Jepson School presents Jablin Dissertation Award for outstanding new scholarship

The Jepson School of Leadership Studies has named theologian Jack Barentsen recipient of the 2012 Fredric M. Jablin Doctoral Dissertation Award for his work on “Emerging Leadership in the Pauline Mission: A Social Identity Perspective on Local Leadership Development in Corinth and Ephesus.”

Sandra J. Peart, dean of the Jepson School, and Shelly Wilsey, director of the International Leadership Association, presented Barentsen with the award at the School’s 20th Anniversary Symposium, “The State of Leadership Studies,” held at the University of Richmond Feb. 1-2.

The award is given annually in collaboration with the International Leadership Association to a scholar from any discipline whose doctoral dissertation demonstrates substantial insights and implications for the study of leadership.

Barentsen is an assistant professor of practical theology at the Institute for Leadership and Ethics, The Evangelical Theological Faculty, in Leuven, Belgium. His work shows the importance of communication strategies for the founding and expanding of religious communities and for the sustaining of their leadership.

The Jablin Dissertation Award was established to honor the life of leadership studies professor Fredric M. Jablin.