#  Past Yang Visiting Scholars 

 



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The Yang Visiting Scholars in World Christianity program brings distinguished senior and junior scholars of world Christianity to Harvard Divinity School each year, opening up fresh perspectives, particularly from the global south. The first cohort of Yang Visiting Scholars arrived in fall 2021.

## 2025-26 Yang Visiting Scholars

- **Ludovic Lado** is a Jesuit priest and associate professor of anthropology at CEFOD Business School in N'Djamena, Chad. He holds a doctorate in social and cultural anthropology from the University of Oxford (UK) and has previously taught at the Catholic University of Central Africa in Yaoundé (Cameroon) and the Jesuit University in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire). His research focuses on the intersection of religion and society in Africa, with a particular emphasis on African Catholicism. He has edited two volumes on medical and religious pluralism in sub-Saharan Africa and is the author of *The Politics of Gender Reforms in West Africa* (Notre Dame University Press, 2023). His current research critically examines the contributions of the social sciences to the study of African Catholicism. As a Yang Visiting Scholar at Harvard, he is exploring the role of dance in African Catholic worship as a distinctive lens for understanding embodiment and affect in African Christianity. (Read our interview with Lado about his [research and experience at HDS](https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2026/04/09/african-christianity-dance-lived-faith-conversation-yang-visiting-scholar).)
- **Xi Lian** is the David C. Steinmetz Distinguished Professor of World Christianity at Duke Divinity School. He is the author of *The Conversion of Missionaries: Liberalism in American Protestant Missions in China, 1907-1932* (Penn State UP, 1997), *Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China* (Yale UP, 2010), and *Blood Letters: The Untold Story of Lin Zhao, a Martyr in Mao’s China* (Basic Books, 2018). He is also an editor of the forthcoming volume *Highland Christianity: Modern Transformations of the China-Southeast Asia Borderlands* (Penn State UP, 2026). His current research explores a contemporary development in China, in which an assertive, homegrown Christianity arose in the public sphere to proclaim a transcendent truth and a new moral compass for the post-Mao era, and to turn Christian beliefs into a force for cultural, spiritual, and political transformation. (Read more about his [research and experience at HDS](https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2026/04/17/christianity-public-life-china-conversation-yang-visiting-scholar-xi-lian).)

## 2024-25 Yang Visiting Scholars

- **Jennifer Scheper-Hughes** is professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Riverside. Her research focuses on the lived history of Latin American Christianity with special consideration for the religious lives of Mexican and Mexican American Catholics. Her book, *The Church of the Dead: The Epidemic of 1576 and the Birth of Christianity in the Americas* (New York University Press, 2021), was named one of the top five academic books on religion for 2021 (Publishers Weekly). Her current research project concerns the collective labor of religious ritual in Mexico and Central America, centering especially the sacramental leadership of laywomen. At HDS, Hughes taught a class on the lived history of the church in Latin America with an eye toward its global impact and influence. ([Read an interview with Jennifer Scheper-Hughes](https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/05/06/yang-visiting-scholar-jennifer-scheper-hughes-mdiv-96-proximate-history).)
- **Nilay Saiya** is Associate Professor of Public Policy and Global Affairs at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He holds research interests in religion and global politics. He is author of two books: *Weapon of Peace: How Religious Liberty Combats Terrorism* (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and *The Global Politics of Jesus: A Christian Case for Church-State Separation* (Oxford University Press, 2022). His public affairs commentary has appeared in *Christianity Today*, *USA Today*, *Slate*, and others. His work has been supported by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Research Foundation of the State University of New York, and the Singapore Ministry of Education. ([Read an interview with Nilay Saiya](https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/06/02/yang-visiting-scholar-nilay-saiya-expanding-our-understanding-christian-nationalism).)

