Letty Mandeville Russell papers, 1947 -- 2005
Summary Information
Abstract
At a Glance
- Bib ID:
- 11144641 View CLIO record
- Creator(s):
- Russell, Letty M.
- Repository:
- Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary
- Physical Description:
- 51.5 linear feet (51.5 linear feet; 98 boxes 2 oversized boxes)
- Language(s):
- English .
- Access:
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This collection contains some restricted material. Restrictions related to specific material are listed in the detailed contents list. Before access is granted FERPA items must be removed from each box and transferred in insert folders marked with source, box and folder to an additional box.
The following boxes are located offsite: Box 1-96 (entire collection except oversize boxes). Please note that requests for use of boxes held in offsite storage must be made three business days in advance.
Description
Summary
This collection contains material relating to Russell's work at YDS, including her work with students, her curriculum research and reading files, and her taught courses; material relating to Russell's administrative responsibilities and community involvement at YDS, including documentation of faculty meetings, committee participation, tenure reviews, and ad-hoc activities; material regarding Russell's role as guest lecturer or visiting professor at other seminaries, colleges and universities; material documenting Russell's literary scholarship, including draft and final versions of writing and editorial projects, as well as research (reading files), correspondence, and other items related to manuscript publication; drafts of journal articles, sermons, addresses, a research collection of bibliographic card files representing issues in theology and ecclesiology, and book reviews; materials documenting Russell's public service, advocacy and activism with religious, academic and political organizations and coalitions; materials related to Russell's participation as a professor, consultant, preacher, and learner in events ranging from denominational or mission specific conferences and trainings, academic lectures, seminars and workshops, and worship celebrations to grassroots education initiatives; personal and professional correspondence; news articles and clippings, journals, and denominational resources related to Russell's ongoing areas of interest; and personal memorabilia.
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Series 1A: YDS Teaching, 1959 -- 2001
This subseries contains material relating to LMR's work with students, including both formal advisee and informal mentoring relationships, her curriculum research and reading files, and her taught courses, including guided readings, introductory and specialized offerings, field-based practicums and Third World Travel Seminars (usually components of practicums in liberation theology). Co-teachers among her courses included Katie Cannon, Shawn Copeland, and Kwok Pui Lan. This sub-series consists of general records related to course materials (semester offerings, course descriptions, bibliographies, etc.) and student advisement (advisee lists, recommendation letters, correspondence, etc.). Additionally, there is extensive material related to specific courses, such as syllabi, lecture notes, and handouts.
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Series 1B: YDS Administration and Campus Life, 1961 -- 2002
This subseries contains material related to Russell's administrative responsibilities and community involvement at YDS. It documents faculty meetings, committee participation, tenure reviews, and ad-hoc activities. Materials that may be of particular interest in this sub-series are: Save our Quad, a campaign to preserve the YDS Quadrangle, Shalom Meals, an activity for which Russell was well known among YDS students, and the Women's Reunion, a program reconnecting alumnae with one another and the current YDS female community.
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Series 1C: YDS Visting Teaching, 1969 -- 2000
This subseries contains material regarding Russell's role as guest lecturer or visiting professor at other seminaries, colleges and universities. Several teaching engagements were long term, such as her summer teaching at Manhattan College (1969-1974), Union Theological Seminary (1971- 1976) and San Francisco Theological Seminary (1987-2000). These engagements sometimes involved international collaboration and travel.
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Series 2A: Book Manuscripts, 1961 -- 2005
This subseries contains the bulk of Russell's literary scholarship, including autonomous and collaborative publications. It contains draft and final versions of writing and editorial projects, including individual chapters and full manuscripts, as well as research (reading files), correspondence, and other items related to manuscript publication.
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Series 2B: Articles, Sermons and Other Writings, 1961 -- 1995
This subseries contains drafts of journal articles, sermons, addresses, a research collection of bibliographic card files representing issues in theology and ecclesiology, and book reviews. Some of these materials also exist in other series, as Russell filed them in connection with course development, subject research, or advocacy work.
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Series 3: Organizational Activities, circa 1950 -- 2002
This series documents Russell's public service, advocacy and activism with religious, academic and political organizations and coalitions. The scope of these materials encompasses local grassroots initiatives, denominational efforts and international ecumenical projects, many of which played key roles in changing theological dialogue and praxis – for example the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT), committees of the World Council of Churches, and the Women's Theological Center in Boston. Included here are also papers and children's ministry materials from Russell's work at East Harlem Protestant Parish, and some general employment and consulting records.
