Dr. Davis Hankins
Director
Dr. Davis Hankins (hankinscd@appstate.edu) is an associate professor of religious studies in the Department of Philosophy and Religion. He holds a B.S. from North Carolina State University, an M.Div. from Columbia Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Emory University.
Hankins' research focuses on the intersection of political economy, religion and literature in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world. His first book, The Book of Job and the Immanent Genesis of Transcendence (Northwestern University Press, 2015), received the 2017 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise. He recently submitted a book manuscript on the socioeconomic and political transformations that occurred under the Ptolemaic administration of Egypt, and is currently completing research on related changes in Judaea and in Jewish intellectual history under the Ptolemies in the early Hellenistic period.
A native of North Carolina, Hankins joined Appalachian State's Department of Philosophy and Religion in 2011, and has served as an affiliate faculty member in CJHPS since 2016. He teaches surveys of the Hebrew Bible, Judaism and the New Testament, and other courses on prophecy and justice, gender and sexuality and visual art and religion. In 2019, he completed the Summer Institute on the Holocaust and Jewish Civilization at Northwestern University’s Holocaust Educational Foundation.
Ms. Amy Hudnall
Assistant Director of Outreach and Public Relations
Ms. Amy Hudnall (hudnallac@appstate.edu) is an alumna of the College of Arts and Sciences, earning a B.A. in German Studies and a B.A. and M.A. in History from Appalachian State.
The recipient of the 2015 Wayne D. Duncan Faculty Enrichment and Teaching Fellowship for Outstanding Teaching in General Education and the 2023 Excellence in Academic Advising Award, Hudnall holds a dual appointment as a senior lecturer in the Department of History and the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies (Global Studies). She is also a Fellow at the Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies (CJHPS), and on the Advisory Board of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies.
Hudnall's work focuses on key aspects of genocide, in particular trauma theory, perpetrators and cross-cultural conflict. She has written numerous articles and book chapters, as well as presented at multiple venues around the world. Hudnall has been affiliated with CJHPS since its inception over two decades ago, and she led the Center as interim director from 2022 to 2024. Additionally, she has served on numerous nonprofit boards and was the Executive Director of the nonprofit horse rescue, Horse Helpers of the High Country, for 17 years.