Dr. David Anthony Basham, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor of New Testament, Assistant Director of Student and Program Development, and Director of Field Education was a Scholar-in-Residence with Ashland University’s Religion Department from 2021-2023. As Assistant Director of Student & Program Development, Tony helps oversee the pre-seminary track for AU Religion majors and minors. After earning degrees at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and Durham University in the North of England, Tony completed his Ph.D. in Early Judaism & New Testament Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, where he was the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including the Travel Award for McGill Ph.D. Students/Postdocs to the University of Glasgow, Scotland. From 2019–2021, he was an Assistant Researcher for the Oxford Press-funded Contexticon Project based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, having authored and contributed to several articles on the history of usage for New Testament Greek terms. In 2022, Tony was a Dirk Smilde Scholar at the University of Groningen’s Qumran Institute in the Netherlands, where he and others led a research seminar and gave public lectures on the use of ritual studies to better understand those behind the Dead Sea Scrolls. Tony’s journey has made him particularly aware of certain challenges that students can face, especially first-generation students of higher education. A desire to study the Bible academically propelled him to be the first in his family from Appalachia to complete high school. Several church communities were instrumental in this regard through their patience and generosity. Furthermore, he knows what it is like to hold ministry positions while completing one’s education. For these reasons, Tony is committed to theological education that benefits the local church.