On Monday, March 23, Anabaptist and Jewish scholars and religious leaders gathered in the Strite Conference Room of EMU’s Campus Center for a consultation on Judaism, the Bible, and Anabaptism. The invite-only event was planned by Peter Dula, professor of religion and culture at EMU, and Trina Trotter Nussbaum, director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement (CIE), and included all-day discussions centering around the work of Matthew Thiessen and Daniel Weiss.

According to Dula, Thiessen, a Mennonite New Testament professor at McMaster University, is “one of the most influential voices in the ‘Paul within Judaism’ school of New Testament studies.” The discussion of Thiessen’s work at the consultation centered around four articles of his.

Weiss, according to Dula, is a Jewish professor of Jewish studies and the philosophy of religion at the University of Cambridge, “whose work at the intersection of early rabbinic literature and early Christian literature has significant resonances with traditional Anabaptist understandings of violence and the state and critiques of Constantinianism.” Weiss also had four articles discussed.

The morning began with a presentation by Thiessen titled, “What Mennonites Need to Know About Judaism,” which introduced the work of Weiss. Weiss then responded, and there was time for some questions from the audience. Following a break, a panel engaged with some of Weiss’s research, including articles on Christians and Levites, and the possibility that early Christians did not baptize their children, instead letting them be born into salvation.

After a lunch break, Weiss took a turn introducing Thiessen’s work in a section called, “Reading the New Testament within Judaism.” Thiessen then responded. A panel then engaged in Thiessen’s work, including reflections on how to read Paul with an awareness of Judaism, and whether Jesus meant to start a new religion.

Dula was the guiding force in bringing the two scholars together to have the event. “You’ve got a Jewish scholar writing really perceptively about Anabaptist themes, and you have this Mennonite scholar writing really perceptively about Judaism,” Dula said. “So, I thought we should get them together.”

Nussbaum reflected on the efficacy of the dialogue, and how it was in large part also due to the highlighted speakers. “It worked because the two scholars we were highlighting shared the spotlight so well,” she said. “How many times did we hear, ‘and now I want to open it up to you all?’”

Miranda Beidler, an EMU senior who helped coordinate the event in her role as a student chaplain with the CIE, praised the event and guests for creating “inherent dialogue.” She said, “[The speakers] were so willing and open to talk about their beliefs, their theology, in ways that were open and curious about the others’ theology and beliefs, but without imposing their beliefs on somebody else.”

Sara Kennel, another senior student chaplain at EMU, was struck by the openness and intellectualism of the event participants, saying, “It felt like a gathering of a lot of people that care about understanding differences, but also are deeply intellectual. … I don’t think that I’ve encountered that many spaces at EMU that are that level of scholarship.”

Nussbaum was struck by the impact of cross-religious dialogue, saying, “It’s something pretty amazing that we can see ourselves in another faith. … It was a spiritual love-fest.” Beidler, similarly, connected the event to CIE’s—and EMU’s—goals of interfaith work, saying, “It’s us putting into action when we say we care about learning from other people and from other cultures.”

Trina Trotter Nussbaum ’00, MA ’17 will never forget the first time she saw the view from the Campus Center balcony. Standing on the balcony overlooking the Front Lawn and gazing east toward the Blue Ridge Mountains, the then-first-year student recalled telling a friend: “I don’t know what I’m going to study, but I know this is where I need to be. This is my place.”

“All it took was one look at those mountains, and they seemed to tell me, ‘You belong here,’” Trotter Nussbaum said. 

That was nearly 30 years ago. Today, Trotter Nussbaum is the new director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement, a position she’s held since Jan. 1. She still feels that same sense of belonging at EMU and works to ensure others on campus feel it too. Through her role at CIE, she celebrates and supports students, faculty and staff from a wide range of faith traditions and backgrounds. 

It was a long road that led her to EMU. After graduating from high school in North Lima, Ohio, Trotter Nussbaum, who was raised Mennonite, moved to Pittsburgh and completed travel agency school. She gradually learned that it wasn’t the career for her. Returning home to Ohio, she ran into a childhood friend about to graduate from EMU who told her, “You should give EMU a try.” It was just the push she needed. 

Trotter Nussbaum arrived on campus in the fall of 1995 as a 22-year-old first-year English major. She was older than the others in her Northlawn dorm, but she saw that as a blessing. “It helped me settle down and figure out what I wanted to do.”

