Past Programs

 

Over the years, we have connected VDS students to a wide and diverse network of national, regional, and local collaborators. 

  • In 2022, we co-hosted with the Vanderbilt LGBTQ+ Policy Lab a conversation with Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow, whose response to being charged with “grooming” by a Senate colleague went viral. 
  • We have co-hosted film screenings and art exhibits with the Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture program, including Stories of Intersex and Faith (2020) and local artist Elisheba Mrozik (2022-23). 
  • In 2021, we hosted the creators of the Black Trans Prayer Book 
  • We collaborated with several local partners to bring adrienne maree brown, author of Emergent Strategies, to Nashville in 2018 for an inspiring and energizing workshop. 
  • In 2018, we co-hosted “Resistance+Faith+Art: Race and Sexuality Summit” with the Kelly Miller Smith Institute for Black Church Studies and Fisk University. Fisk alum and Artist-in-residence, Arjae Thompson, along with other speakers led participants through exploring the visual arts as creative ways to examine racialized and sexualized injustices, envision ways to resist, and faithfully re-imagine a world of limitless possibility.  
  • In 2017 we co-hosted the sixth annual Souls A’Fire conference, the first national gathering of black queer theologians to meet in the South.  
  • Carpenter-affiliated students participated in the Trans-seminarian Cohorts (2014-2017) and Latinx Roundtable convenings at the Pacific School of Religion.  
  • We have sent delegations of staff and students to Creating Change and to Wild Goose.  
  • We worked with SisterSong to organize and support the Let’s Talk about Sex conference and the Public Rights, Private Conscience Project’s southern leadership summit  
  • We also partnered with Our Bible App to provide content when it first launched. 
  • We regularly co-sponsor events with other programs at VDS, VU, and beyond.  
Picture of students
pictures of students