First a sermon on Scarlett, now a trip to Atlanta

We are being SO Southern.

One of my students and I are off to a conference tomorrow (an annual gig for professors and scholars of religious studies in the region, i.e. the U.S. Southeast, and a regional unit of the big huge conference I go to in November) to learn various things and make a presentation.

The presentation is a workshop of the AAR/SBL Consultation on Teaching Feminism/Womanism and it is called "Religion, Ecofeminism, and Environmental Justice: A Pedagogical Workshop on Engaged Learning & Community Commitments." (I know, very crunchy-granola plus liberation-theology. Yes, I do teach History of Christianity, but that is another course -- which is not easy and has acquired the street name of "the Organic Chemistry of the Religious Studies Department" according to one of my colleagues, though it does have its own grooviness.)

Undergraduates do not usually present at these conferences or even attend them, but it seemed like a bad idea to have a pedagogy workshop on a particular course without the perspective of a student who actually took the course. The same student was my teaching assistant the following year for an introductory-level offshoot of this course called "Health, Spirituality, and Justice." (Another interdisciplinary crunchy-granola course. One a year, whether I need it or not. ;-)) This is also a more feminist way of doing things. And we're driving, not flying. (I don't know how pedagogical that is, it's more like girlz gotta go on road trips.)

I will be making a blog after the conference which will have resources related to this course and to the workshop. Stay tuned.

The other workshop of the AAR/SBL Consultation on Teaching Feminism/Womanism will be by A. Nevell Owens on the topic "Can A Man Teach Women Anything About Women in Religion?: A Pedagogical Workshop on Men in the Feminist Classroom."

Also, Dr. Musa Dube, who was here in the Triangle and Triad regions of North Carolina this week, will be the keynote speaker at the conference, which covers a range of topics but has a focus this year on religion and health.

Her talk is entitled "Go tla Siama, O tla Fola: Doing Biblical Studies in an HIV & AIDS Context" and it will take place at 11 a.m. on Saturday. If you are in Atlanta, write me if you want details, I think we may be able to make arrangements for non-members to come and hear this one. Leave a note in the comments section or write to me at missmayapavlova at gmail dot com.

When I return after the weekend it will be Spring Break, GLORY BE TO GODDE!