Listen to scholars and activists reflect on the execution of Troy Davis. Troy was executed  by the state on September 21, 2011, despite an abundance of evidence calling into question whether he was actually even guilty of a crime.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Laura Markle Downton reflects on how racism and white privilege perpetuate state-sanctioned systems of violence and trauma.  (44 minutes)

Laura is the Criminal Justice Grassroots Coordinator at General Board of Church and Society, UMC. She holds a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, with a concentration in Women’s Studies.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 Emilie Townes discusses her work as a womanist ethicist and her thoughts on capital punishment. (12 minutes)

Dr. Emilie M. Townes holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School and a Ph.D. in Religion in Society and Personality from Northwestern University. She is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Yale Divinity School, as well as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology.  Dr. Townes is  the author of numerous texts, including her groundbreaking book, Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 Diana Swancutt talks about the Bible and racism; ideology and systems of violence; and why learning to lament in community might be one way to transform injustice. (46 minutes)

A Society of Biblical Literature Regional Scholar and recent winner of the Lilly/ATS Faculty Sabbatical Grant, Professor Swancutt combines interests in gender, ethnicity and empire studies, rhetoric, ideological criticism, and ancient social practices in her interdisciplinary research. She focuses on early Christian identity formation in Pauline communities, particularly the resocialization of Greeks into Pauline Christian Judaism.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 Andre Willis shares on disciplinary boundaries in the academy; the need for visionary and healing tools and practices; and the injustice of the death penalty. (35 minutes)

Dr. Andre C. Willis is Assistant Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at Yale Divinity School.  Willis has published articles on American pragmatism and religion, religion and democracy, African American thought and history, and jazz music. He is a regular contributor to the website theroot.com and is editor of Faith of Our Fathers: African-American Men Reflect on Fatherhood. He earned his PhD from Harvard University.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 Jason Craige Harris articulates the historical injustices behind the use of the death penalty. (50 minutes)

Jason Craige Harris is a third-year master’s candidate in Black Religion in the African Diaspora and a Marquand merit scholar at Yale Divinity School. His research and writing are principally concerned with black life, Christianity, colonialism, rhetorical violence, feminisms, and ultimately planetary flourishing. With an eye toward contemporary social problems, he considers the religious strategies and visions that historically marginalized peoples have used and casted to respond to conditions of living and being delimited by restrictive understandings of race, gender, religion, and nation.

Title of Course: Inheritances of Violence: Re-thinking Sexual Violence in the U.S.

Instructor: Kimberly B. George

Dates/Times:
Friday January 6^th from 6:30–8:30 p.m.
Saturday January 7^th from 9:30 –4:30  (1-hour lunch break from 12:30–1:30)

Location: Northwest Family Life
11320 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, WA 98125

Northwest Family Life is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEPTM) and a co-sponsor of this program.NBCC provider #6300. Northwest Family Life may award NBCC-approved clock hours for events or programs that meet NBCC requirements. The ACEP maintains responsibility for the content of this event.

Cost: $170 if registered by December 15, or $195 after December 15. (Note: Registration fee is 100% refundable until December 15, and 50% refundable through January 1. After January 1, there are unfortunately no refunds.)

Register: This class is currently not taking sign-ups as of 12/20.

Description: This class brings a historical, philosophical, psychological, and theological analysis to contemporary issues of sexual violence within the U.S. It’s designed for therapists, leaders in the community, and anyone who wants to learn more about why the U.S. has such high rates of sexual violence. We will look at how histories of violence—including sexism, racism and colonialism— shape contemporary realities. Continuing Education Units are available.

Outline of Class:
Module 1. Thinking Historically: Who Defines Sexual Violence?
Module 2. Philosophical Traditions, Western Knowledge, and Sexual Violence
Module 3. Understanding the Contemporary Anti-Rape movement (from 1960s–today)
Module 4.  A Case Study: Representations of Sexual Violence Within the Contemporary Evangelical Pulpit

Bio of Instructor: Kimberly B. George is a writer and teacher. Most recently, she was a Merit Scholar at Yale, where her research interests included feminist theory and sexual violence; American religious history; and the connection between “western” constructs of knowledge and historical systems of violence. Before her time at Yale, she studied English literature at Westmont College and counseling psychology at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology (formerly Mars Hill Graduate School). 

Want to explore how feminist concepts—like empowering women AND seeing intersections between all justice issues—can change the world? Then check out the following links:

Learn how  intersectionality is a key concept for feminism.

Listen as Andrea Smith’s work offers amazing insights on ending violence.

Watch this AMAZING video on Muslim and Christian women partnering to go up against warlords and bring peace in Liberia. (Have some kleenex nearby.)

Listen to what the ever-brilliant Angela Davis has to say about making change happen.