Intersectionality & Justice

This class  will provide students with an introduction to intersectionality as a tool for social analysis and critical theological reflection, as a way to inform liberative praxis in various ministry and community contexts. We will engage questions and discussions of race, class, gender, and sexuality as they are treated theologically, emphasizing works from U.S. scholars of color, scholars from the Global South, women, and LGBTQ backgrounds. In addition, the course, wherever appropriate, will make connections to historical and contemporary movements for justice and liberation (both within and outside of church/religious settings) that either inform or are informed by intersectional reflection and action. Finally, we will explore theoretical and practical applications to Episcopal/Anglican ministry settings, and invite students to actively engage their own social locations and ministry contexts as they engage the course material.

Instructor: The Rev. Francisco García is a PhD Student in Theological Studies, Ethics and Action at Vanderbilt University in the Graduate Department of Religion, and a Graduate Research Fellow at the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt Divinity School. He also serves as an Assistant Chaplain at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Chapel in Nashville. Informed by his work in community, faith, and labor organizing in Los Angeles and Nashville, Francisco’s doctoral project entails developing theologies of organizing—rooted in Latinx, Christian and interfaith liberation traditions— that challenge the pressing structural injustices of our time and construct alternatives.