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Monica A. Coleman Associate Professor of Constructive Theology and African American Religions Education - A.B. Harvard University - M.Div. Vanderbilt University Divinity School - M.A. Claremont Graduate University - Ph.D. Claremont Graduate University (Philosophy of Religion and Theology)

NEW PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AND AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGIONS APPOINTED

Monica A. Coleman has been appointed to the position of associate professor of constructive theology and African American religions, effective August 1, 2008.

Coleman previously held a position in systematic theology at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, where she has taught since 2006. She also has held teaching and research positions at Bennett College for Women and Perkins School of Theology.

An Itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Michigan conference), Coleman holds the Ph.D. in Religion from Claremont Graduate University, where she specialized in philosophy of religion and theology. She received an M.Div. from Vanderbilt University Divinity School and an A.B., magna cum laude with honors, in Afro-American Studies from Harvard University.

"Professor Coleman brings creativity, energy, and breathtaking rigor to the work of preparing leaders for church and academy," says Susan L. Nelson, Claremont's academic dean. "As a Womanist theologian with roots in process theology, her expertise in African American Religion will enrich the study of religion at Claremont - both because of her knowledge of African-American tradition, and her willingness to venture in new ways into the field."

Coleman is author of Making a Way out of No Way: A Womanist Theology (Augsburg Fortress 2008) and The Dinah Project: A Handbook for Congregational Response to Address Sexual Violence (Pilgrim Press, 2004), as well as numerous academic articles, editorial columns, and sermons.

This fall, Coleman will teach courses on "Systematic Theology" and "Advanced Topics in Black and Womanist Theologies: Critiques and New Constructions."