Scholar and activist Dr. Larycia Hawkins will give the 2020 Turner-Warren Lecture at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 1, at First Christian Church in Lynchburg. At 7 p.m. Monday, March 2, she will deliver the 2020 Jennie Cutler Shumate Lecture on Christian Ministry in Snidow Chapel at the University of Lynchburg. Both events are free and open to the public.
Hawkins will speak about embodied solidarity — a topic she helped popularize with her work as a college professor. Her talk, titled “Does Your Blood Not Boil? Embodying Solidarity with Suffering,” will discuss how she took action to advocate for Muslim women and how she continues to do so now, five years later.
In December 2015, Hawkins was working as an associate professor of political sciences at Wheaton College, a Christian evangelical liberal arts college. At the time, anti-Islamic tensions were running high. In an act of “embodied solidarity,” as she called it, she announced on Facebook that she was going to wear a hijab to support her Muslim sisters during the Christian season of Advent. Hawkins’s post sparked outrage on campus and beyond, and ultimately resulted in her departure.
In March 2016, Hawkins was appointed assistant professor of politics and religious studies at the University of Virginia. There, she continues to act in solidarity with Muslim women because of the discrimination they face in the workplace and day-to-day life by spreading awareness and advocating for inclusion and equity of treatment.
Her story was the subject of the 2018 documentary film, “Same God.” She has given speeches nationally and internationally, from The Free University of Berlin in Germany to Harvard University. She also gave a TEDx talk about her act of embodied solidarity.
“Hawkins’s perspective on faith and humanity is important in a multicultural world,” Stephanie McLemore, Lynchburg’s chaplain and director of church relations, said. “Her talks should help us see how people of different religious backgrounds need to attempt to understand each other better as our cultures merge and blend in this global society.”
For more information about the event, contact Christie Rapp at rapp@lynchburg.edu.
