Emilie M. Townes papers, 1960 -- 2024

Emilie Maureen Townes was born on August 1, 1955 in Durham, North Carolina. She was raised in a strong tradition of church on Sunday, first at United Methodist, and then in the Baptist tradition. She obtained her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Chicago and recognized her call to ordained ministry in the American Baptist Church, while working at her field education site at Hyde Park Union Church in Chicago, and as a Doctor of Ministry degree student at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Emilie was ordained as a Baptist minister on June 22, 1980. She graduated with a D.Min degree from the University of Chicago in 1982. Emilie also taught as an Adjunct professor at Chicago Theological Seminary and McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. From 1983 to 1987 Townes was Adjunct Professor of Ethics and Society, involved in Field Education and also with administration in the Office of Ministry Programs at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. She was Interim pastoral leader of Christ the Redeemer Metropolitan Community Church from 1986-1989 during her doctoral studies in the joint Garrett Evangelical Seminary/Northwestern University program. She earned her Ph.D. there in 1989. Her Doctoral dissertation was based on the work of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, the turn of the century activist in anti-lynching campaigns and co-founder of the NAACP. Townes taught at Saint Paul School of Theology, Kansas City, MO, 1989 -1999, and was named full Professor of Christian Social Ethics in 1998. She joined the faculty of Union Theological Seminary in 1999 as the Carolyn Williams Beaird Professor of Christian Ethics. She then held an appointment as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African-American Religion and Theology at Yale Divinity School, and as of 2013, is the Dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society.

Townes speaks regularly at conferences and churches and is involved in numerous professional associations, including as president of the Society for the Study of Black Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics, 2012-2016. She served as the first African American woman elected to be president of the American Academy of Religion in 2008. She received a Doctorate of Human Letters from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and also Honorary doctorates from Washington and Jefferson College and Franklin College. Townes' primary focus, in both speaking and writing, is the African American woman in the church, and the oppressive forces of race, sex, and sexuality in the church and in society.