Women in Theology
Loyola University Chicago
Embodied Participatory Learning: Engaging African Communal Theology as a Method of Feminist Pedagogy
About the Project
This collaborative pedagogy project by the Women in Theology group at Loyola University Chicago explored the role of experience in a Women and Religion classroom at Loyola. In this class, which was cross-listed in Theology and Women’s Studies, the students were asked to approach “sacred texts” through a feminist method of embodied participatory learning where they were invited to speak their experience to the texts. Stories that many feminist theologians would consider “texts of terror” within Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scriptures were given as options for students who then turned the texts into dramatic commentaries on issues women face today, such as rape or violence. This documentary reflects on the successes and limitations of the project.
Project Resources
The classroom syllabus and project guidelines were created by Mary Moorman, instructor of record for the Women in Theology course utilized by the project. The Ground Rules were written by Andrea Hollingsworth. The sample script was written by Melissa Browning, Teresa Calpino, and Jeanine Viau.
Presentations
This project has been presented at Loyola University Chicago and the National Women’s Studies Association:
Embodied Participatory Learning: Engaging African Communal Theology as a Method of Feminist Pedagogy, Presentation by the Women in Theology reading group, sponsored by the Joan and Bill Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, Loyola University, October 17, 2007.
Women’s Studies Meets Theology: Sex and Sacred Texts Take the Stage in the Classroom, Panel presentation by Melissa Browning, Mary Moorman, Elisabeth Vasko and Jeanine Viau. National Women’s Studies Association Annual Meeting, Cincinnati, OH, June 19-22, 2008.
Women in Theology Project Participants
Andrea Stapleton Berger
Melissa Browning
Teresa Calpino
Kathryn Reyes Hamrlik
Rachel Hart
Andrea Hollingsworth
Mary Moorman, (instructor of record)
Emily Reimer-Barry
Elisabeth Vasko
Jeanine Viau