That turned out to be theater. Trotter Nussbaum credits EMU’s theater program with recognizing her strengths as a performer and teaching her invaluable listening and improv skills. During the second semester of her junior year, she added a psychology major. Though it delayed her graduation by another year, she said it ended up being one of the best decisions she ever made. “I might not be acting or counseling right now, but I draw on those skills every day,” Trotter Nussbaum said. She graduated in 2000 with bachelor’s degrees in theater and psychology, along with a minor in justice, peace and conflict studies. She said professors in her justice and theology classes challenged her faith with love and grace, ultimately strengthening it and shaping her into the faith-based peacebuilder she is today.

After a decade spent working at nonprofits and government agencies, Trotter Nussbaum returned to EMU in 2013 as associate director of CIE. Fueled by formative experiences during a 1998 intercultural trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland, she began pursuing a master’s degree in conflict transformation at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. It took her another five years to complete the two-year program while working at CIE and raising two children. In 2017, she earned her MA.

Ever the lifelong learner, Trotter Nussbaum continues to seek out further education. She’s working toward earning MDiv equivalency so that she can enroll in the new Doctor of Ministry program at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. 

Over the years, she’s received numerous scholarships as a student. She said those scholarships, as well as EMU’s tuition benefits for employees, made it possible for her to continue her studies. “I love how EMU encourages its employees to take the classes they want to take,” she said. “The ability to take classes, even one at a time, for almost free is such a blessing.”

Trotter Nussbaum and her husband, Brian Nussbaum ’00, live in Harrisonburg with their two children. Her brother, Travis Trotter ’99, serves as university registrar for EMU.

Your generous support helps students like Trotter Nussbaum pursue a quality college education without financial barriers. Join us for the 9th annual LovEMU Giving Day and contribute to the scholarships that empower future EMU students. Together, we can help write EMU’s next chapter.

Read the previous profiles in our A Royal Tale series:

An evening of powerful poetry performed by jessica Care moore and Brad Walrond will kick off EMU’s Writers Read Author series this month.

Verses & Vibes, an event featuring the pair of poets, authors and recording artists, will begin at 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 23, at the Common Grounds space in EMU’s University Commons. The event is free to attend and open to the public.

Following their poetry performances, moore and Walrond will lead a Q&A session and participate in a book signing (copies of their books will be available to purchase).

(who stylizes her first and last names in lowercase) is an internationally renowned poet, playwright, performance artist and producer. She is the founder of book publishing company , founder and producer of , and founder of The Moore Art House, a nonprofit dedicated to improving literacy in Detroit.

In April she was the poet laureate of Detroit. She is the third poet laureate to serve the city since 1981.

moore has performed on stages all over the world, including the Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the London Institute for Contemporary Arts. She, along with Walrond, will perform at the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University this month.

She is the author of The Words Don’t Fit in My Mouth, The Alphabet Verses the Ghetto, and Sunlight Through Bullet Holes. The poems in her latest collection, We Want Our Bodies Back, speak to “Black women’s creative and intellectual power, and express the pain, sadness, and anger of those who suffer constant scrutiny because of their gender and race” (, 2020).

moore is a two-time Knight Arts recipient, 2018 Joyce Award winner, 2016 Kresge Artist Fellow, 2013 Alain Locke Award recipient, and the 2015 NAACP Great Expectations Award recipient.

is a poet, author, conceptual/performance artist, and one of the foremost writers and performers of the 1990s Black Arts Movement centered in New York City. His poems have been published in The Atlantic, African Voices Magazine, Moko Magazine, ArtsEverywhere, Eleven Eleven, and Wordpeace. His latest collection of poems, Every Where Alien, “traces blackness, queerness, and desire through the legacy of 1990s and early 2000s New York City underground art movements, illuminating how their roots and undertold histories inspire today’s culture” (, 2024).

Copies of moore’s and Walrond’s are available to check out at EMU’s Sadie Hartzler Library.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion partnered with Writers Read, the Office of Student Life, and the Center for Interfaith Engagement to bring this event to life. 

Dawn Neil, coordinator for the Office of DEI, said she had seen moore perform her poetry at the White Privilege Conference in Tulsa this past April.

“Listening to her, the raw power and emotion in her voice gave me chills,” Neil said. “Bringing her here feels essential. Her message needs to be heard, and I believe it’s one that our students will deeply connect with.”