Traci C. West
Rev. Dr. Traci C. West
Writer. Teacher. Co-learner.
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I’m rooted in black feminist thinking and doing related to radical histories, conversations, movements, and spiritualities.
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Professor Emerit of Christian Ethics and African American Studies at Drew University Theological School (Madison, NJ)
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she. her. black.
My foundational educational roots include…
BA from Yale University (New Haven, CT), MDiv. from Pacific School of Religion (Berkeley, CA), and PhD from Union Theological Seminary (New York, NY).
My efforts to grow new roots through my writing include…
Solidarity and Defiant Spirituality: Africana Lessons on Religion, Racism, and Ending Gender Violence (New York University Press, 2019), Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism and Women's Lives Matter (Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), Wounds of the Spirit: Black Women, Violence, and Resistance Ethics (New York University Press, 1999), and the editor of Our Family Values: Same-sex Marriage and Religion (Praeger, 2006). Also, many published articles and book chapters on sexual, gender, and racial justice, gender-based intimate violence, and clergy ethics.
Examples of collaborations that have rooted my vision of liberative practice include…
Serving as ordained elder in the United Methodist Church (UMC) initially in campus and parish ministry in the Hartford, CT area, and now retired clergy. Participating in United Methodists of Color for a Fully Inclusive Church (UMOC) and protesting on behalf of LGBTQ equality at General Conferences of the UMC. Being interviewed in the pioneering documentary on violence against black women, "NO!." Testifying before the New Jersey state legislature in support of marriage equality. Teaching AA, BA, MA, and non-degree certificate students in Drew’s Partnership for Religion and Education in Prisons (PREP) program at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility (Clinton, NJ), Northern State Prison (Newark, NJ), and East Jersey State Prison (Rahway, NJ). Helping to curate publications on the editorial boards of T&T Clark Studies in Social Ethics, Ethnography, and Theology Series and the Journal of Black Women and Religious Culture, as well as previously on the Journal for the Society of Christian Ethics and as co-editor of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion.
Early personal roots of my vocational journey include…
Being steeped as a child, born and raised in Stamford, CT, in the antiracist Christian faith of my dynamic mother, Paula West. When attending her required extended family reading sessions on black power activist and intellectual texts, I learned how to claim space for our own curriculum of radical freedom texts to explore with kin.
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Recognizing the ordinariness of racist and class bias in U.S. government justice systems when interviewing jailed detainees as a first year college student. When documenting unfair criminal court practices for a non-profit bail monitoring project in New Haven, CT, I learned how to object to dehumanizing state practices based on listening directly to prisoners who experienced them.
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Nudging frustration as a new campus minister seeking sex/gender/race/faith intersectional resources when I met a black gay student victimized by brutal hate violence, as well as several student victim-survivors of intimate violence by a father, first date, or brother. I learned how the gift of impatience with endangering divisions of the personal from political can fuel life-long scholar-activist fervor.
“I am a welder.
Not an alchemist.
I am interested in the blend
of common elements to make
a common thing.”
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Cherríe Moraga’s “The Welder”
