The Divinity School is pleased to announce that Larycia Hawkins will deliver a lecture entitled "Of Hijabs and Hoodies: Black Epiphanies in the Trump Epoch" for the Black History Month lunchtime event series.

Thursday, February 9, 12:00-1:30pm, Swift Hall Common Room.

Lunch will be provided (vegetarian options available).

Larycia Hawkins teaches and researches at the University of Virginia, where she holds joint appointments in the Politics and Religious Studies departments. She also serves as Faculty Fellow at the University’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, is a contributor to the Project on Lived Theology, and co-convenes the Henry Luce Foundation Project, Religion and Its Publics. In 2013, Professor Hawkins became the first African-American tenured professor at Wheaton College, a Christian Protestant liberal arts college. Two years later, in response to rising ethnic tensions, Professor Hawkins declared her intent to don a hijab in embodied solidarity with Muslim sisters throughout the Christian season of Advent on social media. This initiated conversations about the nature of God and the possibilities of multi-faith solidarity at a time when Islamophobia, xenophobia, racism, and hate crimes motivated by religious differences were more prolific than at any time in recent history. Within five days of her post, she was placed on administrative leave at Wheaton College. Her story is documented in a New York Times Magazine feature- “The Professor Wore a Hijab in Solidarity- Then Lost Her Job” and is the subject of the film Same God by Midgett Productions. Professor Hawkins is co-author of Religion and American Politics: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives, 1st edition, which explores the influence of religion on America’s political history, institutions, and culture. She is also a contributing author to Black Scholars in White Space, a cross-disciplinary volume that highlights the scholarly contributions of African-American scholars working in Christian Higher Education.  Larycia Hawkins received her BA in History and Sociology from Rice University and earned an MPA and Ph.D from the University of Oklahoma.