## 2023-24 Yang Visiting Scholars

- **Nathanael Homewood** came to HDS as a lecturer in the Department of Religion at Rice University, the Secretary General of the African Association for the Study of Religions, and the editor for *Modern and Global Christianity in the Religious Studies Review*. A native of Canada, he earned his PhD in Global Christianity at the Department of Religion, Rice University, in May 2018. His project was a wide-sweeping exploration of the global influence of popular faith healer Benny Hinn. In spring 2024, he taught the HDS course, "The Medium and the Mission: Technology and Communication in Global Christianity." ([Read an interview with Nathanael Homewood](/news/03/07/2024/yang-scholar-nathanael-homewood-explores-worlds-thought-impossible-world-christianity "Yang Scholar Nathanael Homewood Explores ‘Worlds Thought Impossible’ in World Christianity ").)
- **Tom Santa Maria** is a religious and cultural historian of the Catholic Reformation in its European and Global contexts. His work focuses primarily on the relationship between the body, emotions, and religion. He came to HDS from Yale, where he was the Residential College Dean of Silliman College, and before that, a graduate student in renaissance studies and history. In spring 2024, he taught the HDS course, "Mysticism and Madness in the Early Modern World." ([Read an interview with Tom Santa Maria](/news/2024/04/10/yang-scholar-thomas-santa-maria-mysticism-miracles-world-christianity "Yang Scholar Thomas Santa Maria on Mysticism and Miracles in World Christianity ").)
- **Gina A. Zurlo** came to HDS as co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and as a visiting research fellow at Boston University’s Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, where she works on the [World Religion Database](https://www.worldreligiondatabase.org/) (Brill). Her research focuses on the demography of religion, World Christianity, sociology of religion, and women’s studies. She was named one of the BBC’s 100 most inspiring and influential women of 2019 for her work in quantifying the religious future. In fall 2023, she taught the HDS course, "Trends in World Christianity, 1900–2050." ([Read an interview with Gina Zurlo](/news/2023/12/07/yang-visiting-scholar-gina-zurlo-groundbreaking-research-women-world-christianity "Yang Visiting Scholar Gina Zurlo’s Groundbreaking Research on Women in World Christianity").)

## 2022-23 Yang Visiting Scholars

- **Heather Mellquist Lehto** is a cultural anthropologist whose work attends to the intersections of technology, religion, and kinship in South Korea and the United States. Her ethnographic book manuscript, "Holy Infrastructure," draws together religious studies, anthropology, and science and technology studies to demonstrate the co-construction of Christianity and media technology in some of the first transnational multisite churches in the world. Read a [reflection by Heather Mellquist Lehto](/news/2022/12/14/heather-mellquist-lehto-study-christianity "Reimagining What’s Next in the Study of Christianity").
- **Ashok Kumar Mocherla** came to HDS as an assistant professor of sociology at the Indian Institute of Technology in Indore, India. While at HDS, he worked on a book project, "Desacralizing the Body and Illness: Christianity, Modernity, Missionary Medicine and Public Health in the Telugu Country." Read a [reflection by Ashok Kumar Mocherla](/news/2023/4/14/yang-visiting-scholar-sociologist-ashok-kumar-mocherla-christianity-india "As a Yang Visiting Scholar, ‘Accidental Sociologist’ Ashok Kumar Mocherla Examines Medical Missions and Christianity in India").

## 2021-22 Yang Visiting Scholars

- **Oluwakemi Abiodun Adesina** came to HDS as an Associate Professor of History at Redeemer's University, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria. She attended the University of Ibadan (Nigeria), where she obtained her BA (Hons.), MA and PhD degrees in history. Her research project was "Christian Youthscapes: Polycentrism and the Shifting Configurations of Transnational Christian Songs in Sub-Saharan Africa." Read a [reflection by Oluwakemi Abiodun Adesina](/news/2022/03/09/oluwakemi-adesina-lasting-impact "A Lasting Impact").
- **Chandra Mallampalli** came to HDS as the Fletcher Jones Foundation Chair of the Social Sciences is a professor of South Asian history at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. The book based on his research project is titled *South Asia’s Christians: Between Hindu and Muslim*. Read an [interview with Chandra Mallampalli](/news/2022/06/16/yang-visiting-scholar-finds-supportive-climate-research-writing "At HDS, Yang Visiting Scholar Finds Supportive Climate for Research and Writing").