Monday, April 6 – "Changing the Religious Climate: The Role of Faith Groups in Climate Change Awareness and Action" with Laurel Kearns, Associate Professor of Sociology and Religion and Environmental Studies, Drew Theological SchoolThe Harvard Divinity School presents: "Changing the Religious Climate: The Role of Faith Groups in Climate Change Awareness and Action" with Laurel Kearns, Associate Professor of Sociology and Religion and Environmental Studies, Drew Theological School.
Dr. Laurel Kearns is Associate Professor of Sociology and Religion and Environmental Studies at Drew Theological School and the Graduate Division of Religion of Drew University, where she has taught certification, masters, Ph.D and D. Min students since 1994. Born and raised in Florida, she received a B.A from Florida State in Religion, Art and Humanities, her M.A. and PhD from the Institute of Liberal Arts at Emory University in 1994, with a concentration in the Sociology of Religion. She has researched, published and given talks around the globe on religion and environmentalism for over 20 years. In addition to being a co-founder and executive committee member of the Green Seminary Initiative, she works closely with GreenFaith, serving on the board for over a decade and now partnering with them in working toward greening theological education. Her interest in transforming institutions led her to serve on the Sustainability Committees of both Drew University and the American Academy of Religion, where she also chaired the Religion and Ecology Steering Committee. She currently serves on the editorial board of Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture and Ecology.
In addition to EcoSpirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth, co-edited with Catherine Keller, she has contributed chapters to volumes such as the Blackwell Companion to Modern Theology and their Companion to Religion and Social Justice; the Oxford Handbook on Climate Change and Society; Religion in Environmental and Climate Change; Grounding Religion: A Field Guide to the Study of Religion and Ecology; Divinanimality: Creaturely Theology, The New Evangelical Social Engagement, Religion, Globalization, and Culture; Earth and Word; and Love God, Heal the Earth as well as articles in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature; The Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion; The Spirit of Sustainability; and journals such as Sociology of Religion, Social Compass, and the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture.