Ph.D. projects

Ph.D. projects on Africa / Old Testament

Professor Holter has supervised Ph.D. students in biblical studies and other theological disciplines on three continents. The following is a list of those Ph.D. projects that focus on the encounter between Africa and the Old Testament.

Current projects
  • 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).
  • Co-supervisor (with Marta Høyland Lavik): Medhat Nady (Egypt): “From judgment to blessing: An exegetical analysis of Isaiah 19,” 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 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 le Roux): 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.