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Series 4: Conferences, Addresses, and Sermons, 1969 -- 2000
This series contains materials related to Russell's participation as a professor, consultant, preacher, and learner in events ranging from denominational or mission specific conferences and trainings, academic lectures, seminars and workshops, and worship celebrations to grassroots education initiatives. While there is also topical and thematic diversity within these events, Russell's recurrent interests and concerns for particular areas such as liberation theology, church and society, women's ministries and religious education are strongly evident. Of note is a seminar on Models of Renewed Community at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute in 1987. The collected material includes sermons and presentations, programs and bulletins, photographs and pedagogical printed material. Many files contain extensive hand-written notes.
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Series 5: Correspondence, 1969 -- 2000
This series contains personal and professional correspondence and papers not clearly connected to material in other series, including travel for speaking engagements and vacation plans.
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Series 6: Subject files, 1952 -- 2001
This series contains material including news articles and clippings, journals, denominational resources, notes, and papers that are not clearly related to other series and in subject areas of particular and ongoing interest to Russell. These areas are: biblical hermeneutics (especially issues pertaining to authority, inclusivity and liberating exegesis), church and society (encompassing Christianity in public life, church mission and ministry, ecclesiology, ecumenism), education, feminism and feminist theology, liberation (including feminist, LGTBQ, Third World and other approaches, and issues of human and equal rights), and ministry and vocation (especially regarding women in ministry). Two additional subject headings included are theologians (Moltmann, Rahner, de Chardin, Soelle) and economics (Christian ethical engagement with).
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Series 7: Personal, 1947 -- 1999
This series contains photographs of YDS events; memorabilia from family gatherings, trips and college reunions; a file on Russell's 1970 wedding, including a service bulletin, photo, and news clipping; 'Round Robin' letters among Wellesley graduates of 1951; and a small group of books annotated by Russell.
Burke Library record group:
Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship (AWTS)
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in 7 Series: 1. Yale Divinity School (with subseries on Teaching; Administration and Campus Life; and Visiting Teaching); 2. Writings (with subseries on Book Manuscripts; and Articles, Sermons, and Other Writings); 3. Organizational Activities; 4. Conferences, Addresses, Sermons; 5. Correspondence; 6. Subject File; and 7. Personal.
- Series 1A: YDS Teaching, 1959 -- 2001
- Series 1B: YDS Administration and Campus Life, 1961 -- 2002
- Series 1C: YDS Visting Teaching, 1969 -- 2000
- Series 2A: Book Manuscripts, 1961 -- 2005
- Series 2B: Articles, Sermons and Other Writings, 1961 -- 1995
- Series 3: Organizational Activities, circa 1950 -- 2002
- Series 4: Conferences, Addresses, and Sermons, 1969 -- 2000
- Series 5: Correspondence, 1969 -- 2000
- Series 6: Subject files, 1952 -- 2001
- Series 7: Personal, 1947 -- 1999
Using the Collection
Conditions Governing Access
This collection contains some restricted material. Restrictions related to specific material are listed in the detailed contents list. Before access is granted FERPA items must be removed from each box and transferred in insert folders marked with source, box and folder to an additional box.
The following boxes are located offsite: Box 1-96 (entire collection except oversize boxes). Please note that requests for use of boxes held in offsite storage must be made three business days in advance.
Conditions Governing Use
Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Information concerning copyright, fair use, and reproduction requests can be consulted at Columbia's Copyright Advisory Office.
Preferred Citation
Item description, AWTS: Letty Mandeville Russell papers, 1947-2005, series#, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Related Materials
WAB: World Council of Churches (WCC) Records, 1893-1997, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
MRL12: YMCA and YWCA records, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
WAB: Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) Records, 1975-2006, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
UTS1: East Harlem Protestant Parish records, 1942-2007, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
WAB: National Council of Churches of Christ USA, 1948 - 1973, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Letty Russell donated her papers to the Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship initially in 2001. A further accession was donated in November 2005.
About the Finding Aid / Processing Information
Columbia University Libraries, Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary
Processing Information
When the Burke Library acquired Russell's papers, an attempt was made to maintain the original order she imposed throughout the course of her career. However, significant reordering was deemed necessary in order to facilitate access for researchers. Folded materials were flattened and arranged facing the reader. Newspaper clippings and other acidic materials were housed in acid-free insert folders or mylar. Acidic materials have been flagged by folder for potential photocopying onto acid-free paper. Rubber bands, metal and plastic clips, were removed. Staples were removed if oxidizing. All materials were placed in acid-free folders and archival boxes. Several unannotated translations of Russell's books, including Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish, were removed from Series 2A. Processing was completed by Alison Killeen, Julia Bertalan, and Amy Dalton in 2008; and Crystal Hall in 2014-2015. The finding aid was created by Crystal Hall and Ruth Tonkiss Cameron in 2015, and edited by Leah Edelman in 2022.
Revision Description
2022-09-29 PDF converted to EAD and description updated by Leah Edelman.
Biographical / Historical
Letty Mandeville Russell was born in Westfield, New Jersey, in 1929. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1951 with majors in biblical history and philosophy. After teaching third grade for one year in Connecticut, she moved to New York City and began working with the East Harlem Protestant Parish (EHPP), as director of Religious Education at the Church of the Ascension, and as a home missionary of the Presbyterian Church, USA. As Russell served her mostly minority congregation, she came to believe that becoming an "official" member of the ministry was key to lifting the work of Christian educators from the stigma of "women's work." She left EHPP in 1955 to attend Harvard Divinity School and was among the first class of women admitted to its program of ministry. In August 1958 Russell returned to the Church of the Ascension in East Harlem as an ordained minister. In her new capacity as a member of the ordained clergy, Russell maintained her focus on both secular and religious education. The theology of partnership, which would become a guiding principle of Russell's career and thought, was first developed during these early years in parish ministry. She also served as a North American representative on the Working Committee on Studies in Evangelism of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and was one of the authors of the North American Report on the Missionary Structures of the Congregation, The Church for Others. Russell would become the coordinator of the various units of EHPP in 1965. That same year she began coursework at Union Theological Seminary in New York toward a Master's degree in Sacred Theology (STM). Despite her return to formal education, she continued working for the EHPP and remained in that position until 1968. Russell received her STM summa cum laude in 1966 and continued into the doctoral program, completing her Doctorate of Theology at Union in 1969 with a dissertation entitled Tradition as Mission: Study of a New Current in Theology and its Implications for Theological Education. She began her academic teaching career soon thereafter, becoming an assistant professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College, Bronx, New York and teaching courses in Protestant Theology. She also taught joint courses for the Manhattan College Graduate Division and the New York Theological Seminary (NYTS). In 1974 she joined the faculty of Yale Divinity School (YDS), and after rising to the rank of Professor of Theology in 1985 remained there until her retirement in 2001. In addition to teaching graduate courses on liberation theology, vocation and ethics, Russell wrote nine books and edited seven others during her tenure at Yale. Her books have been translated into Japanese, Korean, Dutch, German, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Russell worked to bring the ideas of justice and equality to local, national and global audiences. Described as a "consummate organizer," she coordinated a group of women administrators, faculty and staff soon after she arrived at Yale to work on issues of concern for all women at Yale. Russell also worked to address women's concerns in the Church, especially with regards to inclusive language. In 1982, in collaboration with Yale colleague Margaret Farley, Russell organized the Women's Theological Center (WTC) in Boston, with the aim of providing a one year seminary experience for women eager to study feminist theology and ethics. As WTC began to attract students internationally, particularly from third-world countries, she helped to organize and recruit students for a new Doctor of Ministry degree, called an International Feminist Doctorate of Ministry, offered through San Francisco Theological Seminary. Russell was an active leader in the ecumenical movement, having worked with the National Council of the Churches of Christ, USA as well as with the WCC and the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) at the national and international levels. She served on numerous study committees and task forces including the WCC Commission on Faith and Order (COFO), the International Dialogue among Women Theologians of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) and the Candler School of Theology Project "Faith and the Practices of Christian Congregations." She was also active in the movements for LGBTQ rights, AIDS awareness, and peace following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Russell received honorary doctorates from Dickinson College and Coe College and an honorary Masters degree from Yale University. She was the first Wellesley alumna to receive the Emmavail Luce Severinghaus Award for her work in the field of religion. In 1999 she was honored by the Festschrift Liberating Eschatology. Russell married Johannes C. ("Hans") Hoekendijk, professor of World Christianity at Union Theological Seminary, in 1970, and lived with him at UTS until his death in 1975. She then lived with J. Shannon Clarkson in Guilford, CT from 1976 until her death on July 12, 2007. In 2005, she and her life partner of 30 years, Shannon Clarkson, celebrated a civil union service in their home, along with three other lesbian couples from their church, the First Congregational Church of Guilford, CT. Margaret Farley, Gilbert Stark Professor of Ethics at Yale Divinity School gave the sermon at their service.
Subject Headings
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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