Winter Bible Institute 2020 - Rev. Dr. Boyung Lee, February 23

"Reading from an Interstitial Space: An Asian American Transnational Feminist Reading of Matthew 20:10-16" Rev. Dr. Boyung Lee, Professor of Practical Theology, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty, Iliff School of Theology  As an Asian immigrant woman speaking with strong accents who has crossed various physical and metaphorical borders, and yet having a “successful” professional career with power and privilege, I reside in multiple centers and margins of the American society at the same time. Inspired by Rita Nakashima Brock’s notion of Interstitial Integrity, I call my social and reading location interstitial spaces - worlds between Asia and America, centers and margins, home and foreign land, and floating in and out of them while creating more spaces along the way. Living in interstitial spaces means that I refuse to disconnect from any of my multiple and in-between locations and borders, while not pledging allegiance to a singular one. It is also a space that challenges me to engage in solidarity with others who also live in various interstices for the wholeness of ALL. Utilizing this location as a reading lens, I read the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard as God's invitation to solidarity for justice across various borders.