Shanise N. Palmer

The Rev. Dr. Shanise Palmer joined the Candler faculty in the fall of 2026. Palmer is a member of the Academy of Homiletics and her research interests include homiletical theory, African American preaching traditions, Black women’s proclamation and religious leadership, African American rhetoric, and homiletical pedagogy. Palmer’s work focuses on the intersection of the pulpit and the classroom, exploring how African American women preacher-scholars are reimagining the theological academy and the church.

Palmer’s dissertation Sacred Synergy: A Grounded Theory of African American Women Preacher-Scholars’ Proclamation, Pedagogy, and Transformational Leadership, draws on original qualitative research through interviews and sermon analysis, and focuses on ten African American women preacher-scholars who are currently shaping the face of formal theological education and homiletics as a discipline. Through this work, she theorizes how preacher-scholars use preaching, teaching, and leadership as innovative and strategic interventions to the patriarchal and hegemonic norms found in many religious and meaning-making spaces.

Palmer is an ordained Baptist minister, the youngest person and only the third woman to be ordained in her church’s 80-year history. She serves as her church’s first Pastor of Preaching, a role in which she oversees ministerial training and staff development.

Introduction to Preaching

Vocational Discernment for a Sustained Life in Ministry

Womanist Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric (DMin, Spring 2027)