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So, I& #39;m going to blow the cover on some news before the Society I& #39;ve been elected to announces it, in part because a. I& #39;m going to be a different kind of President, and 2. I& #39;m going to get us fully into the 21st century @ASChurchHistory
I have been elected to be the President-elect of the American Society of Church history- That& #39;s my history news. @ASChurchHistory . I will be the first African American woman to be the President Since 1888 folks.
In case you& #39;re wondering, the only other African American President was not James Washington or Albert Raboteau.. it was Dennis Dickerson (Vanderbilt) in 2004. @ASChurchHistory
I KNOW RIGHT? Thank you for all of you @ASChurchHistory members who voted. But I want to use this opportunity to talk about academic societies and power differentials.
The first woman elected to @ASChurchHistory was in 1983 ,Jane Dempsey Douglass. Since then, only nine women have been president. This year we will have our first Asian American President, and next our first Latino.
@ASChurchHistory is a member of the American Council of Learned Societies @ACLS1919 So yea, it took a while to catch up to the rest of the world. However...
I just want to say two important things. In order to help the academy grow and reflect our nation some of us have to step up and sign on and do the work of working with people who don& #39;t have to recognize us. I started going to @ASChurchHistory as a grad student at @VanderbiltU
I worked the spring meeting in 1997 to make some extra $$ and schlepped food and drinks to older white men who were very nice to me on the whole, but probably never thought I would become President of the @ASChurchHistory . LOOK AT GAWD.
The second thing is, I turned down running a couple of years ago, but decided to do it now. We are in a crisis about what comprises history, who owns it, who can write it, and not because of the academy, but of the forces outside of it. So I want to help @ASChurchHistory
Our academic societies (here I& #39;m talking to Religion folks) like @ASChurchHistory, #AAR #SBL and others can not afford to navel gaze and write for just each other anymore.. It is time to share our work and passions. That& #39;s why I& #39;m announcing here before the slow email, haha.
And besides, one of the things I want to do is make us relevant to the wider world. That& #39;s my goal. That& #39;s my charge. I& #39;ll be in charge of planning the 2021 @ASChurchHistory meeting in Seattle, and then I& #39;ll give the Presidential Address in 2022 in NEW ORLEANS. Be THERE.
I& #39;m looking forward to working with all of the members and anyone else who wants to come along. It may say Church history on the door, but we deal with lots of topics in the history of Christianity, and comparative studies as well across traditions. @ASChurchHistory . Join Us!
