Emilie M. Townes

Emilie M. Townes is the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Studies and Religion at Yale University Divinity School.  She has appointments in African American Studies, Religious Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.  Her teaching and general research interests focus on social ethics, womanist ethics, critical social theory, cultural theory and studies, as well as on postmodernism and social postmodernism. Her specific interests include health and health care, the cultural production of evil, and developing a network between African Americans and Afro-Brasilian religious and secular leaders and community based organizations. She is the first Black woman to serve as president of the American Academy of Religion (2008) and was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.  Her most recent book is Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil.