2023 SESSIONS
2023 Women's Caucus Programming
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Workshop - Friday, November 17, 2:30 PM-4:30 PM (CST)
Women's Caucus Workshop Gathering
Session #1 - Saturday, November 18, 12:30-2:30PM (CST)
Feminist Liberation Theologians and “La Labor de nuestras manos”
Session #2 - Saturday, November 18, 5:00 PM- 6:30 PM (CST)
Emerging Scholars - Religion and “Women’s Work"
Session #3 - Sunday, November 19, 9:00AM - 11:00 AM (CST)
Unpacking African Women Theologians’ Decolonial Methodologies
Session #4 - Sunday November 19, 12:30-2:30pm (CST)
New Books on Gender & Religion
Session #5 -Sunday, November 19, 3:00 PM-4:30 PM (CST)
International Women's Caucus Panel -
Gendered Care Work & Emerging Ethics in the Context of Religion, Gender & Postcoloniality
Session #6 -Monday, November 20, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM (CST)
Women's Caucus Business Meeting AAR-SBL
Friday
Nov 17,
12:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Women's Caucus Workshop Gathering
Come to network and enjoy the camaraderie of the Women's Caucus. Learn about the caucus and join in this workshop-style session as we engage the 2023 AAR conference theme, “La Labor de Nuestras Manos” from the perspective of those researching on gender and religion. Join in this exciting conversation as we share ideas on how we might advance the public engagement of this topic through our research, in our institutions, and beyond. As part of the program, we would like to give a warm welcome to international scholars and encourage them to attend our gathering.
We will also be hosting a time to learn some self-defense measures from one of our own from the leadership team, Raya Hazini!
All Are Welcome!
Facilitators:
Elaine Nogueira-Godsey, Drew University; Women’s Caucus Co-Chair
Elizabeth Freese, Drew University; Women’s Caucus Co-Chair
Deborah Fulthorp, Grand Canyon University; Women’s Caucus Co-Chair
Saturday
Nov 18,
12:30 pm
-2:30 pm
Session #1 Feminist Liberation Theologians and “La Labor de Nuestras Manos.”
In light of the 2023 AAR/SBL theme “La Labor de Nuestras Manos,” book authors in this session will address the intersection of women’s daily experiences and the academy—asking questions such as how the hierarchical dualism between public and domestic spheres manifests today within the academic contexts. Speakers will reflect on their recent book publications, considering the factors that perpetuate stereotypes and create taboos around the worth of women’s scholarly works. They will explore topics that are often avoided within academic discussions, such as childbearing, surrogacy, parenting, abortion, rape, and disabilities, and address the question if the lack of engagement with such topics contributes to economic injustices and other justice realities.
Presider:
Elaine Nogueira-Godsey, Drew University; Women’s Caucus Co-Chair
Panelists
Danielle Tumminio Hansen, Emory University
“Speaking of Rape: The Limits of Language in Sexual Violations.”
Grace Kao, Claremont School of Theology
“My Body, Their Baby: A Progressive Christian Vision on Surrogacy.”
Lisa Powell, St. Ambrose University
“The Disabled God Revisited: Trinity, Christology, and Liberation.”
Respondant
Mary E. Hunt, Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual
Saturday,
Nov 18,
5 pm-
6:30 pm
Session #2 - Emerging Scholars - Religion and “Women’s Work”
Graduate students and early career scholars will present innovative research from fresh questions at the intersection of gender and religion in light of the conference theme “La Labor de Nuestras Manos” (“The Labor of Our Hands”). These papers all engage the theme of “women’s work,” broadly construed, and consider how religion constructs the labor traditionally associated with women’s roles in ways that devalue, exalt, oppress or liberate such labor. Ranging from Xvangelical perspectives on reproduction and abortion, to a reading of colonized Aboriginal domestic labor through Ruth 2, to early Pentecostal understandings of women’s religious praxis beyond the home, to the spiritual healing work of early church female deacons, these papers delve into the heart of religion and gender construction dynamics and shed light on the major transformations of gender in our time.
Presiding
Raya M. Hazini, Graduate Theological Union
Panelists
"Feminist Trajectories: Xvangelical Responses to the Overturn of Roe v Wade.”
Nadine Walter, University of Rostock
“Gleaning and Labouring at the Edges: Reading Ruth 2 with Natalie Harkin’s ‘Domestic.’”
Rebecca Lindsay, Flinders University
“Examining Pentecostal History of the Concept of Woman’s Work and ‘ēzer (עֵזֶר) in Genesis 2:18.”
Jenny Davila-Holloway, Regent University
“Let the Women Heal”: The Pastoral Work of the Deacon Domnika.”
Laura Wilson, Antiochian House of Studies
Sunday,
Nov 19,
9:00 am- 11:00 am
Sunday
Nov. 19,
12:30 pm- 2:30 pm
Sunday,
Nov 19, 3:00pm-4:00 pm
Monday Nov 20,
5:00 pm-6:30pm
Session #3 African Biographies: Unpacking African Women Theologians’ Decolonial Methodologies
This session highlights the work of African women theologians who are noteworthy creators and innovators in the various fields of religion, spirituality, and religious activism. African women theologians have addressed religious, environmental, socio-economic, political, health, gender equality, and other related issues that affect the African continent, yet traditional gender bias, economic status, domestic and occupational constraints, and racist, colonial, and class norms have obscured the noteworthy character of their lives and scholarly work. This session contextualizes issues of colonial bias and maps how African women theologians overcome coloniality in their works.
