Dr. Larycia Hawkins Public Lectures

    The Religion Department welcomes Dr. Larycia Hawkins, founder of the #EmbodiedSolidarity movement, for two public events:

    Monday, March 18

    3:15 pm, Viking Theater, Screening: Same God documentary and response by Dr. Hawkins: “Professional Prophets? Professors, Politics, and the Truth about (In)Justice & Solidarity”

    In December 2015, the political rhetoric against Muslims was escalating. Dr. Larycia Hawkins, an African-American political science professor at Wheaton College—a prestigious evangelical school outside of Chicago—wanted to show support for Muslim women. She posted a photo of herself in a hijab on Facebook. “I love my Muslim neighbor,” she wrote, “because she deserves love by virtue of her/his human dignity….we worship the Same God.”

    Within days, Wheaton’s Provost suspended Dr. Hawkins, eventually moving to terminate her tenure. Were the school’s actions a move to protect its Christian theological purity, as it insisted? Or was it, as some suggested, the result of racism and Islamophobia? “Same God,” directed by Wheaton alumna Linda Midgett, follows the journey of Dr. Hawkins while exploring the polarization taking place in different religious and political communities over issues of race, Islam, religious freedom…and Donald Trump.

    7:30 pm, Viking Theater, Public Lecture: “Of Hijabs & Hoodies: Embodying Solidarity in the Age of Trump”

    For more information about the Same God documentary visit samegodfilm.com. You can also find out more information about Dr. Larycia Hawkins on her website: layricahawkins.com.

    This event is co-sponsored by the Religion Department, Race and Ethnic Studies (RACE), the Muslim Student Association (MSA), Women in Politics and Law (WIPL), Advocates for Immigrants and Refugees (AIR), Fellowship of Christian Oles (FCO), and Catholic Student Association (CSA).

    Can’t make the evening public lecture? Stream live or later.

     

    About the Speaker

    Dr. Larycia Hawkins

    Larycia Hawkins, PhD., is a scholar, a political science professor, and activist. In a December 10, 2015, Facebook post, she declared her intention to don a hijab in embodied solidarity with Muslim sisters throughout the Christian season of Advent. The post initiated a national and international conversation about the nature of God and the possibilities for multi-faith solidarity in a time where Islamaphobia, xenophobia, religiously-motivated hate crimes, and racism are more prolific than any time in history. The Same God documentary tells her story.

    Same God World Premiere Trailer from Midgett Productions on Vimeo.

    Professor Hawkins teaches and researches at the University of Virginia, where she is jointly appointed as Assistant Professor in the departments of Politics and Religious Studies; serves as a Faculty Fellow at the university’s Institute of 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.