Emilie M. Townes

Emilie M. Townes, Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1989, a pivotal player in construction of the field of "womanist theology," is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology at Yale Divinity School. Her 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 and a Womanist Ethic of Care; Womanist Justice, Womanist Hope; In a Blaze of Glory: Womanist Spirituality as Social Witness and Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil. 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 was the first African American woman to serve as president of the American Academy of Religion and will be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a Fellow in October 2009.