Tuesday, June 9, 2020
4:00–5:00 p.m. (Eastern)
In 2015, Dr. Larycia Hawkins, a Christian professor at Wheaton College wore hijab as an act of embodied solidarity with Muslim American women suffering from Islamophobia. In a Facebook post explaining her decision to wear hijab Dr. Hawkins said that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. The firestorm that followed exposes conflicts over academic freedom and theological understanding still alive in the United States today.
View the Same God film at home on Amazon, Google Play, or iTunes, and then join ICJS Executive Director Heather Miller Rubens for a conversation with Dr. Hawkins exploring the idea of embodied solidarity and the theological claims brought out in this interreligious American story.
Larycia Hawkins is the Abd el-Kader Visiting Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture and a lecturer at the University of Virginia where she is a political scientist, public speaker, and embodied solidarity activist. Previously, Hawkins was an associate professor, and founder and director of the Peace & Conflict Studies Certificate Program at Wheaton College in Illinois.
Background
Local Coverage
- 12/16/2015: Wheaton College says view of Islam, not hijab, got Christian teacher suspended (Chicago Trubune)
- 12/21/2015: Suspended Wheaton College Professor Addresses Religious Statements (WTTW)
- 2/11/2016: Questions Remain After Larycia Hawkins, Wheaton College Sever Ties (Chicago Magazine)
National Coverage
- 12/16/2015: Evangelical college suspends tenured professor for saying Christians & Muslims "worship the same God," echoing pope (Salon)
- 12/16/2015: Wheaton College Suspends Dr. Larycia Hawkins, Professor Who Vowed to Wear Hijab (NBC News)
- 12/17/2015: Do Muslims and Christians worship the same god? College suspends professor who said yes. (The Washington Post)
- 12/17/2015: The Professor Suspended for Saying Muslims and Christians Worship One God (The Atlantic)
- 1/9/2016: Exclusive: Wheaton College Provost Called Suspended Professor's Muslim Comments 'Innocuous' (TIME Magazine)
- 1/22/2016: How a Facebook comment turned into a nightmare for ‘the evangelical Harvard’ (The Washington Post)
- 2/6/2016: Wheaton will not fire professor over Muslim worship comments, but she will leave college (The Washington Post)
- 2/6/2016: Wheaton College, Larycia Hawkins to ‘Part Ways’ (Christianity Today)
- 2/10/2016: What Wheaton, Hawkins, and Others Said at Public Reconciliation Attempt (Christianity Today)
- 10/13/2016: The Professor Wore a Hijab in Solidarity — Then Lost Her Job (The New York Times)
Expanding the Conversation
- 12/17/2015: Wheaton professor’s suspension is about anti-Muslim bigotry, not theology (Miraslov Volf in The Washington Post)
- 1/6/2016: Do Non-Muslims Help or Hurt Women by Wearing Hijabs? (The New York Times)