Honors Spanning Generations and Traditions

Harvard Divinity School faculty members are no strangers to awards and accolades. Experts from across the School are often lauded with academic prizes, prestigious awards, and honorary degrees—with highlights shared in HDS communications, such as news stories and this very report. In recent years, three HDS professors have received recognition that represents the depth and breadth of work happening throughout the field of religious studies. In addition to illustrating various aspects of academic work, these awards also highlight milestones throughout different phases in one’s career as a scholar.

• Teren Sevea, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Associate Professor of Islamic Studies Honored with the 2022 Harry J. Benda Prize from the Association for Asian Studies
• Jon D. Levenson, Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies Honored with the 2023 Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement from the American Academy of Sciences and Letters
• Preston N. Williams, Houghton Professor of Theology and Contemporary Change Emeritus Honored with the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Christian Ethics

Teren Sevea, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Associate Professor of Islamic Studies

Honored with the 2022 Harry J. Benda Prize from the Association for Asian Studies

Award Description: The Harry J. Benda Prize of the AAS is given annually to an outstanding newer scholar from any discipline or country specializing in Southeast Asian studies for a first book. The award has been presented to pioneers in the field since 1977.

Professor Teren Sevea was recognized for his groundbreaking new study, Miracles and Material Life: Rice, Ore, Traps and Guns in Islamic Malaya, which reveals the economic, environmental, and religious significance of Islamic miracle workers (pawangs) in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Malay world.

When asked about his background, Sevea expresses his deep gratitude for his family’s dedication to education. Sevea and his brother, born and raised in Singapore, were the first generation of Seveas to attend college. His grandparents and father had traveled from Punjab (South Asia) to work as watchmen at factories in Singapore. Only two of his grandparents could read and write, but this did not prevent them from speaking multiple languages, including Punjabi, Urdu, Malay, and Hokkien. This environment first sparked Sevea’s own curiosity about languages, impressing upon him that “acquiring knowledge surpassed all other wealth.” Sevea describes his mother, born in Singapore, as an elementary teacher who first instilled in him a “love of history,” acknowledging both his parents’ commitment to making sure that he and his brother “had access to the education that they and others from their background never had the resources and opportunity to pursue.”

Sevea’s education and drive took him from Singapore to the United States, where he earned his PhD from UCLA. He then taught at the University of Pennsylvania before joining Harvard. “One of the many things that really appealed to me about coming to HDS was that this position was dedicated to diversifying Islamic studies, including a focus on Islam in Southeast Asia,” he says.

When asked about teaching at a multifaith divinity school, he observes: “I think what’s especially fruitful about a multifaith education is that our complex, and at times difficult, conversations remind us to acknowledge that none of our communities or traditions were ever isolated. The study of Islam in the past and present, for example, is never just about Muslims or boundedness; it’s about Muslims, non-Muslims, and inter-connections. In a pluralistic environment, we can have those important conversations on a more substantial level—more so than I’ve experienced anywhere else.”

Jon D. Levenson, AB ’71, AM ’74, PhD ’75, Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies

Honored with the 2023 Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement from the American Academy of Sciences and Letters

Award Citation: “Jon Levenson’s meticulous and sensitive investigation of the text and history of the Hebrew Bible has helped us confront the unconscious assumptions we bring to texts, especially texts presented to us as divine scriptures. His landmark work in Jewish biblical theology as well as in interfaith dialogue invites us into a deeper awareness of what we mean by such essential concepts as gratitude, faithfulness, covenant, tradition, resurrection, and divine love. The Academy honors Dr. Levenson’s distinguished contributions to humanity’s understanding of one of its oldest and most influential sacred traditions.”

With an avid appreciation for literature, Professor Jon Levenson found himself faced with his own version of the road not taken. When asked about his journey to Harvard, he recounts: “I grew up in a small rust-belt city in West Virginia. My brother, who’s four years older, went to MIT. And so I became vaguely familiar with Cambridge while visiting him in the mid-1960s CE.”

“I had an image of Harvard and the New England area as a culturally dynamic, intellectually intense sort of place. I knew I wasn’t a technology person, and so I applied to Harvard and concentrated in English. My father, may he rest in peace, said, ‘That’s a good idea; you already speak it.’ So, that’s what first brought me to Harvard . . . though, I suppose what brought me to the University more literally was the Econoline van full of electrical equipment in which we drove up here,” Levenson warmly quipped.

First drawn to Medieval and Renaissance literature and the metaphysical poets (as well as Italian language and literature), Levenson originally thought he would pursue a PhD in comparative literature. However, he started having doubts about this path his junior year. As he developed a stronger interest in Judaism, he began a doctoral program in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations focusing on Semitic philology and the Hebrew Bible. “I’m continually astonished by the literary sophistication of the Hebrew Bible and of rabbinic midrash—the theologically rich rabbinic interpretation of biblical verses,” he notes enthusiastically. “And I’ve always enjoyed communicating that to the students.”

When asked about teaching at a multifaith divinity school, he remarks: “With Jewish studies specifically, to be fully successful, you really must know the languages. It’s not good enough to read texts just for the big ideas. My own interest has always been in literary and theological interpretation and the connection of the theology to the actual verbal particularity—what word is chosen, what structure is used, what other text is reflected, and why. And more broadly, from my perspective, different religions don’t just give different answers. They ask different questions. And they don’t always lend themselves to the simplistic truisms that people tend to want all religions to teach. In other words, for the rigorous study of religion, nuance and respect for plurality are imperative.”

Preston N. Williams, PhD ’67, Houghton Professor of Theology and Contemporary Change Emeritus

Honored with the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Christian Ethics

Award Description Excerpt: The Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society of Christian Ethics is given to recognize one member typically once a year for creative and lasting contributions to the field of Christian ethics. The award recognizes outstanding, sustained, and substantive contributions of the recipient that have advanced the field of Christian ethics.

From the Presbyterian News Service: “The Rev. Dr. Preston N. Williams, long-time professor at Harvard Divinity School and founding director of its W. E. B. DuBois Institute, won the Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in political, economic, and bio-medical ethics and volunteer service, including for the Presbyterian Church.”

With an academic career that began in the middle of the twentieth century, Professor Preston N. Williams has seen religious studies change with the times—and has had a steady hand in shaping the field. Williams became the first tenured African American member of the Harvard Divinity School faculty in 1971—one of the many historic firsts he would bring to the field. With a career dedicated to expanding access to education for all in the wake of segregation, Williams has led a life dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s teachings on beloved community.

During his years at Harvard, Williams has shared his talents and time through various leadership positions. After his appointment to the Houghton Professorship at HDS in 1971, he went on to lead the School as Acting Dean from 1974–75. Williams was also the first director of Harvard’s W. E. B. Du Bois Institute from 1975–77, president of the American Academy of Religion from 1975–76, and president of the Society for Christian Ethics from 1974–75. Additionally, he established the Summer Leadership Institute for Church-Based Community and Economic Development at HDS, a program that brought religious leaders from urban settings to Harvard for two weeks of intensive classes and network building; he led this groundbreaking program from 1998–2008. Preston Williams, along with his wife and fellow scholar Connie Williams, has also helped secure scholarship support at HDS—including leading philanthropic efforts with African American alumni/ae and inspiring the Constance W. and Preston N. Williams Scholarship Fund established for HDS students who foster belonging, inclusion, and anti-racism work through their studies.

When asked about his lifetime achievement award, Williams notes that he was surprised by his nomination, which came from two former students, and he offers a history lesson, as is his nature: “The Society of Christian Ethics was founded by way of Protestant professors who wanted to collectively discuss their areas of study. From the beginning, one of the concerns was racial equality. Some friends of mine, who are no longer with us, were early participants; I became one of the early members in the 1960s—and have been a member ever since.”

With great care, Williams recalls these early leaders of the Society of Christian Ethics (SCE). Professor John Satterwhite, who taught at Livingstone College, was the first African American to be president of the society. (Williams was the second African American SCE president.) Professor Benjamin F. Payton, a 1958 alum of HDS who led Tuskegee University as president, was an early presenter at the SCE. James Luther Adams, known as one of the most influential theologians among American Unitarian Universalists in the twentieth century, was a founder of the Society of Christian Ethics. Adams is also known for his exceptional teaching, which culminated in his 1956 appointment as Professor of Christian Ethics at HDS (an appointment he held until his retirement in 1968). During his time at Harvard, Adams guided scores of students—including a young Preston Williams. In a virtuous circle, Williams would go on to teach countless classes, well into his emeritus years, to educate the next generation of religious scholars.

—By Amie Montemurro, Senior Communications Officer