Greensboro College Presents 54th Annual Ward Lecture March 30 (3/2/2017)
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Greensboro College presents its 54th annual Jean Fortner Ward Lecture on issues of faith and higher education at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 30, in the Hannah Brown Finch Chapel on campus.
The event is free, and the public is invited.
The speaker is Dr. Derek Hicks, assistant professor of religion and culture at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity. His lecture is titled, “Religion, Race, and Reclamation in a ‘Great Again’ Nation: Scraping Faith from the Bottom.”
Hicks teaches and researches broadly in the areas of African American religion, religion in North America, race, the body, religion and foodways, theory and method in the study of religion, black and womanist theologies, and cultural studies.
He co-chairs the Religion and Food group at the American Academy of Religion. He also is a member of the Society for the Study of Black Religion.
Hicks is the author of the book “Reclaiming Spirit in the Black Faith Tradition” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). He is currently working on a second monograph, “Feeding Flesh and Spirit: Religion, Food, and the Saga of Race in Black America” (under review with UNC Press).
In addition, he served as assistant editor of “African American Religious Cultures” (ABC-CLIO Press). He also contributed chapters for the books “Blacks and Whites in Christian America: How Racial Discrimination Shapes Religious Convictions” (New York University Press, 2012) and to the edited volume “Religion, Food, and Eating in North America” (Columbia University Press, 2014).
Hicks has won grants for his research from the Ford Foundation, the Fund for Theological Education, the Louisville Institute, the Henry Luce Foundation, and the Wabash Center.
The Jean Fortner Ward Lecture Series was initiated in 1964 to bring outstanding speakers and lectures to the Greensboro College campus to address connections between faith and higher education. This series is made possible through the generosity of William S. Ward of Greensboro in honor of his wife, an alumna and former trustee of the college.
Greensboro College provides a liberal arts education grounded in the traditions of the United Methodist Church and fosters the intellectual, social, and, spiritual development of all students while supporting their individual needs.
Founded in 1838 and located in downtown Greensboro, the college enrolls about 1,000 students from 29 states and territories, the District of Columbia, and seven foreign countries in its undergraduate liberal-arts program and four master’s degree programs. In addition to rigorous academics and a well-supported Honors program, the school features an 18-sport NCAA Division III athletic program and dozens of service and recreational opportunities.
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Lex Alexander, Director of Communications
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