Virginia Burrus (GTU Ph.D. ’91, History) is leaving Drew University for a named chair at Syracuse. The announcement is at http://religion.syr.edu/About/NewsAccolades.html and it says:
Virginia Burrus has been appointed the Bishop W. Earl Ledden Professor in the Department of Religion. Prof. Burrus is a well-known scholar of religion in late antiquity. She has authored or co-authored seven books and more than sixty journal articles or book chapters. She will assume responsibility in the Department for teaching courses in ancient Christianities and Greco-Roman religions, starting August, 2013.
Reflecting on her appointment, she writes, “After an incredibly happy and satisfying twenty-two years at Drew, I will be leaving to join Syracuse University as the Bishop W. Earl Ledden Professor of Religion. I shall miss Drew intensely and often, as is already clear. But I am comforted by the fact that Bishop W. Earl Ledden, as Terry Todd tells me, was not only a United Methodist but both a Drew alum and a Drew trustee! Moreover, the first person to hold the Bishop Ledden chair (from 1968-75) was Stanley Hopper, who came directly from Drew, where he had been the Dean of the Graduate School. And when Hopper went to Syracuse, he joined two Drew PhD graduates (both class of 1963)—David Miller and James Wiggins, who were integral to the Syracuse religion graduate program for many years. In other words, Syracuse’s Department of Religion has deep connections with Drew, and I am very pleased to be part of the historic continuity between these two institutions. I am also particularly pleased to succeed Patricia Cox Miller in this chair; she herself succeeded Hopper. Pat has been one of my guiding lights as a scholar, and any of you who are my students have surely read her works.”
*A reflection by Burrus on her experience at Drew can be read here: http://www.drew.edu/theological/news-and-publications/theo-spirit/septem...