“Feminist Theologies: Heritage and Future”
15-20 June 2008, Washington, DC

The Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) and Feminist Studies in Religion, Inc. (FSR) are pleased to invite graduate students and junior faculty to our first Summer Forum on Feminist Theologies in Washington, DC, June 15-20, 2008. This inaugural year of what we envision as an annual gathering will focus on “Making the Connections: Claiming Our Past—Envisioning Our Future Together.” You are cordially invited to apply.

This residential program provides the space and opportunity to work with colleagues across generations, religions, racial/ethnic, and disciplinary lines creating new knowledge and deepening feminist scholarly collaboration. We are pleased that distinguished scholars in the field, including Katie Geneva Cannon, Mary E. Hunt, Judith Plaskow, Kwok Pui-lan, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, and Deborah Whitehead have agreed to provide leadership for the entire week of lively discussions and creative debate in a communal atmosphere.

This Summer Forum provides a chance to network with colleagues, to learn from and with leading scholars in the field, and to explore together religious and theological questions, methodological approaches, and theoretical frameworks. The many different theoretical voices of womanist, liberationist, Latina, postcolonial, Asian, transcultural, critical rhetorical, critical gender, and black feminist studies in religion and theology will be explored in order to articulate feminist theologies for the future.

The Forum will add a wonderful new dimension to our collaborative work. Making connections with senior scholars in the field is crucial not only for navigating traditional malestream institutions but also for making the connections between feminist studies in religion of the past, present, and future. Making connections with younger scholars is an exciting way to see pioneering work deepened and extended.

The Summer Forum will be held at a conference site in Washington, DC, where all of the participants will live for the week. The program will include plenary sessions, seminars, and working groups as well as meals and informal time together. It aims to deepen our understanding of our rich intellectual history and set the trajectories for new vistas and collaboration for the future. It will be an experience of feminist pedagogy as well as a chance to sharpen one’s own research and teaching focus.

The fee for the Summer Forum is $800 including room, board, and program. Scholarships are available (thanks to the generosity of the Henry Luce Foundation and Feminist Studies in Religion, Inc.) but graduate students and junior faculty are urged to seek funding from their departments and institutions, from their denominations and other sources so that we can include a wide range of participants.

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"Teaching for Change: Creating Knowledge, Transforming Institutions"
Conference sponsored by FSR Inc., June 2005

Feminist Studies in Religion, Inc. planned and hosted a four-day conference entitled "Teaching for Change: Creating Knowledge, Transforming Institutions," from June 10-14, 2005, at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Because the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion has been a pioneer in shaping the field of feminist studies in religion, FSR, Inc. sought on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary of publication to convene this conference to assess the teaching of feminist studies in religion in programs in divinity schools and institutions of higher learning. The conference brought together a diverse group of 80 women for a working conference: 40 senior and junior scholars, 20 graduate students, and 20 practitioners involved in women's centers in theological institutions or community education projects in religion. The conference received generous grant support from the Wabash Center, as well as outside funding from the Ford and Luce Foundations that enabled us to support a number of international participants and speakers.

The conference had three main foci: Taking Stock, a critical survey of the teaching and learning of feminist studies in religion in diverse contexts; Theoretical Analysis, a review of diverse theoretical frameworks of feminist studies in religion and how they affect classroom teaching, course design, choice of pedagogy, evaluation of students, and impact on the academy and wider public; and Strategies and Commitment, a creative envisioning of how to strengthen ongoing feminist networking and mentoring, nurture a new generation, learn across racial and disciplinary boundaries and differences, and reach out to readers not in the academy. Each of the foci were allotted a full day of sessions and speakers. To encourage full involvement and participation, all speakers were drawn from the participant list, and all participants were expected to attend all sessions. The conference format for each session entailed a roundtable composed of a diverse group of speakers, followed by small group discussion meetings. The basic working conference structure was complemented by creative pedagogical elements such as public forums, fishbowls, ritual, music, interest groups and workshops, and a dance and talent show.

In addition, the conference included an evening panel discussion, hosted by Harvard Divinity School and open and publicized to faculty and students in the Boston Theological Institute and the wider community. This was followed by a festive reception celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. About 100 people attended the panel and reception.

The final session of the conference included an exciting time of sharing as each of the ten small discussion groups presented the culmination of their work together over the preceding four days in the form of new proposals and projects to enhance the future of teaching and learning in the field of feminist studies in religion. The organizers solicited evaluation forms from all attendees, which reflected a general sense of excitement and appreciation for what the conference had offered. Some of the highlights of the conference identified in the evaluations included: • The energy generated by the brilliant feminists here built stronger/new community • Being in a space that included not only scholars but practitioners and activists • The amazing feeling of being at a noncompetitive conference • The openness in the working groups and the blending of younger and older participants • Helping us to continue to think about emancipatory pedagogy and broaden the network of engaged scholars • Critically helpful for future collaborative projects and reflection in current practices

A conference follow-up committee was formed to oversee several initiatives and projects that developed from work begun at the conference. These include a proposal for a comprehensive website managed by FSR, Inc. that would serve as a primary resource for the field of feminist studies in religion, an initiative to develop educational materials on feminist studies in religion at the secondary level, and plans for creating and strengthening networks of feminist scholars and activists through developing a feminist speakers collaborative and translation projects.

We have published the papers presented at the panel discussion at Harvard Divinity School in a special section of the fall 2005 issue of JFSR. In addition some of the papers presented at the conference have been published in the fall 2007 issue of JFSR (see "Roundtable Discussion: Teaching for Change," JFSR 23 no. 2: 89-126).

FSR, Inc. hosted a reception at the AAR/SBL meeting in Washington in November 2006, which included a presentation on the conference and a celebration of the work begun there. It also served as a reunion for conference participants.