Schedule of Sessions

• January 29, 2025: 6 – 8 pm ET
• February 26, 2025: 6 – 8 pm ET
• March 26, 2025: 6 – 8 pm ET
• April 30, 2025: 6 – 8 pm ET
• Retreat: June 15 – 19
• August 27, 2025: 6 – 8 pm ET
• September 24, 2025: 6 – 8 pm ET
• October 22, 2025: 6 – 8 pm ET
• November 19, 2025: 6 – 8 pm ET
• December 17, 2025: 6 – 8 pm ET

Leadership Team

Participants

Evelyn Parker, Perkins School of Theology SMU
Renee Harrison, Howard University
Claudia Highbaugh, Connecticut College 
Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Colby College
Pamela Lightsey, Meadville Lombard Theological Seminary
Phillis Sheppard, Vanderbilt University
Marcia Riggs, Columbia Theological Seminary
Angela Sims, Colgate Rochester Crozer
Carolyn Medine, University of Georgia
Marsha Foster, Chicago Theological Seminary
Mitzi Smith, Columbia Theological Seminary

Description

Old lady, old maid, spinster, dame, elderly, elder, crone, granny, auntie, senior citizen, coffin dodger, retired person, old age pensioner, Golden Girl, old girl, OG (as in original gangster), etc. – these terms are commonly used, and yet, are rarely pleasing to a Black woman’s sensibilities. While the communal identity of older women scholars of religion is as unimaginative as this list of names, many of the women continue to care for and work on behalf of the community. This is a gathering of African American women who remain, despite old age, active in the academy, interested in their own scholarly endeavors, and possess rich know-how to be shared. They/we have a wealth of wisdom for the teaching enterprise.   They/we have been on a vocational journey which has included much joy and accomplishment. The journey has also been fraught with treacherous, death-dealing, marginalizing experiences. We have survived hatreds, betrayals, invisabling, condescension, and disregard while finding ways or creating ways to teach, mentor, write, and stay enlivened. Many of the women have never felt at home in their own classrooms, nevertheless we have been productive – some have even known success, respect, and honor.

Aims

• fortify ourselves; we gather because we need one another.
• reinforce community and to rehearse the dreams of our ancestors; we gather knowing our spirituality is more communal than individual.
• create a conversation for this season and the coming seasons of our careers.
• share knowledges and hone wisdom.
• remember our journeys and tell the stories of the ways we survived; we gather to explore the tools which we fashioned for our thriving.
• enjoy one another’s company and to delight in our current locale.
• remind ourselves that connection is needed for health.
• symbolize resistance, recognizing that a career of teaching toward freedom continues even for the oldest among us. Through freedom there is an opportunity for liberation and healing.
• explore forming an ongoing network of support.

Communal Questions

• Who are we? Who have we become? Who is the self who teaches when she is the most senior scholar?
• What is our stake in higher education, in-general, and in our current institutions, specifically?
• What is the teaching life for those in theological education for more than 20 years? What has been the toll of employment in the academy upon our minds, bodies, spirits; upon our families and loved ones; upon our values and purposes? What is healing and how do we heal?
• What is “collective wisdom” among womanist scholars? Where are we located for our best life?
• What would it mean, at these later stages of our scholarly careers, to help one another and assist others?
• What is self-care for those who care for everyBODY? Where and when is there rest, renewal, or restoration?
• What is community, connection, reciprocity, care, respect and compassion for this group of women/us?
• What is at stake for these women at this stage in their careers?
• What is fulfillment, satisfaction, security, survival and persistence?
• What is the most important lesson our mothers taught us?
• What is next after the benediction?