Stephanie Sears Named Lecturer on Spiritual Care at Harvard Divinity School

Stephanie Sears has been appointed Lecturer on Spiritual Care at Harvard Divinity School. Her appointment is effective July 1, 2024.

Sears is a practitioner and theorist of decolonial spiritual care whose research centers on the religion of Africana women through the critical lenses of womanist and Black feminist thought.

"I am excited to join Harvard Divinity School as a Lecturer on Spiritual Care. I see this role as a sacred responsibility and look forward to helping develop a curriculum dedicated to holistic and embodied praxes of care, ethical integrity, and the vocational arts of compassion, empathy, presence, and respect for diversity,” Sears said. “My aim is to nurture and empower an engaged curiosity about caring for humanity, promoting critical competencies for navigating life's challenges, and strengthening spiritual beliefs—all while encouraging innovative scholarship in the field. I am deeply aware of the vital role that spiritual care holds at HDS, and I embrace this appointment with profound reverence."

Sears earned her PhD in religion from Emory University in 2008 with concentrations in the psychology of religion and women’s studies. She also holds an MTS from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, concentrating on pastoral care and counseling, and a BA in religion from Spelman College.

Sears’s publications include “Black Women, Mental Health, and the Underlying Trauma Covid-19 Triggers” and “Braver Even Still: Black Women Reclaiming Embodied Spiritual Power.” Her monograph, Dysregulated Lives: Black Women and Womanist Dimensions of Ritual and Healing, is under review at Duke University Press.

"We are delighted that Stephanie Sears is joining the Harvard Divinity School faculty this coming fall," said HDS Dean Marla F. Frederick. "Professor Sears has already established herself as a first-rate scholar in women's studies, feminist theory, and the psychology of religion. Her contributions in the classroom and beyond will undoubtedly enrich and strengthen spiritual care offerings at HDS and Harvard more broadly.”

Sears was recently the recipient of a Mellon Foundation Just Futures Award. She serves as an Interfaith America Liaison, and her professional associations include the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and the American Academy of Religion. She was previously Associate Professor of Africana Women’s Studies and Religion at Clark Atlanta University, where she taught since 2014.

"Professor Sears's work reflects her academic expertise in practical theology, her personal experience in multireligious community care, and her innovative research in Africana and womanist religious thought," said David F. Holland, John A. Bartlett Professor of New England Church History, Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs, and search committee chair. "She integrates the applied aspects of practitioner training with a cutting-edge engagement in the critical discourses of religious studies. She is equipped to address both traditional and emergent conceptions of ministry, complementing our existing strengths and stretching us in new directions. I am eager to see the impact of her teaching, her mentoring, and her scholarship.”

—HDS Office of Communications