Emilie Townes named Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Religion and Black Studies
The following is an excerpt from BU Today’s article “Leading Womanist Ethicist and Theologian Named New MLK Professor of Religion and Black Studies at STH” by Steve Holt published on May 28, 2024.
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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.
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