The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 22
sTorIes oF Peacemakers
Crossing Borders in Fort Worth, Part 2
An Interview with Dr. Melanie L. Harris
by Katie Cook
A
uthor's note: Dr. Melanie L. Harris is Associate Professor of Religion
and Ethics at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth,
TX. A singer in the African-American Spiritual and Sacred Art songs
tradition, she is a Third-Wave Womanist scholar whose teaching and
scholarship engages African-American Literature and Religion, Media
and Religion, Womanist Ethics and African-American Environmental
Religious History.
Dr. Harris mentors Brite Divinity School students, and
graduate students across the country, through academic
leadership positions with the American Academy of Religion,
the Society of Christian Ethics and the Forum for Theological
Exploration. The latter, a Lilly-funded organization, provides
funding for Doctoral and Master of Divinity students, as well
as students who are just entering their call to ministry.
In the previous issue of Baptist Peacemaker, we printed
"Crossing Borders in Fort Worth, Part 1," in which Dr. Harris
discussed her teaching, scholarship, activism and passion for
justice. In Part 2, below, Dr. Harris continues to discuss the
borders she crosses as a religion professor, in her own ethnic
identity and as a woman in the Church, and how she continues
in this work.
Peacemaker: How would you describe your religion classes?
HARRIS: Religion is still a required course for students
matriculating through TCU. As a theological ethicist, I bring
a unique approach to the classroom that invites students to
think theologically about ethical issues or develop a religious
lens that causes them to ask questions about how social issues
around the globe are impacted by religion. We do a lot of
work around social-justice issues.
In class, we highlight race, class, gender and sexuality,
and environmental justice, in an effort to help students think
more globally. Their experience as college students in Fort
Worth has a particular economic look and feel, and it may
not always present them with the most global perspective.
So these classes are designed to get them to think outside
of the TCU bubble. Since the majority of people on the
planet do not live day to day with access to the same privilege
that this community considers normative, it is important
for students to be able to learn how to engage these tough
conversations.
Peacemaker: How would you describe the other borders you
cross-other than the Texas border or the TCU border?
HARRIS: That's a really good question. I'm glad you
[BPFNA] are focusing on borders as a larger conversation. I
think my work, and probably my spiritual journey, show that
I was born to cross borders. I am tri-racial, to use a term by
Alice Walker, meaning I am African American, part white
and also part Native American. So even in my own racial,
biological identity, I cross a number of borders.
Many African Americans share this collective history,
(also known as historical trauma) in part because of the
history of white slave masters brutally raping African
enslaved women, and the psychological, physical and
spiritual impact this history of white sexual violence against
Left: Dr. Melanie Harris teaches in the Religion Department
at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX.
Photo courtesy of Texas Christian University.
22 Baptist Peacemaker
OCT-DEC 2016
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016
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