Visiting scholar talks ecowomanism

The Koch Chair in Catholic Thought and Culture hosted Melanie L. Harris for a lecture titled “Ecowomanism: Resilience, Theology and Justice in a Time of Climate Change” this past Tuesday.

The event was co-sponsored by the McCarthy Center, the Departments of Environmental Studies, Theology, Sociology, Gender Studies and Political Science.

CSB Campus Ministry and St. John’s School of Theology also contributed.

The talk invited students and community members to reflect on the intersections of spirituality, racial justice and environmental care.

Harris is a Professor of Black Feminist, Womanist Theologies and African American Studies at Wake Forest University.

She is a leading voice in ecowomanism – a concept that connects Black women’s experiences with ecological justice.

A graduate of Spelman College and Harvard University, Harris is also a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a poet and, most recently, the author of Preaching Black Earth, published just last week.

Harris began her talk with contemplative practice leading the audience through breathing exercises, meditation and reflection. She said this experiential approach is central to ecowomanist pedagogy.

“Learning in community, and learning how to be a community, helps us cultivate new ways of receiving and cultivating and producing knowledge that is life-giving,” Harris said.

Harris’s presentation was focused on the idea that ecological justice cannot, and should not, be separated from racial and gender justice.

Drawing on other womanist theologians like Dolores Williams, Harris highlighted how systems of domination that have historically exploited Black women’s bodies parallel the exploitation of the Earth.

Harris said ecowomanism emphasizes the sacredness of all creation, both human and non-human, while challenging the hierarchies that perpetuate inequality.

“Ecowomanism is an approach to Earth justice that focuses on theological voices, ethnical perspectives, multi-layered analysis and experiences of women of color, particularly African American women,” Harris said.

Harris then outlined the seven steps of the ecowomanist method, beginning with honoring personal “eco-memories”.

The remaining steps involve reflecting on one’s relationship with the Earth, conducting an intersectional analysis of race, class, gender and geography, re-examining religious traditions, embracing transformation and engaging in interfaith dialogue.

Ultimately, she said the methods call for action against systems that encourage white supremacy and environmental destruction.

Harris also used examples from people of all different traditional and religious backgrounds.

She included Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’, which calls for “ecological conversion” away from consumerism and toward stewardship of the planet.

She also used a passage from Bell Hooks and Rosemary Freire Harding, both women who emphasized the interconnections between self-care, community care and environmental care.

She said that Ecowomanism offers a path toward this healing through contemplative practice, dialogue, and activism.

“Coming into a deep sense of racial trauma and how to heal that racial trauma for the sake of the planet is what Bell Hooks and other ecowomanist thinkers are inviting us to do,” Harris said.

Throughout her lecture, Harris blended theology, poetry and experiential learning.

She read an excerpt from her poem, “Breathing Earth.”

She said that the poem acts as both a prayer and a protest, calling for refuge, interconnectedness and justice in the face of climate change.

Harris said her lecture offers both a challenge and an invitation, to recognize how climate change intersects with systems of oppression, and to confront those injustices.

She also invited students to cultivate spiritual and contemplative practices that deepen awareness of the sacredness of all life.

“Hope is not dead. For we are still here, breathing,” Harris said.