Imagination and Multireligious Cooperation:

Josh Thomas is a doctoral candidate in the Person, Community and Religious Life course of study focusing on religious education with youth and young adults. His dissertation will draw on work with Kids4Peace, an organization that gathers Jewish, Christian, and Muslim youth from Jerusalem for intensive summer camps. Evaluating the impact of this program, Thomas will explore the theologies and religious practices required to support young people in efforts toward peace. He also studies religion and sexuality, developing practices of pastoral guidance to help LGBT young adults navigate the relationship between their faith and sexuality. An ordained Episcopal priest, Thomas works in campus ministry for the Diocese of New Hampshire.

Courtney Goto is a doctoral candidate in the Person, Community and Religious Life course of study of the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University. Her dissertation, entitled "Artistic Play: Seeking the God of the Unexpected," sets forth a practical theology of play through art, and explores issues of body, imagination, teaching and learning for adults through two case studies. In the first case, Goto investigates how participants of InterPlay, based in Oakland, California, are creating selves by engaging in improvisational theater, movement, and vocal music. In the second case, Goto compares the ways in which a Japanese-American congregation in Sacramento, California discovers connections between faith and culture through play, Japanese artifacts, and aesthetics. Performance theory and object-relations aesthetics serve as theoretical lenses.