Bishop’s Lecture Series 2024 | Dr. Shannen Williams

Dr. Shannen Williams will deliver the next Bishop’s Lecture, "In the Shadow of the Cross: Black Women and the Making of American Catholicism". Black women, religious and lay, are overlooked prophets of American Catholicism, especially the traditions free from the most destructive aspects of white supremacy. This talk will chart the epic journey of Black women in the American Catholic Church, paying particular attention to the Afro-feminine foundations of American Catholicism, the monumental barriers broken by Black Catholic women and girls in secular and spiritual arenas, and the transformative promises of Black Catholic women’s history.

To register, please complete the form at www.bridgeportdiocese.org/bls or email bishopslecture@diobpt.org

The Bishop’s Lecture Series features leading national Catholic writers and speakers who will offer their insights into renewal through truth, beauty and goodness as we seek to accompany all in their journey of faith. The lectures are presented free of charge and are open to all. Bishop Caggiano will offer brief remarks at every lecture.

The mission of the Bishop’s Lecture Series is to provide opportunities for compelling adult faith formation regarding catechetical, theological or pastoral issues of contemporary importance. Each year four lectures will be given in various regions of the Diocese.

Light refreshments will be available prior to the start of the program. After an initial period of prayer, the lecturer will present the talk that will be 45 minutes in length. After a short break, there will be a 30-minute period of conversation and dialogue with participants.

About Dr. Shannen Williams:

Dr. Shannen Dee Williams is Associate Professor of History at the University of Dayton. A historian of the African American experience with research and teaching specializations in women’s, religious and Black freedom movement history, Williams is the author of Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle, which was published by Duke University Press in May 2022. Subversive Habits was named a top five book published in religion by Publishers' Weekly in 2022. It also received the 2022 Letitia Woods Brown Award for Best Book in African American Women's History from the Association of Black Women Historians and the 2023 Wesley-Logan Prize for Outstanding Book in African Diaspora History from the American Historical Association and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

Dr. Williams’s research been supported by a host of fellowships, grants and awards, including a Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City, a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Fellowship in Religion and Ethics from the Woodrow Wilson National Foundation, an Albert J. Beveridge Grant from the American Historical Association and the John Tracy Ellis Dissertation Award from the American Catholic Historical Association. Her work has been published in the Journal of African American History, American Catholic Studies, the Washington Post, America Magazine, US Catholic, and the National Catholic Reporter.

A Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians and the first Black woman elected to the Executive Council of the American Catholic Historical Association, Dr. Williams authored the award-winning column, “The Griot’s Cross,” published by the Catholic News Service from 2020 to 2022. Dr. Williams is a co-founder the Fleming-Morrow Endowment in African American History at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. In 2020, she also submitted successful proposals to establish the Mother Mary Lange Lecture in Black Catholic History at Villanova University and the Cyprian Davis, O.S.B. Prize through the American Catholic Historical Association and the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism.