Spring Hill College Summer Institute

Dr. Emily Reimer-Barry, daughter of Open Table member, Ann Reimer, will be teaching a course called Thea Bowman and M. Shawn Copeland: Black and Catholic, Faithful and Free at the Spring Hill College Summer Institute this year.  “This course will investigate white supremacy and Black Catholic resistance to it, with the goal of creating space for grief, recognition of bias, and fostering genuine-if-imperfect-solidarity in the ongoing struggle for racial justice.  Primary conversation partners will be Thea Bowman and M. Shawn Copeland, whose theologies celebrate what it means to be ‘Black and Catholic, Faithful and Free.’  The title is taken from a book by Thea Bowman.  Required texts will be Thea Bowman: Faithful and Free by Maurice J. Nutt,  Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race and Being by M. Shawn Copeland, and selected pdfs available in shared Google Drive.  Emily is an associate professor and Chair of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego.  She teaches courses in Catholic theological ethics, and her research is at the intersection of sexuality and social justice.  She writes from the perspective of a Catholic theologian whose faith is deeply shaped by feminist spirituality and reflection on embodiment and discourses of power.  She grew up in Mobile and is a 1996 graduate of McGill-Toolen High School.”

This course will be June 14-17, 6:30 to 9:00, Monday through Thursday evenings, and will be offered in person and online.  If it is audited (“Easy Listening” which means no homework and no transcript record) the cost is $125 for the whole week.  If the course is taken for credit, it is $345. Some financial aid is available from Spring Hill College if the course is taken for credit, and if the person is enrolling/enrolled in the graduate program.  Some financial aid will be available from Open Table for its members, if the course is taken Easy Listening. For people who are interested, on campus dorm lodging is available for $35 a night.  Registration for the Summer Institute classes will not open until mid March because of a new computer program that is currently in transition.  This course WILL happen even if the class size is very small, potentially related to a possible slow vaccine rollout in this area.  Social distancing, masking, and covid safety measures will be implemented, as they are now with Spring Hill College in-person classes.  For further information on this course and other courses offered at the institute this summer, go here.   A syllabus for this course will be completed soon.  If you are interested in that, or have any other questions, contact Ann Reimer.