Jones Named New Head of UTS

Ordained minister and Yale academic Serene Jones will serve as Union Theological Seminary’s 16th president, becoming the first woman to lead the 172-year-old Columbia affiliate.

Jones, who is currently the Titus Street Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School, will succeed Reverend Joseph Hough, Jr. She will follow in the footsteps of Hough, who also graduated from the YDS. UTS chairman of the board of trustees David Callard announced the decision of the six-month-long presidential search on Feb. 25.

“I’m still shocked!” Jones said in a phone interview. “It seemed that Union is the best theological school in the world that’s positioned in a major urban area. It has this radical tradition that opens it to addressing gender and race in a way that’s powerful.”

Jones said Union is a perfect fit for her because it allows her to address her academic interests—women’s issues, international religion, interfaith relations, immigration, globalization, and urbanization—on an institutional level.

In a Yale press release, many YDS professors heralded Jones’ accomplishments, teaching, and leadership skills. “Serene Jones will be greatly missed at Yale Divinity School and within the broader university community,” YDS Dean Harold Attridge said.

Having spent many years at Yale, Jones’ move to New York will be a critical life and career change. After completing her Ph.D. in theology at Yale and receiving her Master of Divinity degree from YDS, Jones worked for 17 years on Yale’s faculty, adding up to a total of 26 years in New Haven.

Jones said she anticipates analyzing religious conflicts specific to metropolitan areas, since “New York City is a microcosm of the world. ... There’s the new sense of religion that’s emerging that we don’t understand yet.”

Jones currently serves as the chair of Yale University’s department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and has published 37 articles and book chapters on subjects ranging from theology to feminist theory.

Jones said the significance of her appointment as Union’s first woman president lies in the recognition that while globally, women are the majority of faith practitioners, women do not comprise the majority of religious leaders. “We’ve got a long way to go, but it’s exciting to see headway being made.”

Jones outlined three goals to accomplish during her years at Union. Firstly, she said she would like to see a deeper Columbia connection, continuing Hough’s work. Currently, only three Union professors work in Columbia’s religion department. “We all want to be part of each other’s projects,” she said. “Union attends to the education of clergy in a metropolitan context in a global world—the better we do that, the more interesting our work will be to others.”

Second, Jones would like to see increased interfaith and intrafaith connections. Like YDS, Union is an ecumenical school that prepares students for clergy work. Jones said she wishes to expand its openness by “making Union a place that embraces progressive evangelicals and energized Pentecostals as well as Roman Catholics and liberal Protestants.”

Jones’ third goal is her hope to expand the scope of the issues Union tackles through a religious perspective, such as global health, global environmental issues, and world politics. She said she hopes to continue the growth of a “solid theological curriculum where people learn what it takes to be good ministers.”

Callard announced the appointment a day after notifying Jones of Union’s decision. “Dr. Jones’s exceptional leadership style and distinguished scholarship make her the ideal person to lead this vibrant theological institution,” Callard said in a Union press release.

joy.resmovits@columbiaspectator.com