Education: BS, University of Indonesia (2006); M.Div, Acadia Divinity College (2013); S.T.M., Yale University (2016); PhD, Cambridge University (expected 2021).
A native of Jakarta, Indonesia, Chakrita has spent the past 11 years living, studying, and serving in three other countries on two continents. After completing her Bachelor of Engineering (majoring in Industrial Engineering) at the University of Indonesia, she developed her passion for theology and biblical studies. She completed her graduate studies in theology with a Master of Divinity at Acadia Divinity College, Canada, in 2013. From Acadia, she received many awards and distinctions, such as the Silver Medal in Theology and the President’s Award for being the top all-around graduating student from the Divinity College. She continued her studies at Yale Divinity School from where she received her Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.), focusing on New Testament studies, in 2016. During her studies at Yale University, she was granted the James L. Waits International Award which supports the most promising students from developing regions of the world in the master’s program. This led her to pursue her PhD in Theology and Religious Studies (in New Testament) at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom; where in this past summer, she successfully defended her PhD Thesis on “The Narrative Function(s) of Evil Spirits in Luke’s Gospel.”
Currently she is also serving as a steering committee member for the ‘Interrelations of the Gospels’ program unit at the Society of Biblical Literature annual conference, and she has an upcoming publication on ”Competitive Traditions: Matthew’s and Luke’s contextualization of the Beelzebul Controversy.” She is also completing her project focusing on feminine symbolisms in the book of Revelation. Chakrita’s research interests include biblical demonology, apocalypticism and eschatology of the Jewish Second Temple texts and New Testament, women in the New Testament world, and interdisciplinary approaches to the biblical text, e.g., identity formation in Jewish and Christian apocalyptic texts, narratology and narrative criticism.
Chakrita is married to Benjamin who is native to Seattle. They are both excited to serve the Lord and his people in this new journey together.