Gay L. Byron papers, circa 1986 -- 2023

Summary Information

Abstract

This collection contains the papers of Gay Byron, including coursework, teaching materials, conference materials, committee work, research files, correspondence, grant materials, manuscript drafts, and other materials. Included in subject and author and colleague files is correspondence; material related to Byron's PhD dissertation and research, including articles, essays, and source materials; and materials related to Byron's teaching at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.

At a Glance

Bib ID:
17385181 View CLIO record
Creator(s):
Byron, Gay L.
Repository:
Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary
Physical Description:
13 linear feet (13 linear feet; 13 boxes)
Language(s):
English .
Access:

This collection is open for research.

This collection is located offsite. Please note that requests for use of boxes held in offsite storage must be made three business days in advance.

Description

Scope and Contents

This collection contains the papers of Gay Byron, including coursework, teaching materials, conference materials, committee work, research files, correspondence, grant materials, manuscript drafts, and other materials. Included in subject and author and colleague files is correspondence; material related to Byron's PhD dissertation and research, including articles, essays, and source materials; and materials related to Byron's teaching at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.

  • Gay L. Byron papers, circa 1986 -- 2023

    This series contains the papers of Gay Byron, including coursework, teaching materials, conference materials, committee work, research files, correspondence, grant materials, manuscript drafts, and other materials. Included in subject and author and colleague files is correspondence; material related to Byron's PhD dissertation and research, including articles, essays, and source materials; and materials related to Byron's teaching at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.

Burke Library record group:

Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship (AWTS)

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in one series in original order.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

This collection is located offsite. Please note that requests for use of boxes held in offsite storage must be made three business days in advance.

Conditions Governing Use

Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Information concerning copyright, fair use, and reproduction requests can be consulted at Columbia's Copyright Advisory Office.

Preferred Citation

Item description, AWTS: Gay L. Byron papers, box #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was donated by Gay L. Byron, accession AWTS-2023-011.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary

Processing Information

Materials were minimally processed: sensitive material was weeded, and original order, boxes, and numbering were maintained when possible. The finding aid, including a box-level inventory and series-level description, was created by Leah Edelman in 2024.

Biographical / Historical

Gay Lynne Byron was born on May 27th, 1961 in Tampa, Florida to Ganius and Betty (Green) Byron. Byron graduated from Florida State University in Tallahassee in 1983 with a B.S. in Accounting, and then from the School of Finance at Clark Atlanta University (formerly Atlanta University) in 1986 with an M.B.A. in Finance. In 1987 Byron joined the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, MI, where she was exposed to the ministry of Rev. Dr. Frederick G. Sampson II at the Historic Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, and subsequently accepted a call to ministry and enrolled at Union Theological Seminary in 1989. Under the mentorship of Dr. Vincent Wimbush and others, Byron graduated with a M.Div., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in Divinity in 1999. Dr. Byron then joined the faculty of the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, where she served as Chair of the Baptisty Missionary Training School, a Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, and as Dean of the Black Church Studies Program. In 2012, Dr. Byron became the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the Howard University School of Divinity, and from 2015-2018, she served as Principal Investigator on a Lilly Endowment grant dealing with the Economic Challenges Facing Future Ministers (ECFFM). Byron's teaching and scholarship focused on liberation and womanist interpretations of the Bible, the Pauline epistles, race and ethnicity in the Bible, and Christianity in ancient Ethiopia. Dr. Byron was at work on a monograph, "Hidden in Plain Sight: Ethiopic Manuscripts and Early Christianity," a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her research built upon earlier publications, including Symbolic Blackness and Ethnic Difference in Early Christian Literature (Routledge Publishing), and as co-editor of Womanist Interpretations of the Bible: Expanding the Discourse (Society of Biblical Literature Press), and most recently, as co-editor of Black Scholars Matter: Visions, Struggles, and Hopes in Africana Biblical Studies (Society of Biblical Literature Press). Byron was an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and lectured widely throughout the country on topics including race and ethnicity in the Bible, African American and womanist hermeneutics, Ethiopic manuscripts, and early Christianity. Gay Byron died on December 6, 2023.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

All links open new windows.

Name
Byron, Gay L. -- : Archives CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Subject
New Testament scholars CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Women theologians CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID