Invitation to November 21 Vincentian Chair of Social Justice Lecture

M. Shawn Copeland, Ph.D., is the 2022–23 Vincentian Chair of Social Justice. She is a Professor Emerita of Boston College.

In 2003–04, Dr. Copeland was the first African American and first African American woman to serve as President of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA). In 2018, she became the first African American theologian honored with the prestigious John Courtney Murray Award, the Catholic Theological Society of America’s highest honor.

A Catholic womanist theologian, Dr. Copeland exercises a particular expertise in theological anthropology, as well as political theology. At St. John’s, she will deliver a series of talks on “Visions of Freedom: A Political Theology for Our Time.”

You are invited to attend the second presentation in her series on Monday, November 21, from 1:50 to 3:30 p.m. in the D’Angelo Center Ballroom.

Dr. Copeland’s second lecture, “Competing and Changing Visions of Civic Belonging,” will contemplate the question of what it means to belong to a nation and a country. What is citizenship and what does it entail? Beginning with the Naturalization Act of 1790 that once restricted US citizenship to “any alien, being a free white person,” she will consider that act’s evolution through legal immigration legislation. She will also consider the emergence of the notion of ‘Americanization’ as a test and process of inclusion and exclusion, of granting advantage and disadvantage. The talk will be recorded.

Registration is required.

This event is open to all students, faculty, administrators, and staff, as well as the general public.