Stories from JDP Alumni

We take pride in the considerable contributions our alumni have made across their respective workplaces, careers, professional organizations, and society at large. Their endeavors have yielded positive and constructive impacts, thereby enhancing society since their graduation from the Joint Doctoral Program. The program's interdisciplinary approach facilitates their pursuit of diverse career paths aligned with their interests, expertise, and passions.��

They are pleased to share their accounts with us, as demonstrated below.

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Elizabeth Rae Coody, Ph.D. (Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Morningside University in Sioux City, Iowa, USA)

Elizabeth's teaching and research concentrate on the intersections between religion, sacred texts, cultural studies, and popular culture, with a particular interest in comic books. She serves as the co-chair of the Bible and Popular Culture unit of the Society of Biblical Literature. In that role, she has encouraged work that engages in clear methodology and across a diverse set of interlocutors. She is co-editor of��Monstrous Women in Comics��with Samantha Langsdale (2020), which engages gender studies in monster theory.�� She led the editing of the second edition of��Understanding Religion and Popular Culture��(Routledge, 2023) with Dan W. Clanton and Terry Ray Clark. She is now serving as a section editor for the forthcoming Springer Encyclopedia of Religion and Popular Culture.��

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Reflecting on the JDP:

The interdisciplinary nature of the JDP was everything to my formation as a scholar and teacher. My open-minded advisors encouraged my work in popular culture, gave me a broad knowledge of religious studies that's critical to being a "one-stop shop" at a small liberal arts college, and helped me gain the pedagogical skills and instincts that serve me today. My faculty and my fellow students were nurturing and supportive; we were and are all on the same team. Even ten years out, we still take joy in each other's successes and support each other in tough times. My graduate program gave me a solid foundation in my field, an invaluable network of scholars, and the daring to do the work of educating people about religion in any circumstance where I'm needed.

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Catherine Orsborn, Ph.D. (Senior Director of Programs and Public Policy at the El-Hibri Foundation (EHF))

Catherine Orsborn, PhD, currently serves as the Senior Director of Programs and Public Policy at the El-Hibri Foundation (EHF), where she leads efforts to strengthen cross-sector leadership, build community resilience, and advance social cohesion through strategic convening, grantmaking, and leadership development. She brings a deep commitment to inclusion and belonging, and her work centers on bridging divides to shape a more just and pluralistic future.

Catherine has over a decade of experience at the intersection of nonprofit leadership, interfaith coalition-building, public engagement, and academia. From 2014 to 2021, she served as Executive Director of the Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign, a national interfaith initiative focused on countering anti-Muslim discrimination and advancing religious freedom and dignity. She helped grow the campaign into a key convening space for faith-based and civil society partners across the country.

Her work is grounded in academic expertise on religion, identity, and society. Catherine holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the �鶹�� and the Iliff School of Theology, where her research focused on comparative case studies of religion, conflict, and social cohesion in Lebanon and Bosnia-Herzegovina. She speaks and writes on issues related to religion, identity, and politics, and lives in Nashville, TN, with her husband and 3 children.

Reflecting on the JDP:
I’m incredibly grateful for my time in the JDP. The flexibility and breadth of the program let me shape my coursework around my own interests, bringing together religious studies with political science, international studies, and conflict studies, and I had the chance to work closely with professors across all of those areas. I also found both support and challenge in my faculty and fellow students, who pushed me to think in new ways about the questions I cared most about. While I originally entered the program planning on a more traditional academic path, my experiences in the JDP (along with the jobs I held while studying, which the program’s flexibility made possible) opened my eyes to other ways of applying my research. Since graduating, I’ve built a career in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector, focusing on issues of religion, identity, and belonging in the U.S.��

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