Duke NT PhD Query

[MBIGrad]

If anyone knows, I would be grateful to know whether and how often students admitted to Duke's NT program do focused work in non-canonical areas such as Valentinianism, Nag Hammadi & Oxyrhyncus papyri, Greco-Roman "Paganism" and the imperial cult, social and anthropological theory, or ritual and magic analysis. Their faculty is broad, but the program is strictly NT. 

 

Also, has anyone worked with Van Rompay down there, and does he or she know if he will be teaching for the foreseeable future? 

 

(And to precede one response, I know that UNC is better for these things, but Marcus, Goodacre, and the Div School faculty are considerable, and the stipend is better)

[Kuriakos]

Well, the Duke adcomm is probably going to be thinking the same thing about UNC, but Goodacre is the one you want to be in contact with if you are set on Duke. He's done a lot of work with non-canonical Gospels and is very open to broader discussions of early Christianity than some traditional NT people. 

[AbrasaxEos]

Not to hijack this thread right away, but if you are interested in many of those things, you ought to consider BU's DRTS (not School of Theology) program.  I know it is a bit off the radar for a few reasons, but if you are seriously interested in basically any of those elements, maybe except Nag Hammadi and Oxyrhyncus, we have David Frankfurter, who may well be the best person teaching in a graduate program under whom one could study all things popular religion in Late Antiquity.  Obviously biased here as I am his graduate student, but if you are looking for a thoroughly broad and non-traditional program, keep it in mind - fully funded, fellowship for 4 years, teaching for 1, pretty decent stipend, even for Boston.  PM me if you want more details.

[MBIGrad]

I am meeting with David Frankfurter in a week or two, and think I have considered every American school in this category. I just wanted to know about Duke, since with UNC the dynamic is odd. Thanks, though. BU's program does look sweet.