Emilie Townes comes to BU from Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School, where she was dean emerita and the Distinguished Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society. She previously taught at Yale University and Union Theological Seminary. Photo courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity School

New Appointment

Leading Womanist Ethicist and Theologian Named New MLK Professor of Religion and Black Studies at STH

Emilie Townes says she hopes to foster conversations in an increasingly polarized culture

Emilie Townes was all set to retire in two years from the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University and return to teaching full-time. Then she accepted an invitation to meet with a search committee member from Boston University’s School of Theology regarding a renowned—and recently vacated—professorship bearing the name of civil rights icon and BU alum Martin Luther King, Jr. (GRS’55, Hon.’59). 

The committee member advised Townes, Vanderbilt’s E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Chair in Ethics and Society and University Distinguished Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society, to view the potential role—newly renamed the Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Religion and Black Studies—as a capstone to a career in theological education that dates back more than four decades.

“I hate that kind of language,” Townes says with a smile. “You don’t have a capstone, you have a job to do, and you do it.”

Townes says she took the meeting “as a courtesy.” It didn’t take long in the interview process, however, for Townes to feel STH was where she needed to be.

“As soon as Emilie Townes applied and expressed interest in the MLK professorship, we knew we need not look any further,” says G. Sujin Pak, dean of STH. “She was not just our top candidate, she is our dream candidate! So, the search process became crystal clear from STH’s view. The possibility of attracting the Emilie Townes is an unparalleled, transformative opportunity.”

Townes will become STH’s new Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Religion and Black Studies effective July 1. According to STH, the professorship honors King “by modeling the moral authority, prophetic vision of justice, peace, and love, ethical leadership, and global consciousness that he advocated for and embodied.” The chair, previously named the Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Ethical Leadership, had been held by longtime STH faculty member Rev. Walter E. Fluker (GRS’88, STH’88, Hon.’24), with whom Townes spoke before accepting the position. Fluker retired from the position in 2020. “He spoke [about the professorship] with a certain amount of affection, which you never really know if that’s what you’re going to hear when you say, ‘Tell me about it,’” Townes says. “He, more than anyone outside of BU, helped convince me this will be a good place.”

Townes’ scholarship has delved into many corners of womanist and Black theology, as well as social issues such as racial health disparities and environmental racism. Before becoming the first Black dean at Vanderbilt Divinity School in 2013, she was the first Black woman president of the American Academy of Religion, the first African American and first woman to serve as associate dean for academic affairs at the Yale Divinity School, and the first Black woman president of the American Academy of Religion. She currently serves as the president of the Society of Christian Ethics, the first Black woman to hold the office.

Pak calls Townes a “trailblazing scholar of remarkable interdisciplinary range,” who has left a mark on every field she touches.

“Emilie Townes is a towering figure and recognizably the leading living womanist ethicist today,” Pak says. “She is not only an astonishing scholar; the incredible gift is this: she is a passionate teacher, a prophetic advocate, an innovative institutional leader, and a beautiful human being. The STH community will reap immeasurable blessings from her experiential wisdom, gifts of discernment, and compassionate counsel.”

Townes will not teach any courses this fall, instead using the time to learn about the School of Theology and its curriculum and meet faculty and students. When she does return to the classroom in spring 2025, she says, she’s eager to pull from current events to teach about how the world is structured and humanity’s capacity to create change. “I’ll try to help students get a better sense of the structures we’re dealing with and not just personal opinion or sound bites or all those other things that are not quite what you should be using to build a society that is sustainable, but also where are each of us individually in that structure,” Townes says. “And, how can we be better people in light of it?” 

Townes says a main vision she has for her role is that of unifier.

“The polarizations we’re living with now are heartbreaking to me,” she says. “I’m feeling like this [professorship] is a great challenge, and more than that, a great possibility to see if there are ways in which the prominence of the chair can help start conversations that lead people to working together as opposed to being at each other’s throats or not listening.”