Rev. Dr. Chauncey Diego Francisco Handy

As a Chicano scholar of the Hebrew Bible, Chauncey’s teaching and research focus on the intersection of race/racialization, theories of ethnicity, Latinx theorization of identity, and the reception history of the Hebrew Bible (for example his Bible, Race, and Empire course at Reed). He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary, an M.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an M.Div. from Duke Divinity School and his B.A. from Seattle Pacific University. He is working on turning his dissertation Mestizo Poetics of Belonging: Deuteronomy’s Construction of Israelite Ethnicity into a published book. In this project, he considers the nature of ethnicity as presented in the text of Deuteronomy through the lens of Gloria Anzaldúa’s articulation of mestizaje (racial-ethnic intermixture). His argument emphasizes the value of socially located approaches to scholarly inquiry into the Hebrew Bible—noting how a Chicana theorist’s analysis of belonging elucidates the nature of Israelite ethnicity in the 5th century BCE. He has an upcoming contribution on violence in the book of Joshua to a volume titled “The Bible and Violence” with Bloomsbury T&T Clark. Prior to coming to Reed, Chauncey taught courses at Princeton Theological Seminary, Duke Divinity School, and Georgetown University. Chauncey is an ordained teaching elder in the PC(USA).