Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology

CV | emilie.townes@yale.edu Phone:(203) 432-3240
Denomination: American Baptist

Professor Townes’s teaching and general research interests focus on Christian ethics, womanist ethics, critical social theory, cultural theory and studies, as well as on postmodernism and social postmodernism. Her specific interests include health and health care; the cultural production of evil; analyzing the linkages among race, gender, class, and other forms of oppression; and developing a network between African American and Afro-Brazilian religious and secular leaders and community-based organizations. Among her many publications are Breaking the Fine Rain of Death: African American Health Issues and a Womanist Ethic of Care; Womanist Justice, Womanist Hope; and In a Blaze of Glory: Womanist Spirituality as Social Witness. Her most recent book is Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil. She is coeditor of Womanist Theological Ethics: A Reader (Westminster John Knox, 2011). Prior to her appointment at Yale, Professor Townes served as the Carolyn Beaird Professor of Christian Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York. She is a former president of the American Academy of Religion and was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009. She currently serves as the president of the Society for the Study of Black Religion (2012–16). Professor Townes is an ordained American Baptist clergywoman. She holds honorary degrees from Washington and Jefferson College (D.D.) and Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary (D.H.L.). She is a fellow of Saybrook College.

Read a feature article about Professor Emilie Townes.

Quote

"To understand evil as a cultural production is to recognize, from the outset, that the story *can* be told another way." (Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil)

Education

A.B.,  University of Chicago
A.M., D.Min. University of Chicago Divinity School
Ph.D., Northwestern University

Books

1. Womanist Theological Ethics:  A Reader, co-ed. (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011)
2. Religion, Health, and Healing in African American Life, co-ed. (Praeger, 2008)
3. Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil (Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2006)
4. Breaking the Fine Rain of Death: African American Health Care and A Womanist Ethic of Care (Continuum, 1998)
5. Embracing the Spirit: Womanist Perspectives on Hope, Salvation, and Transformation, ed. (Orbis Books, 1997)
6. In a Blaze of Glory: Womanist Spirituality as Social Witness (Abingdon Press, 1995)

Courses

Warrior Chants and Unquiet Spirits
What's In a Text?
Metaphors of Evil
Vexations: Religion and Politics in the Black Community

Interests

Golf