Are you interested in pursuing a seminary degree at Union? Visiting campus is a great way to learn more about Union and get a feel for our community. Campus Tours begin at 8:45 a.m. and conclude at 2:00 p.m. or begin at 12:00 p.m. and conclude at 5:00 p.m.
On a full tour, you will:
Attend a Class
There’s nothing quite like a class at Union Theological Seminary. With a world-renown faculty who live and breathe their academic passions, all the while both nurturing and challenging. When it comes to Union students, they arrive to class with the upmost conviction in their spirit and reason, The Union Seminary classroom is a space for discussion, disagreement and discernment. This fall, a number of professors had opened up their classroom to visitors. Scroll below to see availability by day, and read the course descriptions. Please note that some classes have limited seating.
9:00 – 11:50 AM
BX 201 03 | Exegetical Practicum: Prophet, Profit & Parable
Professor: Aliou Niang
This course teaches essential skills of exegeting biblical texts in a practice-oriented way. Both testaments and different genres are covered. While current theories of interpretation and the broad range of exegetical methods are briefly outlined, the focus is on the practical work of reading, analyzing, and understanding texts both on the literary level as well as in their socio-historic contexts. Each section contains a unique topic reflected in the title, such as: Critical Text Analysis; Hagar between Genesis and Galatians; Prophet, Profit and Parable.
CH 109 01 | History of Christianity since Reformation
Professor: Daisy Machado ’81
The main outlines of the history of Christianity from seventeenth-century Puritanism to the ecumenical movement, with emphasis on the experiences of U.S. churches in their immense diversity.
PR/ST 450 01 | Phenomenology of the Body
Professor: Andrea White
This course takes on the so-called body problem in philosophical and theological discourse with special attention given to disability studies. The study covers such themes as the erotic, materiality, flesh, power and representation, race and gender in works by a range of thinkers in disability studies, French phenomenology, feminist, black, womanist theologies, and postcolonial traditions. Thinkers studied include Julia Watts Belser, Elizabeth Barnes, Michel Henry, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Luc Marion, Judith Butler, M. Shawn Copeland, Catherine Keller, Audre Lorde, Anthony Pinn and Mayra Rivera.
2:10 – 5:00 PM
CW 301 01 | Extractivism: A Ritual/Liturgical Response
Professor: Cláudio Carvalhaes ’07
The earth must be the ground zero of our thinking and practice. In this course, we learn about the ways our world is organized around a capitalistic system called extractivism. Extractivism is the ongoing work of coloniality, the ripping off of all natural and human resources, exterminating life on earth. This system organizes the political, theological, economic and emotional resources of the anthropocene. We also learn how to respond to this way of being by creating rituals and liturgies based on readings, discussions and site visits.
PT 202 01 | Discernment of Call
Professor: Kelly Brown Douglas ’82, ’88 & Susan Hill
What does it mean to be called? What is the difference between a ministerial call and other vocational calls? How does one discern one’s call? This seminar is designed to explore the theological and spiritual meanings and practical implications of ministerial calls. Special attention is given to understanding the significance of a “call” within the Anglican Communion. Critical engagement with call narratives, a development of a vocational statement, and engagement with practitioners in diverse ministerial vocations provide the foundation for appreciating the complex dynamics of a call.
9:00 – 11:50 AM
OT 370E 01 | Genesis
Professor: David Carr
While attention is given to the broader book of Genesis, this hybrid course focuses particularly on the Primeval History: stories of creation, eating of the fruit of wisdom, brotherly murder, flood, drunkenness and more in Genesis 1-11. Additionally, some particular focus is on diverse readings of these chapters from ecocritical, post-humanist, feminist, LGBTQ and more perspectives. A mix of online and in-person teaching strategies are used.
ST 374 01 | Womanist Theology and Black Theology
Professor: Andrea White
This course provides an introduction to womanist theology through a study of three decades of scholarship produced by womanist theologians in the United States and placed in conversation with black theology. The course addresses a range of topics, including womanist biblical hermeneutics, Christology, pneumatology, soteriology, theological anthropology, theologies of embodiment, evil, sin and suffering, and eschatology. Womanist theologians (e.g., Delores Williams, Kelly Brown Douglas, M. Shawn Copeland) and scholars of black theology (e.g., James Cone, Willie James Jennings, and J. Kameron Carter) are interlocutors in genealogies of race, ontologies and physics of blackness, the cross and redemption, and black women’s literary tradition.
