“Rituals of Humiliation: Understanding Race and Caste” 
A Book Launch and Panel Discussion

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On Wednesday, February 21st, at 6:00 pm, the International Student Caucus at Union Seminary in the City of New York, will be hosting a book launch event for Sunder John Boopalan‘s new book Memory, Grief and Agency. 

After the author’s remarks, there will be a panel discussion moderated by Kripanand Komanapalli, and will feature responses from Union Professors Andrea White and Claudio Carvalhaes. 

About the Book:
Comparing Indian and U.S. contexts of caste and race, and guided by a liberative theological imagination, in Memory, Grief and Agency Sunder John Boopalan argues that an active memory of and grief over structural wrongs yields positive agency. Such agency, Boopalan suggests, generates rites of moral responsibility that serve as antidotes to violent identities and catalyze hospitable social practices.

About the Author:
Sunder John Boopalan was a postdoctoral fellow at the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, and currently serves as Minister for Community Life and Theologian in Residence at First Baptist Church in Newton Centre, Newton. In his writings, Boopalan speaks from a Christian Dalit perspective, and his interdisciplinary research addresses themes and concerns in political theologies and theological ethics.

About the Panelists:
Kripanand Komanapalli is a doctoral student in the Department of Religion and the Institute of Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University. His research lies at the intersection of Religion, Politics and Caste in South India.

Rev. Dr. Claudio Carvalhaes, a theologian, liturgist and artist, is the Associate Professor of Worship at Union. He is the author of Eucharist and Globalization: Redrawing the Borders of Eucharistic Hospitality.

Rev. Dr. Andrea C. White, Associate Professor of Theology & Culture at Union, is a womanist theologian and the co-chair of the American Academy of Religion’s Black Theology group. Her forthcoming publications include The Back of God: A Theology of Otherness in Karl Barth and Paul Ricoeur & The Scandal of Flesh: Black Women’s Bodies and God Politics.

RSVP here.