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Princeton Theological Seminary welcomes five new faculty whose teaching and scholarship strengthen our commitment to academic excellence while expanding access to theological education for a wider, more diverse community of learners. With expertise spanning the Old Testament, African American Christianity, Asian Christianity, and modern European Christianity, these scholars bring fresh insight to enduring questions of faith, history, and community.
“Princeton Seminary has long been known for its accomplished faculty and preeminent academic programs,” notes Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs John Bowlin. “What excites me about these new colleagues is not only their scholarly excellence but also the way their work addresses some of the most pressing issues of the day: empire and resistance, the bible and its histories, race and childhood, politics and the church, and the growth of Christianity across the globe. Their teaching will challenge and inspire, equipping our students with learning and wisdom for ministry and scholarship.”
Dr. Mahri Leonard-Fleckman joins Princeton Seminary faculty as Associate Professor of Old Testament. She previously served as Associate Professor in the Departments of Religious Studies and Classics at the College of the Holy Cross.
Her research examines scribal practices, methods of history writing, and the dynamics of empire, with particular attention to how local communities navigated imperial power. She is the author of The House of David: Between Political Formation and Literary Revision (Fortress, 2016), co-author of The Book of Ruth (Wisdom Commentary Series, Liturgical, 2017), and co-editor of A Community of Peoples (Brill, 2022). Her forthcoming book, Scribal Representations and Social Landscapes of the Iron Age Shephelah, will be published by Oxford University Press.
Leonard-Fleckman has also reached wider audiences through her award-winning Ponder: Contemplative Bible Study series (Liturgical, 2020–22), demonstrating her ability to bridge academic research and congregational life.
Dr. Brennan Breed joins Princeton Seminary as Associate Professor of Old Testament from Columbia Theological Seminary, where he also served as theologian-in-residence at First Presbyterian Church in Marietta.
Breed is the author of Nomadic Text: A Theory of Biblical Reception History (Indiana University Press, 2014), which received the Manfred Lautenschläger Award for Theological Promise. He has co-authored a forthcoming two-volume study of the early Hellenistic period in Egypt and the Levant with Davis Hankins and is currently completing a commentary on the book of Daniel for the Interpretation series. He also serves as main editor for reception history in the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception.
A Princeton Seminary graduate, Breed brings both scholarly expertise and deep institutional connection back to campus.
Assistant Professor of African American Christianity, Dr. Mélena Laudig brings innovative research and a strong record of advocacy for inclusive academic spaces.
Laudig holds a BA in Religious Studies from Yale, an MA in Religion, and graduate certificates in African American Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies from Princeton University, where she is completing her PhD in Religion. She has been awarded the Richard S. Dunn Fellowship at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies and the Lake Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship at the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving.
Her research focuses on early African American religious history, with particular attention to Black children as religious thinkers and practitioners in the nineteenth century.
Alongside her teaching and research, Laudig holds a deep commitment to making higher education spaces more accessible and supportive for students of all backgrounds. Over the past several years, she has spearheaded a number of equity and inclusion efforts, including co-founding a wellness collective that seeks to increase marginalized students’ access to justice-informed and culturally nuanced approaches to holistic health.
Dr. Shalon Park, a historian from South Korea and double alum of Princeton Seminary (MATS in Religion and Society; PhD in World Christianity and History of Religions), joins the faculty as Assistant Professor of Asian Christianity.
Park’s scholarship explores the intersections of Asian religions and transpacific Christianity from the sixteenth century to the present. Her current book project, Christian Vernaculars, examines how Korean Catholics developed new forms of faith expression that connected Asia and Europe in surprising ways. Her research interests also include Asian Catholicism, monasticism, women and celibacy, and interreligious dialogue.
Arriving in January 2026, Dr. Simon Unger joins our faculty as Assistant Professor of Modern European Christianity. A historian of Christian ideas in twentieth-century politics, Unger earned his doctorate in modern European history from the University of Oxford and his Habilitation from the University of Fribourg.
His first book, The Periodicals ‘Eckart’ and ‘Hochland’ (Schöningh, 2023), examined Christian political journalism in twentieth-century Germany. His forthcoming book, Consensus in Conflict: Nazism and the Shared Foundations of German Intellectual Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2025), explores political language under the Nazi dictatorship. He currently leads an international research group in the Vatican Archives on “The Global Pontificate of Pius XII” and is at work on a new book, Shadows of the Occident: Catholicism in the Political Thought of Post-War Europe, 1945–1960.
Unger has previously taught at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Magdalen College, Oxford, bringing both international perspective and historical depth to his teaching.
The appointment of these scholars is more than an expansion of faculty, it’s a deepening of the Seminary’s shared mission. As President Jonathan Lee Walton notes: “We are thrilled to welcome these gifted scholars to Princeton Theological Seminary. Each brings not only expertise in their fields but also a passion for teaching and a commitment to forming leaders for the church, academy, and world. Their presence strengthens our shared vocation of preparing people for faithful service in diverse contexts, and their scholarship and witness will enrich this learning community.”