2:10 – 5:00 PM
CH 307 01 | Eugenics, Race, Gender and Nation: A Brief History
Professor: Daisy Machado ’81
The word “eugenics,” first used in the 1880s means “well born” and was used to develop a great variety of pedigree studies aimed at improving “the breed of man.” In the United States, eugenics represented a way to respond to the diversity, racial and ethnic that was becoming a great concern to those who held power in the nation. This course examines the development of the eugenics movement in the U.S. focusing on three key issues: impact on laws created to govern “racial purity”, issues of citizenship and national identity, and how it became an international movement.
NT 330X 01 | The Book of Acts
Professor: Aliou Niang
This seminar studies the Act of the Apostles through a postcolonial biblical critical lens focusing on selected speeches. Themes and issues for exploration include contested divinities, images, spaces, faiths, missions, ethnicities, identities, politics, economies, and the role of empire in the making. The course cultivates understanding of the rhetoric of speeches and the stasis they engender as integral dimensions of identity and community construction.
9:00 – 11:50 AM
IE/STX 342 01 | Zen Buddhist Texts
Professor: Gregory Snyder
This course explores the religious thought and practices of the Buddhist tradition that has come to be popularly known as Zen. Starting with its inception as Chinese Chan, students directly engage formative texts that situate Zen in its broader Mahayana context and go on to hermeneutically wrestle with the rich, unruly and at times opaque array of teachers, poems, koans and religious essays, which make up a tradition that understands itself to be “a special transmission outside the scriptures.” All readings are in English translation.
2:10 – 5:00 PM
IE 221 01 | Introduction to Buddhist Meditation Practices
Professor: Gregory Snyder & Peace Twesigye
This course supports students of any faith tradition, or none at all, in learning the fundamentals of Buddhist meditation. While students only touch each of these practices, they learn the basics of concentration, ethical, wisdom and compassion meditations. The course is aimed at preparing chaplains and ministers for thinking about these techniques in their own lives and in their community support roles. The hope is students take up and deepen practices appropriate to their lives and circumstances.
Explore Campus
Built in 1910, our seminary sits in the heart of Morningside Heights. The tour will introduce visitors to the English Gothic Architecture, the enchanting inner quadrangle garden- the largest in New York
City, the historic James Chapel, as well as Burke Library which houses the largest collection of theological publications in the western hemisphere. Union Theological Seminary is a wheelchair-accessible campus with elevators, ramps, and automatic doors. For further information about accessibility, please email us at admissions@utsnyc.edu or call us at 212-280-1556.
Attend a Chapel Service
Chapel is a cornerstone for spiritual and religious life at Union. Every Monday through Thursday at noon Students, Faculty, Staff and administration host chapel services which speak to truly embrace and speak to the diversity at Union Theological Seminary.
With no set liturgy or guiding principles, no Chapel service is like the other. As Union Theological Seminary is committed to the work of interreligious engagement, each chapel is affirming and open to all.
Community Lunch & Conversation with Current Students
With almost fifty-percent of the student body living off-campus, community lunch is the one time in the day when the collective Union community is able to unwind, converse, and be in fellowship. During the tour, visitors will get the opportunity to understand the essence of the seminary through connection with current students.
Full tours will be available Monday to Thursday through April. The Summer schedule will be updated in May. To schedule your tour, email us at admissions@utsnyc.edu or call 212-280-1556.
Can’t do a full day?
The Union Office of Admissions is happy to offer shorter tour options if you are not able to join for a full day. The shorter tour will last about 1.5 hours and will include, a tour of campus and the opportunity to chat with students and the admissions staff.
We can offer short tours on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Please reach out with at least five days notice before you would like to visit. To schedule your tour, email us at admissions@utsnyc.edu or call 212-280-1556.
Interested in meeting a Union professor? Feel free to reach out using the contact information found in our faculty directory.