Katie Geneva Canon Award Description

The Rev. Dr. Katie G. Cannon Award honors her legacy as a pathbreaking womanist scholar in religion and as a founding member of the journal’s editorial board. As part of the journal’s continuing efforts to combat anti-Black racism, this award encourages and gives recognition to womanist scholarship and activism and seeks to facilitate conversation on anti-Black racism and white supremacy as these play out in feminist studies in religion. Submissions for the award can reflect the full range of Dr. Cannon’s interests including any of the featured areas of the journal such as critical and constructive essays, Living It Out activist essays, In a Different Voice poetry and art, or Short Takes on politics in the classroom and beyond (for more on each feature see https://www.fsrinc.org/features/).

The award honors the legacy of Dr. Cannon, born on January 3, 1950, in Kannapolis, NC. Dr. Cannon accomplished many firsts—in 1974 she was the first Black woman to be ordained in the Presbyterian denomination and in 1983 she was the first Black woman to earn a doctorate in ethics from Union Theological Seminary–NYC. Cannon was a deeply committed teacher, activist, inveterate doodler, artist, and a scholar who changed the field of Christian ethics. She had a profound influence on womanist, feminist, and mujerista scholarship in religion. Cannon was active in international collaborations through the World Council of Churches, with the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, and theologians working on other such global efforts. Her monographs include Black Womanist Ethics (1988), Katie’s Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community (1995), and Teaching Preaching: Isaac Rufus Clark and Black Sacred Rhetoric (2002) in addition to edited volumes, chapters, and articles. Cannon founded Squaring the Womanist Circle, a womanist leadership initiative at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, VA, where she taught for over fifteen years. She was a member of the JFSR editorial board from its beginnings until her death in 2018.

Submissions will be awarded and published annually in the Winter/Spring issue of JFSR.

Stable URL: muse.jhu.edu/article/893190

Back to: Volume 39 Number 1