This is an online course is offered as part of the Womanist Leadership Institute, a program co-sponsored by The Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership and the Leadership Institute of Union Presbyterian Seminary. This program is a series of online courses to promote and support Womanist scholarship and leadership within a continuing education and lifelong learning environment. Participants can select to take one or multiple courses within the program. Courses are open to all.

This course includes six (6) online class meetings, on Tuesday evenings, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. EDT. In addition to the live class meetings, this course includes both reading and written assignments. However, as a continuing education program, no grades or degree credits will be issued.

Online Course Title: This Womanist Work: Models of Womanist Leadership

Course Dates: Tuesdays, July 19 – August 23, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. EDT

Course Description: Models of Womanist Leadership is a signature course of The Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership that presents a framework for womanist leadership within families, communities, organizations, and congregations. Utilizing womanist theo-ethical tenets, this course is a study in Black women’s leadership practices that integrate virtues of truth telling, wisdom-sharing, justice-seeking, and communal-centering. It clarifies the relationship among key concepts of leadership, authority, power, influence, citizenship, ethics, responsibility, accountability, and progress with particular attention to the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class. Through womanist strategies and tools, students will discover pathways for practicing ethical leadership from any position in an organization, community, or society while exploring ways to cultivate social transformation through the activity of just leadership in the public square.

Led by: Rev. Melanie Jones, Instructor of Ethics, Theology and Culture & Director of the Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership, Union Presbyterian Seminary

Leader Bio:  Melanie C. Jones is a womanist ethicist, millennial preacher, and intellectual activist. Melanie joined the Union Presbyterian Seminary faculty as Instructor of Ethics, Theology and Culture and Inaugural Director of the Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership in fall 2019. Formerly, Melanie served as the 2018-19 Crump Visiting Professor and Black Religious Scholar-in-Residence at Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, TX, and Lecturer at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, TX, American Baptist College in Nashville, TN, Chicago Theological Seminary, and The Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL.

Melanie’s research probes the scripting of the body in theology and philosophy that fosters religious, cultural, and moral meaning for the present with particular attention to Black women’s body politics. Melanie engages womanist theological ethics and sacred texts, millennials and faith, and Black aesthetics and popular culture. For her distinguished research, Melanie has received notable fellowships and scholarships, including The Forum for Theological Exploration, The Louisville Institute, Wabash Center, and Villanova University Center for Church Management.

Melanie is a thinking woman of faith embodying radical love and revolutionary justice in the academy, Church, and global community. Melanie is co-curator of #MillennnialWomanism Digital Forum and Co-Founder of The Millennial Womanism Project (TMWP)—an enterprise committed to enhancing the well-being of Black millennial women of faith and justice and fostering trans-generational womanist dialogue. As a global leader serving professional societies and international boards, Melanie is the chair of the board of directors of the Daughters of the African Atlantic Fund.

A third-generation ordained Baptist preacher and sought-after lecturer, Melanie is an emerging millennial voice with noted academic and popular publications as well as features on television, radio, and news outlets.

Online Course Format:  Weekly class meetings via Zoom Technology, along with assignments posted on Blackboard, the seminary’s learning management system (login credentials provided). Registered participants will receive a Zoom meeting link the week prior to the course’s first meeting.

About the Womanist Leadership Institute Program: To receive a certificate of completion for the Womanist Leadership Institute, participants will engage in four (4) core courses, and two (2) elective courses over a two-year period. However, the program will be on-going, with electives varying year-to-year, allowing participants to complete the requirements within an extended period as needed. Courses are open to all, and no application is necessary. Interested participants will simply register for the courses, and participants can engage the courses without pursuing the program in its entirety. Each course will be capped at thirty (30) participants. Continuing education units (CEUs) will be awarded to those participants who complete the courses; however, no course grades or degree credits will be provided. Course participants do not have to be pursuing a certificate of completion in the program in order to take any of the courses listed in the program.

Cost:

$175 per individual, if register by July 4, 2022. (Note: Beginning, July 5, 2022, individual price increases by $50. Register early and save!).

CEUs: 3.0 CEUs (Continuing Education Units) for this event. Note: CEU certificates can be generated upon request at the time of the event.

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Online registration is open. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

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Waiting List: Space is limited. Register early to reserve your spot. Once event reaches capacity, a waiting list will be started.