Food Justice and Food Apartheid in Memphis

Food Justice and Food Apartheid in Memphis

Dr. Emily A. Holmes, Associate Professor, joined the Religion and Philosophy faculty at CBU in 2008. She holds degrees from Emory University (Ph.D. 2008), Harvard University (M.T.S. 1999), University of Cambridge (M.Phil. 1998), and Tulane University (B.A. 1996). Prior to teaching at CBU, she taught part-time at Rhodes College. Dr. Holmes’ research interests include medieval theology and mysticism, women’s writing practices, and food ethics and the spirituality of eating. She has published articles and chapters in a variety of journals and books, and is the author of Flesh Made Word: Medieval Women Mystics, Writing, and the Incarnation (Baylor University Press, 2013); the co-editor of Breathing with Luce Irigaray (Bloomsbury, 2013); and the co-editor of Women, Writing, Theology: Transforming a Tradition of Exclusion (Baylor University Press, 2011). She is the recipient of grants from the Louisville Institute, the CBU Faculty-Staff Development fund, and the Lindsay Young Fellowship at the University of Tennessee, and was a fellow of the American Academy of Religion/Luce Summer Seminars in Theologies of Religious Pluralism and Comparative Theology (2009-2010). Dr. Holmes is the network editor for feminist theology at Religious Studies Review and served as co-chair of the Women and Religion section of the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion (SECSOR) from 2007-2010. She is currently editing a special issue of the Journal of Theology & Sexuality on the theme of maternality and is continuing to develop a theology of food justice.

At CBU, Dr. Holmes teaches courses in World Religions, Christian Spirituality, Classical Christian Thought, and Catholicism and Other Faith Traditions. She has developed new courses in Women and Christianity and in the Spirituality and Ethics of Eating. Her religion courses are interdisciplinary and experiential in approach, drawing on Dr. Holmes’ strengths in theology, philosophy, and literature as well as her personal and professional interests in religious diversity, spirituality, and food ethics. Dr. Holmes is faculty advisor to the CBU Gay-Straight Alliance. In 2010, she received the New Advisor Award for student advising. She serves on the committee for the Vanderhaar Symposium on Peace and Justice; chairs the Faculty Assembly Policy Committee; and served as chair of the CBU Safe Zones Committee from 2013-2014. Dr. Holmes serves on the board of GrowMemphis, the Christian Education committee of First Congregational Church, and is the Community Garden Leader of Peabody Elementary School. She lives in midtown Memphis with her husband and two children. When she has time, she likes to read fiction and get outside occasionally.

This special series is funded by a grant from the United Methodist EarthKeepers and is sponsored by the Green Seminary Initiative at Memphis Theological Seminary.