Leslie Virnelson |

Interfaith America

• leslie.virnelson@ptsem.edu

Profile
Leslie Virnelson is a Democracy Fellow at Interfaith America through a postdoctoral partnership with Princeton Theological Seminary and a scholar of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Her forthcoming book with Oxford University Press is titled “Fruit of Her Hands: Women, Work, & Society in the Hebrew Bible.” She has taught classes for masters and undergraduate students at Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton University, Mercer University, and Union Theological Seminary. She also served as the interim director of the Center for Theology, Women, & Gender at PTS from 2020-2023, organizing events and curricula to educate public and scholarly audiences on the intersections of religion and gender. She currently lives in West Windsor, NJ and enjoys hiking, foraging, and fermentation.

Status

PhD 5+1 Post-Doc

Placement Site

At Interfaith America, I work mostly with the Democracy Initiatives Team. We support communities and people of faith in their work to build bridges across religious and political divides, promote trustworthy information about the political process, and interfaith efforts to improve communities. I specifically focus on storytelling and curricular support. Thus far, I have collaborated often with recipients of grants associated with the Faith in Elections Playbook and with the Vote is Sacred Fellows.

Selected Publications

“Daubing, Materiality, and Prophecy in Ezekiel 13: 10–16.” CBQ 86.3 (2024): 469–84. https://doi.org/10.1353/cbq.2024.a931733.

Fruit of Her Hands: Women, Work, & Society in the Hebrew Bible, forthcoming with Oxford University Press.