Faculty members at Union Presbyterian Seminary's Richmond campus are participating in a national movement focused on racial and social justice this week. (Photo courtesy Union Presbyterian Seminary)
Several faculty members at Union Presbyterian Seminary’s Richmond campus are hosting virtual teach-ins centered around racial and social justice this week as part of a national educator-led movement called the Scholar Strike.
It was started by University of Pennsylvania professor Anthea Butler and Kevin Gannon, a historian at Grand View University, both of whom wanted to call attention to racial violence across the United States and were inspired by professional athletes who refused to compete in scheduled matches last month after Jacob Blake, a Black man, was shot in the back seven times by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin. More than 600 scholars signed on in the days since the strike's inception late last month, Butler and Gannon told Inside Higher Ed. Virtual teach-ins were either conducted independently or hosted through the Scholar Strike’s YouTube channel.
Locally, Union Presbyterian Seminary professors Christine Luckritz Marquis and Karen-Marie Yust say they saw the idea propagating online and decided to join in while discussing plans for a class they co-teach that is focused on race. After bringing the Scholar Strike movement to the attention of the seminary’s administration, the school’s president and dean both endorsed the idea and encouraged them to spread the word to other professors on campus, they say. Around 90% of the seminary's faculty have since agreed to participate.
“I ... see it as an opportunity for scholars of religion to perhaps reframe and redeem some of the religious narratives that are part of public discourse that are not so committed to ending racism, sexism, classism and all of the other forms of oppression,” Yust says.
Through the nationwide movement lasted from Tuesday to Wednesday, actions led by professors on Union Presbyterian Seminary’s campuses in Richmond and Charlotte, North Carolina, will continue through this Saturday. Lessons have been crafted by a broad set of experts and examine areas including the connections between biblical studies and the Black Lives Matter movement, the roles that church communities have played in recent protests, and other intersections of theology and anti-racist practices.
Luckritz Marquis says it’s critical for seminary educators to teach students about speaking honestly about racism, policing and mass incarceration as they prepare to go into communities where those issues are often prevalent.
“There are so many ways in which religion still permeates our culture, and some of the most vulnerable moments people have are with the folks we're sending out into various ministerial contexts, be that in a church or a nonprofit,” she says. “If we don't send them out there equipped to think with nuance and to see the many layers, … it's not just that they don't help in their context, they do harm, and I've let them do harm because I didn't teach them how to do better.”
See a full list of lessons crafted by UPS faculty during the Scholar Strike.
