HTI Alumni
Yohana A. Junker
Associate Dean for Spiritual Life and Social Transformation, Assistant Professor of Art, Religion, and Culture, Claremont School of Theology
Field of Study: Religion and Society
Dr. Junker’s research probes the intersections among the fields of art history, eco-criticism, and decolonial studies, with special attention to contemporary Indigenous and diasporic art practices. In her writing, art, and activism, she explores the human capacity to imagine and retrieve generative ways of being even in the face of impossibility. She also investigates the ways artists create poetic spaces that allow viewers to come together, to reclaim agency and restore a sense of purpose, a thirst for justice, and a desire for transformation. Her artwork is central to her scholarship and activism.
Dr. Junker has contributed chapters for the forthcoming volumes Georgetown Companion in Interreligious Studies (Georgetown), Sustainable Societies: Interreligious & Interdisciplinary Responses (Springer), and Painted Portrayals: The Art of Characterizing Biblical Figures (SBL Press). She is also co-editing, with Dr. Aaron Rosen, Modern and Contemporary Artists on Religion: A Global Sourcebook (Bloomsbury). She is an active member of the American Academy of Religion and serves on the boards of Art, Religion, and Culture (ARC), the Center for the Arts and Religion, La Comunidad, and Feminist Studies in Religion Blog.