William Ragsdale Cannon Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Emory University, Candler School of Theology

Prior to joining Candler’s faculty in 2021, Dr. Musa W. Dube served as professor of New Testament in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Botswana. She has held positions at the World Council Churches, Scripps College, Union Theological Seminary, University of Stellenbosch, University of Bamberg, and University of South Africa.

Particularly known for her work as a postcolonial feminist theologian, her research interests include gender, postcolonialism, translation, and HIV and AIDS studies. Her research has been supported by awards from the John Templeton Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the World Council of Churches, and the Society for Biblical Literature, among others. In 2011, she received a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, one of academia’s most prestigious funding institutions.

Dube has authored 262 academic works, published in journals, books, encyclopedias, educational modules, and magazines, and has edited 12 volumes. Her first book, Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible (Chalice Press, 2000), challenges the often oppressive and patriarchal Western interpretations of biblical texts and offers an alternative, less imperial interpretation that attends to and respects needs of women. Her book The HIV and AIDS Bible: Some Selected Essays (Scranton Press, 2008) examines the HIV/AIDS crisis in light of biblical and ethical teachings and argues for a strong theological presence alongside economic, social, and political efforts to deal with the disease.

The 2017 winner of the international Gutenberg Teaching Award, Dube has given up to 162 papers in at least twenty-six countries, and has served in institutions in Switzerland, the U.S., Germany, and South Africa as well as her native Botswana. She received an honorary doctorate from Stellenbosch University (South Africa) in 2018.

Dube is the current continental coordinator of The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, vice president of the Society of Bibilcal Literature (2022-2023), and a member of the The United Methodist Church.