Women's Caucus Co-Chair Welcome
Elaine Nogueira-Godsey, Drew University
Presiding
Telesia Musili, University of Nairobi
Panelists
“Revisiting Afua Kuma’s Christology: The Redemptive Currencies of Boundaryless Faith, Embodied Spirituality, and Theological Imagination.”
Ruth Amwe, Princeton Theological Seminary
“Hannah Wangeci Kinoti: Biography of a matriarch of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians.”
Edith Chamwama
“Comfort Max-Wirth: Pentecostal-Charismatic Decolonialism through Truth-Telling in Ghana, West Africa.
Deborah Fulthorp, Grand Canyon University
“Telling Her Stories by the African Fireside: Unpacking African Women Theologians Epistemologies between Social Justice and Decoloniality in Kenya: the life, ministry, activism, civic and public roles of the Rev Dr. Linda Ochola-Adolwa.”
Damaris Parsitau
Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice, University of Western Cape, SA
“Jeannie Dove: A theologies of spiritual healing in African Contexts”
Michael Hamilton, Principia College
The Mary Baker Eddy Library, Boston
“Faith, Culture, and Liberation: The Journey of Alphama Kinyua, an African Woman Theologian”
Jackline Makena
Responding
Esther Mombo,
St. Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya
Session #4 New Books on Gender and Religion
This session presents scholars who have published books in the discipline of women’s studies, gender, theology and religion in 2022-2023. This panel’s authors will provide an overview of their books and share their perspectives on current research being published on women and gender studies. Authors will also discuss how they visualize their books in constructing knowledge and influencing the public sphere. In addition, these scholars will share their experiences regarding strategies and mechanics for getting women’s studies in theology and religion books published, and offer advice for those seeking publication of related book manuscripts.
Women's Caucus Co-Chair Welcome
Elizabeth Freese, Drew University
Presiding
Deborah Fulthorp, Grand Canyon University
Panelists
Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church
Nijay Gupta, Northern Seminary
Nevertheless We Persist by Rosemary Carbine
Rosemary P. Carbine, Whittier College
Language for God: A Lutheran Perspective
Mary J. Streufert, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Women and the Gender of God
Amy Peeler, Wheaton College
The Theology of Mercy Amba Oduyoye: Ecumenism, Feminism, and Communal Practice
Oluwatomisin Oredein, Brite Divinity School
(R)evolutionary Hope: A Spirituality of Encounter and Engagement in An Evolving World
Kathleen Bonnette, Georgetown University
Responding
Kimberly Carter, California Institute of Integral Studies
Session #5 International Women's Caucus Panel
"Gendered Care Work and Emerging Ethics in the Context of Religion, Gender, and Postcoloniality"
This panel brings together women's experiences from outside the United States and focuses on gendered care work in churches, including the local independent church in Africa and the Catholic Church globally. Churches are often guilty of persisting feminization of poverty, legitimizing it with religious rationale. HIV and AIDS, Covid-19, and Ebola have exposed the magnitude of care-related tasks that women undertake, especially in the African context. The International Survey of Catholic Women(ISCW), the largest international survey of Catholic women ever carried out, further proves that although it is widely acknowledged that women carry out the bulk of labour in Catholic parishes and organizations, their labour is not only undervalued, but some even experience workplace harassment. The lived experiences of women in religion are shared but also different. This panel considers the context of postcoloniality in which various subaltern voices in religion are often muted or distorted. In arguing for postcolonial ethics that is attentive to these voices, a minor and dissident ethics is suggested that opens up a zone or area of uncertainty in times of crisis, including the crisis of colonial encounter.
Presider:
Ulrike Auga, Humboldt University of Berlin
Panelists
“Deconstructing Gendered Glorification of Charitable Work: A Case of Women in Nomiya Church Eastleigh, Nairobi-Kenya.”
Telesia Musili, University of Nairobi
“The International Survey of Catholic Women: “La Labor de Nuestras Manos” in Catholic Parishes and Organizations.”
Tracy McEwan, University of Newcastle, Australia
Kathleen McPhillips, University of Newcastle, Australia
Responding:
Session #6 Women's Caucus Business Meeting
All are welcome to join the Women's Caucus Leadership team. Come and learn about our many
projects and plans for 2023.
Presiding
Elaine Nogueira-Godsey, Drew University
Elizabeth Freese, Drew University
Debbie Fulthorp, Grand Canyon University
Panelists
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Kimberly Carter, California Institute of Integral Studies
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Ulrike Auga, Humboldt University, Berlin
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Cristina Lledo Gomez, BBI Australian Institute for Theological Education
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Rosalind F. Hinton, LAOUTLOUD
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Colleen D. Hartung, 1000 Women in Religion Wikipedia Project
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Tracy McEwan, University of Newcastle, Australia
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Theresa A. Yugar, California State University, Los Angeles
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Mahjabeen Dhala, Graduate Theological Union
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Jonathon Eder, Mary Baker Eddy Library
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Julia Berger, Montclair State University
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Emily Silverman, Graduate Theological Union
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Colette Qualtieri, Arizona State University
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Winifred Whelan, Saint Bonaventure University