Women's Studies at HDS
Women's Studies at Harvard Divinity School in the Twenty-First Century
Approximately one-third of the Harvard Divinity School faculty members publish and teach in the area of religion and gender. In addition to courses in feminist biblical criticism, feminist theology, women's history, African American studies, and ministry, courses address gender issues in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. New courses in 2005-06 include Amy Hollywood's "Sex, Gender, Sexuality, and the Study of Religion," Francis X. Clooney's "Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary: An Experiment in Comparative Theology," and Karen King's "Fully Human/Fully Divine: Early Christian Constructions of the Self." In 2006-07, Leila Ahmed and Ann Braude will team-teach a multidisciplinary "Introduction to Women's Studies in Religion."
Each year, regular faculty offerings are augmented by courses taught by Women's Studies in Religion Program research associates. This year, these include "Gender, Religion, and the Female Body in Twentieth-Century Art" and "Goddesses, Priestesses, Poets: Women in Taoist Tradition." A doctoral program in Religion, Gender, and Culture is available for both the ThD and PhD degrees, and offerings in that program are also open to master's students. This year Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza is conducting the doctoral colloquium and teaching "Feminist Biblical Interpretation."
New faculty publications on gender expected soon include Beverly Kienzle's Fortifications of the Word: Hildegard of Bingen as Exegete and Preacher; Janet Gyatso's Women of Tibet: Past and Present, Kevin Madigan's Ordained Women in the Early Church: A Documentary History; Sarah Coakley's God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay on the Trinity, and Wallace Best's All Nations Woman: The Life and Work of Elder Lucy Smith.
Please use the links on the left to learn more about the Women's Studies in Religion Program, the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, and the doctoral program in Religion, Gender, and Culture.
