Melissa Harl Sellew

Melissa Harl Sellew is Professor Emerita of Classical and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Minnesota, and an Adjunct Professor at the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Her research interests include ‘apocryphal’ texts like the Acts of Paul and Thecla, the Gospel of Thomas, and other Coptic-language liturgical and hagiographical texts. She is the co-editor of Trans Biblical: New Approaches to Interpretation and Embodiment in Scripture, as well as volumes produced in honor of Calvin J. Roetzel and Helmut Koester, and is the recipient of a three-year NEH grant to support the digital humanities project Resurrecting Early Christian Lives as well as a Member and Storyteller of Telling Queer History. She has been an influential voice for change within the academy to support LGBTQIA voices, as well as a longtime foot soldier for many social justice causes — including opposing the Vietnam War as a CO, chairing her Presbytery’s committee in solidarity with refugees from El Salvador and Nicaragua in the 1980s, and participating in “Falcon Heights: We Can Do Better” in response to the police killing of Philando Castile in 2016. She currently works ISAIAH, the Racial Justice Action Team and the Sanctuary Support Group through her home church, First Congregational Church of Minnesota (UCC).