(VIRTUAL)Black Women’s Wisdom: Everyday Mysticism as Revolutionary Praxis

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Join us for a conversation with Dr. Harding and Dr. Fermin to explore how engaging in mysticism influences and sustains us for justice work!

More about our speakers:

Rachel Elizabeth Harding, Ph.D. (she/her) is a poet, historian and scholar of religions of the Afro-Atlantic diaspora. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Harding chairs the Ethnic Studies department of the University of Colorado Denver and writes about religion, creativity and social justice in the experience of communities of African descent in the US and Brazil. Dr. Harding is author of two books: A Refuge in Thunder, a history of the Afro-Brazilian religion, Candomblé; and more recently, Remnants: A Memoir of Spirit, Activism and Mothering, co-written with her mother, Rosemarie Freeney Harding, on the role of compassion and mysticism in African American social justice organizing.

Dr. Harding is an ebômi (ritual elder) in the Terreiro do Cobre Candomblé community in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

Harding’s honors include Cave Canem Fellowships, the Sterling Brown Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Williams College, an honorary doctorate from the Starr-King School for the Ministry and the Civil Rights Award from the Colorado Black Roundtable.

Baranda J. Fermin, Ph.D. (they/them) is a writer, speaker, yoga teacher, pastor and community curator. Their professional work builds the human capacity and organizational potential for transformative change, leading to whole, healthy, loving and creative relationships and communities. As an accomplished leader in the fields of community development, nonprofit leadership, higher education, as well as equity and access, their expertise has shifted the way that communities engage in development, change agents create strategy, and leaders measure outcomes. Dr. Fermin holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Michigan State University; a master’s in Human Development from Teachers College, Columbia University; a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from The University of Oklahoma; and is completing her Master of Divinity from Iliff School of Theology.

Dr. Baranda teaches Cultural Intelligence for the WPI Leadership Academy.

Event is sponsored by:

Iliff School of Theology -Student Senate

University College at University of Denver