Sister Carolyn Osiek, rscj, professor of New Testament at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas, is the new vice-president, president-elect of the Society of Biblical Literature. She is only the fourth woman, and the eighth Catholic, to be elected to that post in the 123-year history of the international scholarly organization. The organization, which promotes critical investigation of the Bible, has 6,000 members.

Sister Osiek was elected to her new post at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, held Nov. 22-25 in Atlanta. Women who preceded her in the office are Phyllis Trible (1994), Elisabeth Schuessler Fiorenza (1987) and Adele Berlin (2000).

In 1995, Sister Osiek served as president of the Catholic Biblical Association, the second woman to hold the top office in that organization. She holds a doctorate in New Testament and Christian Origins from Harvard University. She was appointed to faculty of Brite Divinity School of Texas Christian University in September after 26 years as a professor at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

Sister Osiek is editor of the 15-volume Message of Biblical Spirituality series (published by Michael Glazier/Liturgical Press), and is a former associate editor of The Bible Today and New Testament Book Review Editor of the Catholic Biblical Quarterly. She is the author of Beyond Anger: On Being a Feminist in the Church (1986) and What Are They Saying about the Social Setting of the New Testament? (revised edition, 1992), both published by Paulist Press. Recently, she served as a consultant on the movie “The Gospel of John ,” currently making the rounds of U.S. theaters.

She is one of four editors of Silent Voices, Sacred Lives: Women’s Readings for the Liturgical Year (Paulist Press, 1992) and more recently, co-author with David Balch of Families in the New Testament World: Households and House Churches (Westminster John Knox, 1997). Her most recent publications are The Shepherd of Hermas (Hermeneia Commentaries; Fortress Press, 1999), Philippians and Philemon (Abingdon New Testament Commentaries; Abingdon Press, 2000), and Early Christian Families in Context: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue (ed. with David Balch; Eerdmans, 2003).