Biography
Keri Day is an Associate Professor of Constructive Theology and African American Religion and Chair of the Theology Department at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ. Her teaching and research interests are in womanist/feminist theologies, social critical theory, cultural studies, economics, and Afro-Pentecostalism. She has authored four academic books, Unfinished Business: Black Women, The Black Church, and the Struggle to Thrive in America (2012); Religious Resistance to Neoliberalism: Womanist and Black Feminist Perspectives (2015); Notes of a Native Daughter: Testifying in Theological Education (2021); and her most recent book, Azusa Reimagined: A Radical Vision of Religious and Democratic Belonging, (2022). She is a Senior Fellow for the Theological Education Between the Times (TEBT) Project, which addresses the seismic social, cultural, and demographic shifts that demand a reassessment of how we approach theological education. She has also been recognized by NBC News as one of six black women at the center of gravity in theological education in America.
Candidate Statement
I am elated to be nominated for the At-Large Director position. I became a member of AAR as a graduate student in 2006. Since then, I have faithfully participated in the annual meetings at AAR as a paper presenter, panelist, and organizer of roundtable discussions. Being part of the AAR community has been central to my development as a teacher, scholar, and administrator in the academy.
I have had the honor of providing leadership for the AAR as well. I have held a few positions. From 2010-2014, I was a steering committee member in the Ethics Section, a historic and long-standing section at AAR. From 2015-2019, I was co-chair of the Ethics Section. I am proud that during my tenure as co-chair, we not only achieved diversity on the steering committee (across racial, ethnic, and gender lines) but also prioritized religious diversity with respect to the panels, roundtable discussions and paper presentations we organized. Ensuring AAR’s mission “to foster excellence in the academic study of religion and to enhance public understanding of religion” was central to the work of the Ethics Section. Moreover, from 2017-2020, I was a member of the Nominations Committee of the AAR, which oversees the work of recruiting and nominating scholars for leadership in the AAR. My service to AAR has given me an expansive and insightful view of our guild and how I might advance the intellectual and pedagogical pursuits of scholars in AAR.
The At-Large Directors “are charged to represent the needs and interests of the general AAR membership to the Board of Directors.” I would do this faithfully. For example, I would want to address issues of employment that many scholars confront (especially with the decline of tenure track jobs), encouraging AAR to continue creatively thinking about how AAR can develop programs that support diverse vocational trajectories with respect to the study and public engagement of religion. I would also want to think with you about how AAR can more substantively engage and support the increasing demand for virtual teaching – how to do this well within the study of religion. We are in a digital era and scholars in the academy should feel supported by AAR in discovering better ways to connect their models of teaching and learning with this online reality.
I am ready to listen to you and represent the concerns you may have. My extensive experience as a member and leader of AAR has prepared me for this position and I hope we can work together toward academic excellence in AAR.