A Candler student and alumnus were among those honored at the 2019 Emory Pride Awards on March 5. Sponsored by the university’s Office of LGBT Life, the annual awards celebrate the contributions to the LGBTQ community on Emory’s campus and in the Atlanta community.
Second-year MTS student Jane Nichols won the Excellence in LGBTQ Writing Award, given to a student who has contributed an outstanding piece of writing on LGBTQ issues, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, op-ed pieces, reporting, or blogging. Nichols was recognized for her academic paper “The Priest at the Mass, the Person of Christ, and the Transgender Body,” which she presented at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting in November 2018.
Nichols’ nominator wrote, “Jane is revolutionizing Christian theology, in no small part because she is one of the first out trans women theologians to confront the transphobia within queer theology itself. In her paper, she argues for a new way of understanding how the body of the priest at the mass represents Christ, and why a trans woman is the most theologically and symbolically resonant person to preside over the table.”
Crawford (right) with Acting Dean of the Chapel and Spiritual Life Lisa Garvin 03T.
Kevin Crawford 14T 17T, assistant chaplain in Emory’s Office of Spiritual and Religious Life, was honored with the Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe Keeping the Faith Award. A Candler alumna, Henry-Crowe 76T served for 22 years as Emory’s dean of the chapel and religious life. The award honors an individual, department, or organization that has made meaningful contributions toward the creation of a welcoming and accessible campus environment for queer people of faith at Emory. Since the award’s inception in 2011, six out of eight recipients have had ties to Candler.
Of Crawford, his nominator says, “As a chaplain at Emory, Kevin brings issues of justice to the table every day. He works with and challenges both leaders and scholars. He teaches students to think critically about their own faith traditions as they intersect with issues of justice, especially around sexuality, gender, and race. He is also the first person to provide support to students as they develop programs to bring light to social justice issues.”