2016 Lutheran Studies Conference
“Free at Last? Lutheran Perspectives on Racial Justice”
September 29, 2016
Sixth Annual Lutheran Studies Conference at PLU – Thursday, September 29, 2016
In a political season marked by the demonization of racial, religious, and ethnic minorities, this conference focuses on the quest for a just vision of life shared in community. Indeed, the robust tradition of Lutheran education invites the university, its alumni, and friends to let our commitment to thoughtful inquiry deepen our respect for the dignity of every human being and our work for justice and peace. At this conference, scholars, students, musicians, and college leaders will present their research and reflection on one of the most critical dimensions of our common life: the quest for racial justice in a region of the country that continues to bear the open wounds of racist policies and actions.
The annual Lutheran Studies Conference provides an opportunity for the university, the larger community, and persons from diverse religious and humanistic viewpoints to explore particular and pressing issues within the thoughtful and generous milieu of Lutheran higher education. Each conference welcomes scholars, artists, and religious leaders whose expertise is offered in an engaging and thought-provoking manner. Past conferences have been devoted to the limited gift of water (2011), political commitments (2012), the figure of Jesus of Nazareth (2013), and justice in society (2014). As a university of the church, PLU promotes the 500 year Lutheran tradition of asking difficult questions, welcoming opposing viewpoints in civil conversation, nurturing a community of intellectual charity, and challenging students, alumni, and friends to promote a just, peaceful, and sustainable way of life for all, not just the privileged few.
The conference is free and open to the public and is made possible by the generosity of the anonymous donors who endowed the University Chair in Lutheran Studies.
“Black Madonna with Trayvon Martin,” © Copyright 2014 by artist Margo Humphrey. Anchor Graphics, Columbia College Chicago
Conference Schedule
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Sessions take place in the Scandinavian Cultural Center in the Anderson University Center, unless noted.
- 8:00 – 10:00 a.m. – Registration in the University Center Upper Lobby
- 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. – Ideas Matter: Justice as Equality, Freedom, and Community in a Post-Enlightenment World
Dr. Doug Oakman and Dr. David Deacon Joyner
Very old ideas about justice continue to have relevance for our contemporary struggles. Racial injustice is rooted in long-standing human issues addressed in the civic traditions of the Greek city-state and in biblical Israel. Justice is not the right of the stronger nor the contemporary whim of global markets. Ideas that shape deep understandings of human being and doing, as well as social and civic betterment, must forever have critical free play in the pursuit of justice. The musical heritage of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, whose combined efforts inspired the Civil Rights Era from the late 1930s onward, continue to show us how. - 10:15 – 10:45 a.m. – PLU Students Engage the Quest for Racial Justice
1. Kim Bond, Ms. Meghan Gould, and Mr. Theo Hofrennig
In this panel, PLU students discuss how their education and their activism continue to shape their experience and views of racial justice. - 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. – Marginalized Memories, Critical Conversations: The Literature Classroom as a Space for Imagining Racial Justice
Dr. Emily Davidson
Literature classrooms can be powerful spaces for conversations about racial identities and histories, bringing the past into dialogue with the present. From the disappearance of novels that depict Jim Crow segregation in Panama to the banning of Mexican-American Studies in Arizona, this presentation offers a transnational look at the troubling censure of literary works that challenge readers to confront contentious national memories. At the heart of this reflection is the conviction that reading and thinking deeply challenge us and ignites our critical imaginations, empowering us to envision and create a different, more equitable world. - 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. – Lunch
- 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. – It Doesn’t Matter If I Mean Well: What 21st Century White People Might Learn from Malcolm X and Martin Luther King
Dr. Kevin O’Brien
Martin Luther King, Jr. is too often remembered as an optimistic dreamer, with his call for radical revolution ignored. Malcolm X is too often remembered as an angry militant, with his vision for justice and community ignored. This presentation will focus on the common ground between these two thinkers and activists, and will use it to consider how white people in the 21st century might respond to the persistence of racism, the epidemic of mass incarceration, and diverse contemporary movements for justice. - 2:45 – 3:30 p.m. – The Art of Social Protest: Images That Provoke, Inspire, and Challenge
Dr. Samuel Torvend
In a culture filled with many words (and broken promises), the visual image can serve as a prophetic witness and inspire social change. From Abolitionist cartoons to contemporary Chicano mural paintings, visual artists have challenged injustice and inspired movements committed to just and peaceful change. In this presentation, we consider the work of contemporary artists who contribute to this often unknown yet vital source of social justice. - 3:45 – 4:45 p.m. – Whose Story? Critical Race Theory and the (De)Construction of the PLU Narrative
Ms. Angie Hambrick, Dr. Joanna Royce Davis, and Ms. Laree Winer
PLU was founded by Lutheran immigrants from Norway and has, over its history, welcomed mostly white and Christian persons into this learning community: the story of PLU is one largely shaped by people of European descent. Using critical race theory, this presentation and discussion will consider the dominant narrative of Lutheran education and ask how counter narratives that might recast or reconstruct the PLU story in ways previously unimagined. - 5:00 – 6:45 p.m. – Conference Reception and Dinner – Regency Room
Conference participants are invited to purchase a three-course dinner and bar service when they register here. For those who prefer supper elsewhere, the University Dining Commons and restaurants on Garfield Street provide ample opportunities for the evening meal. - 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. – Keynote Address: Where Grace Meets Race: One Lutheran’s Insights on Racial Justice – Chris Knutzen Hall in the Anderson University Center
Dr. John Nunes
Dr. John Arthur Nunes is the recently elected president of Concordia College, a Lutheran school in New York City, where he serves a multi-racial student body. Prior to his presidency at Concordia, he was the CEO of Lutheran World Relief (Baltimore) and most recently the Emil and Elfriede Jochum Chair at Valparaiso University, a university professorship that supports the study of Christian values and public life.
Speakers
Douglas E. Oakman is Professor of Religion and the former Dean of Humanities at PLU. He is an internationally recognized expert in the economic and political context of the ancient Mediterranean world in which Jesus lived and the early Christian movement emerged. Among his many works are The Political Aims of Jesus: Peasant Politics in Herodian Galilee, Jesus and the Peasants, and, with K.C. Hanson, Palestine in the Time of Jesus: Social Structures and Social Conflicts. As a member of the PLU Honors faculty, he has created and taught The Quest for Global Justice.
David Deacon-Joyner is Professor and Director of Jazz Studies at PLU. A native of Memphis, Dr. Deacon-Joyner was mentored by jazz piano great James Williams. In addition to his expertise in ethnomusicology, he is also a gifted composer. He has served as a clinician at jazz festivals throughout the United States, and serves on the steering committee for The Seattle Jazz Experience. A scholar of jazz and popular music, his publications include contributions to The Cambridge History of American Music and the third edition of his history text, American Popular Music.
Kim Bond is a senior from Kelso, Washington, with majors in History and Anthropology. Nominated as one of university’s “Inspiring Women,” Kim has been active in the Gender Equity Center (formerly the Women’s Center).
Meghan Gould is a junior from Colorado Springs, Colorado, with a Mathematics Education/Global Studies double major and a concentration in Development and Social Justice. She is interested in education as a key contributor to community development and is currently collaborating on a mathematics curriculum that focuses on the intersection of math and social justice education. Meghan volunteers as the Classroom Volunteer Coordinator for Keithley Middle School in Parkland.
Theo Hofrennig is a senior from Northfield, Minnesota, with a major in Political Science. In addition to his advocacy work as an ASPLU senator with students of color, LGBTQ students, and students with disabilities, Mr. Hofrennig was appointed a Peace Scholar in 2016 and has studied at the Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue in Lillehammer and the International Summer School in Oslo, Norway.
He has participated in the Washington Bus Fellowship, a program focused on politics, social justice, and community building.
Emily F. Davidson is an Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies in the Department of Languages and Literatures at PLU. She specializes in contemporary Caribbean, Central American, and Latino/a Studies. As an undergraduate student at PLU in the nineties, Dr. Davidson was one of the founding members of Puentes, the first Latino/a student organization on campus. Her teaching and research interests include Spanish for heritage speakers, critical race and identity studies, and the relationship between literary study and political activism.
Kevin J. O’Brien is Associate Professor of Religion and Dean of Humanities at Pacific Lutheran University. His teaching and research focus on Christian environmental ethics, the intersection of religion and the environment, and the intersection of environmental concerns with social justice. He is the co-author of An Introduction to Christian Environmentalism, co-editor of Theological and Ethical Perspectives on Climate Engineering, and author of the forthcoming Witness of Resistance: Nonviolence and Climate Justice.
Samuel Torvend is Professor of Religion at PLU and currently serves as the University Chair in Lutheran Studies. As a historian of Christianity, his research focuses on the history of religious responses to poverty and food insecurity. Since 2012, he has served on the Radicalizing Reformation consortium whose scholars have published six volumes on gender, racial justice, anti-Judaism, nonviolence, conflict and torture, and neoliberal capitalism. Among his published works are Luther and the Hungry Poor: Gathered Fragments.
Angie Hambrick serves as the Assistant Vice President for Diversity, Justice, and Sustainability at PLU. She initiates, manages, and supports programs and services that enrich the university’s efforts to become a more diverse, socially just, and sustainable living, learning, and working community. In addition her work at PLU, Ms. Hambrick is pursuing a doctorate in Higher Education at Azusa Pacific University in southern California. Her research interests include the impact of social justice education on students, faculty, and staff.
Joanna Royce-Davis is the Vice President for Student Life at PLU. In addition to advanced studies in Student Affairs, Law, and Policy, and Counselor Education, Dr. Royce Davis holds the doctorate in Rehabilitation Counseling. Prior to her tenure at PLU, she enjoyed a fifteen-year career at the University of the Pacific (Stockton, California), where she served as Associate Professor in the Benerd School of Education, Associate Vice President for Student Life, and Dean of Students. At Pacific, she received the Martin Luther King, Jr., Opening Doors award.
Laree Winer is the Associate Director for Student Success at PLU. An alumna of the university with a degree in Religion, Ms. Winer is a member of the leadership team in the university’s Wild Hope Center for Vocation and leads the Center seminar on vocation for PLU staff. She is the leader of PLU’s nationally recognized Explore Retreat for first year students.
John Arthur Nunes is President of Concordia College in New York City, a school of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Prior to his appointment at Concordia, he served as the Jochum Chair in Christianity and Public Life at Valparaiso University. Before his appointment at Valparaiso, Dr. Nunes was the President and CEO of Lutheran World Relief where he led an international staff working in 17 countries. As a Lutheran pastor, he has served inner city parishes in Detroit and Dallas. His doctoral work at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago focused on post-colonial identity.