A grant to Vanderbilt Divinity School provides renewed support to the Public Theology and Racial Justice Collaborative and will go toward the expansion of its summer institute. Originally centered around the Vanderbilt and Nashville communities, these satellite institutes will partner with past attendees around the country to engage and train students, grassroots organizers, and activists in their own communities.

A Vanderbilt Divinity School collaboration committed to harnessing the power of public theology to combat racism will thrive and expand its reach, thanks to renewed support from the Henry Luce Foundation.

The Luce Foundation has awarded a $500,000 grant to the Divinity School’s Public Theology and Racial Justice Collaborative for its second phase—to establish mobile institutes across the nation through partnerships with scholars and activists who have attended the Divinity School’s summer institutes.

“We share a heartfelt, stubborn determination with those from near and far who have taken part in the collaborative’ s summer programs to eliminate racial injustice,” said Emilie M. Townes, dean of the Divinity School and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society. “With support from the Luce Foundation, we hope to work with more than 40 partners who are equipped and motivated to engage their local communities in satellite iterations of the summer institute model. These nationwide partnerships empower local communities to further fight racial injustice and inequity. I am proud Vanderbilt Divinity School is playing such an important role in that work.”

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