Chance Bonar

As an advisor, I aim to support students from a range of backgrounds and experiences as they navigate not only the complexities and possibilities of UVA’s liberal arts curriculum, but also as they consider how their education informs their relationships with local, national and global communities. I understand the product of the liberal arts curriculum not to be a diploma, but a person who can critically and ethically engage with communities, work towards solving the problems they face and respond in creative and fruitful ways when new questions or issues arise.

I help students reach their academic goals by treating advising as a collaborative process in which we explore what questions or topics animate a student, respond to academic difficulties, connect them to a range of resources across UVA and map out how to achieve their short-term and long-term goals.

Before coming to UVA, I earned a Ph.D. and A.M. in Religion at Harvard University, an M.A. in Religion at Yale Divinity School and a B.A. in Classics and Religion at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. My research interests cover a range of topics: ancient Mediterranean religions, slavery and unfree labor, the history of authorship, antisemitism, and the literature of the ancient Levant.