2023 Piediscalzi Lecture in Religion, Philosophy, and Classic

Speaker: Dr. Shannen Williams, Associate Professor of History, University of Dayton & author of Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle (Duke, 2022)
Topic: "American’s Real Sister Act: The Hidden History of Black Catholic Nuns in the United States"

For most people, Whoopi Goldberg's performance as Sister Mary Clarence in Sister Act is the dominant interpretation of an African American nun and the desegregation of white Catholic sisterhood in the United States.

In this talk, Dr. Shannen Dee Williams will explore the story of America's real sister act: the story of how generations of Black women and girls called to the sacred vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience fought against racism, sexism, and exclusion to become and minster as consecrated women of God in the Roman Catholic Church. In so doing, she will turn attention to women's religious life as a stronghold of white supremacy and racial segregation, and thus an important battleground in the long African American freedom struggle.

The lecture of free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the School of Humanities and Cultural Studies at 937-775-3136 or SOHCS@wright.edu.