Dr. Monique Moultrie was one of six grant recipients The Center on African-American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice (CARSS) Rapid Response Grants Program. She is a participant in the Digital Salon for Mid-Career African American Faculty with the Wabash Center. Dr. Moultrie also gave a talk titled “Black Women’s Faith and Sexuality” as part of the Freedom School 101 programming hosted by the Department of African American Studies at GSU and Auburn Avenue Research Library. She also gave the following presentations: “The Black Woman’s Struggle: The Intersection of Racism & Sexism,” Panel Discussion, Scarritt Bennett Center, Nashville, TN, August 2020, “Leading from the Margins: Authenticity, Authority, and Black Women’s Sexual Agency,” for the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, October 2020, “Standing in Authenticity: Interpreting the Struggles and Power of Black Lesbian Religious Leaders. “Oral History Association National Conference, October 22, 2020. (Virtual), and Futuring the Womanist Project: Intersectional Visions of Womanist Theory and Praxis, (December 7, 2020) (Virtual). She wrote the blog “Queering Our Leadership: Intersectional Justice After the 2020 Election,” for the Georgetown University Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs.
Dr. Molly Bassett published a book review in JAAR: “Isabel Laack’s Aztec Religion and Art of Writing: Investigating Embodied Meaning, Indigenous Semiotics, and the Nahua Sense of Reality,” for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 88:3. September 2020. She was also invited to participate in American Contact, a symposium, at Princeton University (online) in mid-November, where she shared an object biography of Mexica tlaquimilolli (sacred bundles).
Dr. Kathryn McClymond was appointed to chair the American Academy of Religion’s FUTURES Task Force, a two-year committee appointed by the AAR president to develop recommendations on how the AAR can support its members better in light of the shifting job market landscape, the impact of COVID-19 and subsequent budget cuts on religious studies scholars and programs, and calls by minority and vulnerable faculty to address disparities in hiring and career advancement. She also recently joined the editorial board of Religions. A brief piece of hers is included in Remembering J.Z. Smith: A Career and its Consequence, eds. Emily D. Crews and Russell T. McCutcheon, in production with Equinox Publishers.