On 17 April this year, the election of the faculty dean took place at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Latvia, in which the Faculty of Theology council elected Assoc. Prof. Dr. theol. Dace Balode (who is also a member of the LLSTA) as the new dean!
16 (of 17) members present voted “in favor” of Dace Balode’s candidacy.
“Dace is the first woman in Latvian history to take up the office of Dean of the Faculty of Theology. The first dean in the faculty’s history who is not an ordained clergyman. And the first dean to have received such undivided support from the council at the moment of election,” states the current Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Ralfs Kokins, who served in the office of dean for 8 years.
Dace Balode studied Protestant theology in Bern (Switzerland) and earned her doctorate at the University of Tartu (Estonia). At present Dace Balode is an associate professor of biblical theology, an expert of the Latvian Council of Science in the field of theology and religious studies, director of the Bachelor’s program in Theology and Religious Studies at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Latvia, and chair of the Doctoral Council in Theology and Religious Studies. Photo: from the University of Latvia website www.lu.lv