen her courses. ### Lana Neufeld ![Lana Neufeld](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/hds2/files/lana_neufeld.jpg?itok=aQsb5Akz) *Lecturer on Spanish* [lana\_neufeld@hds.harvard.edu](mailto:lana_neufeld@hds.harvard.edu) Lana has been with the SLP since 2018, first as a TF for five summers and then, starting in 2023, the primary instructor for SLP Spanish. She also serves as the instructor for HDS 4460 (Elementary Spanish Readings), 4463 (Intermediate Spanish Readings), and 4465 (Communications Skills for Spanish Ministry). In previous years, she has taught HDS 4464 (Advanced Spanish Readings) as well as served as a TF for various courses in FAS, including Spanish language and literature, British literature, and General Education courses. Her dissertation addressed the varied expressions of exile, diaspora, and belonging in Jewish literature from Latin America and Israel, and she includes representations of these, among other themes, in Spanish-language texts from across time periods, cultures, traditions, and regions of the Spanish-speaking world. Lana enjoys integrating students’ interests into course readings and discussions, broadening her own knowledge while incorporating students in both teaching and learning roles of the course. Her stated goal for each course is to establish an intimate classroom community where every person feels at ease, connected, and open to learning. ### Matthew Percuoco *Lecturer on Elementary Hebrew* Matthew Percuoco received his PhD in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament from Harvard University in 2022 and has since been serving as Adjunct Professor of Biblical Studies at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. He is the author of *The Nature and Function of the Samuel Conclusion: 2 Samuel 21–24 as Mise en Abyme* (Mohr Siebeck, forthcoming May 2026). Matthew’s research interests include narrative artistry in the book of Samuel, inner-Biblical allusion/intertextuality in the Hebrew Bible, and narrative analogy in the Hebrew Bible. Matthew is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and has served as an editorial assistant for the *Harvard Theological Review*. This is Matthew’s fourth year teaching for the SLP, and he is excited to be involved with it once again. ### James Skedros ![James Skedros](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/hds2/files/james_skedros.jpg?itok=BSS-k0FV) *Lecturer on Elementary New Testament Greek* James C. Skedros has taught Greek at both Harvard Divinity School and in its Summer Language Program since 2000. He received his ThD in the History of Christianity from Harvard Divinity School in 1996. He has taught at the Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley, California) and is the Michael G. and Anastasia Cantonis Professor of Byzantine Studies at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology (Brookline, Massachusetts). His writing and research areas include popular religious practices in Late Antiquity, Byzantine Christianity, the lives of early Christian and Byzantine saints, pilgrimage, and Christian-Muslim relations. He is a double recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, both for the study of Byzantine saints in Thessaloniki, Greece. ### Craig Tichelkamp *Lecturer on Christian Latin* Craig Tichelkamp has been involved with teaching Greek and Latin at HDS since 2014. His approach to language instruction focuses on both acquisition and learning, guiding students quickly from the study of grammar to a facility and familiarity with the language that can serve them in research and ministry. His current course offerings cover the history of scriptural interpretation among pre-modern Christians and their neighbors. In his classroom, students sample the range of interpretive possibilities that emerge from these traditions, which, while historically and theologically distinct, also mutually inform one another. In addition to teaching at HDS, Tichelkamp recently finished a doctoral dissertation, titled, “Experiencing the Word: Dionysian Mystical Theology in the Commentaries of Thomas Gallus (d.1246).” His translation and introduction to Gallus’s commentary on the Song of Songs is forthcoming in the Brepols series Victorine Texts in Translation. Both projects reflect Tichelkamp’s interests in Christian theology, history, literature, and pedagogy. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass. ### Pascale C. Torracinta ![Pascale Torracinta](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/hds2/files/pascale_torracinta.png?itok=e77qc0mU) *Lecturer on Theological French* [pascale\_torracinta@hds.harvard.edu](mailto:pascale_torracinta@hds.harvard.edu) A native of Geneva, Switzerland, Pascale Torracinta has been teaching French language, literature, and translation for more than 30 years, and has held appointments at the University of Geneva, at St. John’s College, Oxford, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. She has taught French at HDS since 2012. Pascale also works as a freelance academic and literary translator and is a regular contributor to the bilingual website La Vie des Idées/Books and Ideas (an online publication of the Collège de France) and other venues. --- ## Administration ![Karin Grundler-Whitacre](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/hds2/files/karin_grundler-whitacre.jpg?itok=vt6VGv_d) ### Karin Grundler-Whitacre *Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, Director of the Summer Language Program, and Lecturer in German* [*slp@hds.harvard.edu*](mailto:slp@hds.harvard.edu) Please see full bio above. ### Marlon Cummings ![Marlon Cummings](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/hds2/files/marlon_cummings.jpg?itok=RX92imbi) *Director of Faculty and Academic Support Services* Marlon has been in the Academic Affairs Office at Harvard Divinity School since 2017, the latest chapter in a long career in higher education, with roles at Boston College, the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard College, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences under his belt. Marlon oversees the budget and financial operations of the Summer Language Program. ### Kevin Chimo ![Kevin Chimo](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/hds2/files/kevin_chimo.jpg?itok=dDkno0Qf) *Programs and Faculty Grants Coordinator* Kevin joined the staff at Harvard Divinity School in November of 2022, transitioning from three years at Harvard Medical School, where he had worked as a faculty assistant. Prior to that, he was a bookseller at the Harvard Coop, where he was first introduced to the Divinity School, working at author events on campus for the store. He is much closer to his intellectual home here at the Divinity School, having taken a BA in History and Religious Studies at UMass. Kevin assists with the day-to-day operational administrative tasks that keep the Summer Language Program up and running.