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VDS Virtual Tour
Vanderbilt University Divinity School announces the 2025 Antoinette Brown Lecture
to be delivered by
NICHOLE M. FLORES, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia
“Labor has brough forth” (Micah 5:3): Natal Christology and the Practice of Democracy
Monday, April 14, 2025, Vanderbilt Divinity School (The Space G-29) 6:00 pm
Event Registration Link: bit.ly/vdsantoinettebrownlecture2025
Antoinette Brown Bicentennial Exhibit
April 14, 2025
Vanderbilt Divinity School, Art Room (G-06)
Preview 12:00 – 2:00 pm
Exhibit Opening and Antoinette Brown Lecture Reception 7:00 pm
Lecture Title: “Labor has brough forth” (Micah 5:3): Natal Christology and the Practice of Democracy
Description: Considering the events of Jesus’s natality—including Mary’s experiences of pregnancy and childbirth along with Jesus’s experiences of utter dependence and vulnerability as an infant—allows for the articulation of a Christian political theology that undergirds democratic practices of radical and embodied space-making for others in our society, especially the most vulnerable. Dr. Flores discusses the crisis of Black and Brown maternal-fetal mortality to illustrate the possibilities of a Christian political theology of democracy inflected by Black and Brown Mariology and natal Christology.
Bio: Nichole M. Flores is associate professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia where she is also the Director of the Catholic Studies Initiative and Co-Director of the Forum on Religion and Democracy. She researches the relationship between religion, aesthetics, and democracy with emphasis on the Catholic and Latine theological and ethical traditions. Dr. Flores is author of The Aesthetics of Solidarity: Our Lady of Guadalupe and American Democracy (Georgetown University Press, 2021). She has also published essays in the Journal of Religious Ethics, the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, and Modern Theology among other academic journals and edited volumes. Her research on La Virgen de Guadalupe and democracy has been profiled on the popular podcasts Things Not Seen and Know Your Enemy and featured on CBS Saturday Morning. In 2015, Dr. Flores was honored with the Catherine Mowry LaCugna Award for best essay in academic theology by a junior scholar from the Catholic Theological Society of America. Dr. Flores earned an A.B. in government from Smith College, an M.Div. from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in theological ethics from Boston College. Originally from Denver, Colorado, she lives in Crozet, Virginia with her husband and two sons.
NEW Lifelong Learning Course
Life After Death: The Art of Living on Death Row. Revisited
Instructor: Graham Reside
In-person
March 4th (6-7:30pm)
March 21st (6-7:30pm)
April 3rd (6-7:30pm)
Recently VDS hosted an art exhibit featuring the works of three men serving in federal prison sentenced to death row titled, “The Art of Living on Death Row.” The exhibit raised important questions on issues of restorative justice, moral injury, systemic racism, and punishment and redemption. This series will extend those discussions—and artwork—beyond the VDS walls, engaging in dialogue with neighbors, ministers, activists, family members, and those interested in learning more about the experience of living under a sentence of death in the United States today.
This unique lifelong learning series at Frothy Monkey coffeeshop will feature the artwork and panel discussions, interviews, and Q&A with special guests and experts in the field. The conversations will be facilitated by Dr. Graham Reside, Assistant Professor of Ethics and Society the Director of the Prison and Carceral Studies Program at Vanderbilt Divinity School.
