#  Ministerial, Service-Minded Pedagogy 

 





**Jill Peterfeso, MTS '04**, the Eli Franklin Craven and Minnie Phipps Craven Professor of Religious Studies at Guilford College, credits her service-oriented pedagogical approach to her time at HDS.



 

July 30, 2025

 

 

     ![Jill Peterfeso headshot](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-08/Jill%20Peterfeso%20headshot%20color%20%281%29.jpg?h=1a206fce&itok=jxncWwiN) 

Jill Peterfeso, MTS '04



 



 

*Jill Peterfeso, MTS ’04, Eli Franklin Craven and Minnie Phipps Craven Professor of Religious Studies, Guilford College (Greensboro, NC)*

*View* [*more stories*](/community-life/career-services/alumni-career-snapshots "Alumni Career Snapshots") *on HDS alumni and their career paths.*

## Describe the work you do today:

I currently have that typical academic job (if anything in academia can be described as "typical" nowadays). I teach courses, advise students, tackle administrative tasks at my institution, and—when time allows—research, edit, and write books. My departmental homes are Religious Studies and WGSS (Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies). At my small, liberal-arts college, I'm a generalist by necessity, and I teach a range of courses, including New Testament, Mormonism, feminist theologies, and the Holocaust. I've published a lot on women's ordination in the Roman Catholic Church; my current research area looks at Disney—its religious overtones and its value for teaching undergrads. As a side hustle—because surprise, many academic jobs do not pay faculty enough to live on—I am an academic editor, helping authors find their voice and develop confidence in their writing and research. I love getting to help writers discover strength in texts and connect with their audiences.

## How has your HDS degree experience influenced your career journey?

HDS deepened in me a commitment to having a ministerial, service-minded focus to my work. I'm at a teaching-centered school, so serving our student population—many of them first generation college students—is where most of my energy goes. I also think about my research and writing as a way to inspire difficult but important questions about authority, cultural norms, and oppressive systems. Beyond the career alone, HDS is part of a wonderful whirlwind of experiences and challenges that I placed myself into (all in my early to mid-20s) that have helped me figure out who I want to be in the world. This has led me to do a range of volunteer and leadership roles in my communities, neighborhoods, and local institutions. While these aren't my "career," they inform my sense of vocation and expand my networks.

## What career advice would you offer to current HDS students?

Cultivate professional dexterity while deepening and grounding your personal values. The career landscape is shifting like quicksand beneath all of our feet, and we all have earned a right to be nervous about what lies ahead. I am one of the lucky ones to get a tenure-track job over the past 15 years. Yet academia increasingly feels unsustainable for most of us, and I know I would be foolish not to plan for a pivot before I reach retirement age. Draw on passions from your past; you might be reminded of something within you that you've forgotten. Believe in the value of your foundations; no academic pursuits are "useless" when you know how to implement them. And remember your networks; community is everything when you're searching for your next personal and professional adventure.

As I think about other ways I might serve the world and use (and grow) my professional gifts, I've thought back to my time at HDS, where I got to serve as a chaplain at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. What if I left academia and became a chaplain, or a hospice nurse, or a death doula? That one summer of field work more than 20 years ago is calling to me now. I don't know where it will lead, but I'm listening. Having had the chance to study at HDS puts us in a cool, quirky club of intellectual experience with no rules for what comes next. Let that lack of a clear path not darken but in fact shine a light on the multitude of options for you, now and in the decades to come.



 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Alumni News and Profiles ](/discover-stories-about/alumni-news-and-profiles)