Ph.D. projects on Africa/Bible

Professor Holter has supervised Ph.D. students in biblical studies and other theological disciplines on three continents. The following list includes only those Ph.D. projects that focus explicitly on the encounter between Africa and the Bible (mainly Hebrew Bible/Old Testament).

Current projects

• Main supervisor: Thomas Leonard Ndama (Tanzania): Old Testament project, Tumaini University Makumira (Usa River, Tanzania).
• Co-supervisor (with Anna Rebecca Solevåg): Myriam Pauline Razanamaro (Madagascar): “Re-interpretation of 1 Corinthians 14:33b-40 through the lens of Nenilava’s spiritual authority and leadership,” VID Specialized University (Stavanger, Norway).
• Co-supervisor (with Tina Dykesteen Nilsen): Charlotte B.N. Sibatanyoni (South Africa): “An intercultural reading of Psalm 137 and the film Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema,” VID Specialized University (Stavanger, Norway).
• Co-supervisor (with Zorodzai Dube): Blandin E. Nomenanahary (Madagascar): “Reading Leviticus 3:1-11 from a Bara perspective,” VID Specialized University (Stavanger, Norway).
• Main supervisor (with Marta Høyland Lavik): Kjersti Wee (Norway): “A good wife? A critical study of how ordinary Bible readers in Madagascar understand Proverbs 31:10-31 in relation to the question of women oppression and liberation,” VID Specialized University (Stavanger, Norway).

Completed projects

• Co-supervisor (with Marta Høyland Lavik): Medhat Nady (Egypt): “From judgment to blessing: An exegetical analysis of Isaiah 19,” VID Specialized University (Stavanger, Norway), 2024.
• Co-supervisor (with Mark Rich): Justin E. Mungure (Tanzania): “Jacob Deception and Divine Grace: An Analysis of Deception and Divine Grace in Relation with the Process for the Fulfilment of Patriarchal Divine Promises in the Jacob Cycle with Reference to Genesis 25:19-34; 27:1-28:22,” Faculty of Theology, Tumaini University Makumira (Usa River, Tanzania), 2022.
• Main supervisor of Hoyce Jacob Lyimo-Mbowe’s (Tanzania) postdoctoral, monograph project “Maasai women and the Old Testament: Towards an emancipatory reading,” VID Specialized University (Stavanger, Norway), 2018.
• Main supervisor: Zephania Shila Nkesela (Tanzania): “A Maasai Encounter with the Bible: Nomadic lifestyle as a hermeneutical question,” VID Specialized University (Stavanger, Norway), 2018.
• Main supervisor: Beth E. Elness-Hanson (USA): “Generational curses in the Pentateuch: An American and Maasai intercultural analysis,” VID Specialized University (Stavanger, Norway), 2016.
• Main supervisor (with Marta Høyland Lavik): Nkabala Helen Nambalirwa (Uganda): “‘There is no difference between Moses and Kony’: A critical analysis of the contextual use of some Old Testament texts and motifs in the early years of the Lord’s Resistance Army,” School of Mission and Theology (Stavanger, Norway), 2012.
• Co-supervisor (with Gordon H. Johnson and Eugene H. Merrill): Nicholas Oyugi Odhiambo (Nigeria): “Ham’s Sin and Noah’s Curse: A Critique of Current View,” Dallas Theological Seminary (Dallas, USA), 2007.
• Co-supervisor (with Magdel leRoux): Georges Andrianoelina Razafindrakoto (Madagascar): “Old Testament texts in Malagasy contexts: An analysis of the use of the Old Testament in three religious contexts in Madagascar,” University of South Africa (Pretoria, South Africa), 2006.
• Co-supervisor (with Willie van Heerden): Philip Lokel (Uganda): “The importance and challenges of finding Africa in the Old Testament: The case of the Cush texts,” University of South Africa (Pretoria, South Africa), 2006.
• Co-supervisor (with Madipoane Masenya): Lechion Peter Kimilike (Tanzania): “An African perspective on poverty proverbs in the book of Proverbs: An analysis for transformational possibilities,” University of South Africa (Pretoria, South Africa), 2006.
• Main supervisor: Marta Høyland Lavik (Norway): “A people tall and smooth-skinned: The rhetoric of Isaiah 18,” University of Oslo (Oslo, Norway), 2004.