Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, professor of religion and culture in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title of professor emerita by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

The emerita title may be conferred on retired professors, associate professors, and administrative officers who are specially recommended to the board by Virginia Tech President Tim Sands. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board receive an emeritus certificate from the university.

A member of the university community since 1980, Malbon is nationally and internationally known for her literary studies of the Gospel of Mark. She is the author of five books and has edited or coedited five additional books.

She is an active member of the Society of Biblical Literature, serving as regional president, member of the national program committee and nominating committee, and chair or co-chair of two national program units and steering committee member of two others. She is an elected member of the international Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (Society for New Testament Study).

Regarded as an excellent mentor to junior colleagues and students, Malbon received the mentoring award by the Status of Women in the Profession Committee of the Society of Biblical Literature in 2013.

During her tenure at Virginia Tech, Malbon served as an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion from 1980 to 1985, an associate professor in the Department of Religion from 1985 to 1992, and a professor in the Department of Religion from 1992 to 1994. She also served as director of – and a professor in – the Religious Studies Program from 1994 to 2001 before and after it became part of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in 1995.

She continued to serve as a professor in the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies until it became the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in 2003 and then the Department of Religion and Culture in 2009.

Malbon was instrumental in the creation of Virginia Tech’s undergraduate degree in religion and culture, which was launched in 2013. She has taught 23 different courses to thousands of students.

She received many college and university awards, most notably earning, in 2014, the William E. Wine Award and the Alumni Award for Excellence in Research, one of the few faculty members in the university’s history to earn both honors in the same year.

Malbon received her bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and Ph.D. from Florida State University.

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