The Pluralism Project at Harvard University

Summer Intern

Melissa graduated from Colgate University in May 2010, with a BA in Religion and Asian Studies focusing on India. Her main areas of academic interest concern the positive interactions between Hindus and Muslims in South Asia and she hopes to pursue a comparative study of the two traditions on a doctoral level. She has conducted extensive research into the ways in which religious traditions shape culture, particularly as it is preserved, adapted, and transmitted within migrant communities. As the summer intern at the Pluralism Project, Melissa will manage staff email and the distribution of educational resources, contribute to the planning of Pluralism Project events, and assist with other administrative projects.

Case Study Fellow

Nancy A. Khalil is a doctoral student in Social Anthropology at Harvard University and a Research Associate working on issues of Islam and Citizenship for the Islam in the West Program. Her previous research positions include projects with Harvard’s Transnational Studies Initiative, studying ethnic and religious identity in second generation Muslim and Hindu Americans, as well as the Harvard Muslims in Boston Survey. Prior to starting her doctoral studies at Harvard, Nancy worked for four years as a Muslim Chaplain at Wellesley College and as Advisor to the College’s Multi-faith Living and Learning Community. She attained a Master's degree in Higher Education and Student Development from the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. While at Lynch, Nancy conducted an extensive research project on Muslim college students and Muslim student groups' sense of identity and feelings of belonging in America. Nancy currently serves as a member of the Muslim American Society (MAS) Boston and Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center Board of Directors.

Case Study Fellow

Todd LeVasseur just completed his fourth year in the Religion and Nature track at the University of Florida's Department of Religion. Todd is a Ph.D. candidate whose dissertation research investigates an emerging North American "religious agrarianism," focusing especially on case study research of two religious communities: Koinonia Partners in Americus, Georgia; and Congregation Shearith Israel in Atlanta, Georgia. Todd received a M.Sc. from the Centre for Human Ecology in Edinburgh, Scotland and a BA in Religious Studies from the College of Charleston. He is interested in human perceptions of the environment, how these perceptions are shaped by religious belief/s and membership in religious communities, and how these perceptions influence how we interact with the environment. His summer research will look at the approved wind farm on Nantucket Sound (Cape Cod) and the various religious responses to this project.

Case Study Fellow

Originally from Minnesota, Brendan is a former lawyer and doctoral candidate studying religious diversity and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). He also has a Master of Education from HGSE in school leadership and a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School in religion, ethics, and politics. Before returning to graduate school, Brendan taught history, applied ethics, and comparative religion at the Emma Willard School, an independent, all-girls boarding school in Troy, New York. He currently is a co-convener of the Civic and Moral Education Student Initiative at HGSE and is interested in examining how schools can better prepare students to live in a religiously diverse democratic society.

Case Study Fellow

Dave is a civil rights attorney whose main interests include the relationship between individual rights and heightened national security concerns, constitutional law, appellate litigation, and colonial history. He has served as a law clerk to a federal judge, worked as a staff attorney in the policy arm of a federal civil rights office, and held fellowship/research posts at Stanford Law School and the Georgetown University Law Center. Dave co-authored a textbook, Civil Rights in Wartime: The Post-9/11 Sikh Experience, and has written eleven law review articles, which have appeared in the Buffalo Law Review, Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, and the West Virginia Law Review, among others. He has drafted, on a pro bono basis, amicus briefs in several post-9/11 cases: Ashcroft v. Iqbal, al Maqaleh v. Gates, and Padilla v. Yoo. He earned a BA in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania (2000), an MA in government from Johns Hopkins University (2003), and a JD from The George Washington University Law School (2004). Dave is a Pluralism Project Affiliate and co-founder of the Discrimination & National Security Initiative.

Community Associate

Alexander Levering Kern serves as Executive Director of Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries (CMM), the Boston area's oldest interfaith social justice network and home to the Interfaith Youth Initiative (IFYI), a peacemaking and leadership program for high school, college, and graduate students and younger religious leaders in greater Boston. He is editor of Becoming Fire: Spiritual Writing From Rising Generations. Alex also serves as Protestant Chaplain at Brandeis University. A graduate of Sidwell Friends School, Guilford College (in Religious Studies, History, and African-American Studies), Andover Newton Theological School (Master of Divinity), and the Boston Theological Institute’s certificate program in ecumenical studies, Alex is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and has served Friends and the ecumenical movement at the World Council of Churches. Active in global peace and justice efforts, Alex has traveled and worked in post-earthquake Haiti, Southern Africa, the Middle East, Japan, and Honduras, and in Nigeria on a US State Department-funded delegation addressing Christian-Muslim conflict.

Community Associate

An ordained United Methodist minister, Rev. Kristin Stoneking serves as Campus Minister and Director at the Cal Aggie Christian Association at the University of California, Davis. She is also the founder of its Multifaith Living Community. Currently a Ph.D. student at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA focusing on faith formation of young adults in pluralistic environments, Kristin is a regular guest lecturer at Pacific School of Religion and has presented nationally and internationally on campus ministry and the Multifaith Living Community model. Originally from Kansas City, Kristin has served churches and campus ministries in Chicago, Kansas, and California. Kristin received her Master of Divinity degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and a BA in English from Rice University.