Faculty members who will teach courses as part of the two new tracks in Candler’s DMin program, Womanist Discourse and Chaplaincy. Photos: Bita Honarvar
Candler School of Theology is adding two new tracks to its hybrid Doctor of Ministry degree program. Beginning in fall 2024, tracks in Womanist Discourse and Chaplaincy will increase the scope and relevance of the school’s capstone degree for ministry professionals who want to strengthen the connection between theology and practice.
The two new tracks will join existing DMin tracks in Biblical Interpretation and Proclamation and Church Leadership and Community Witness. Students choose a track based on their academic interests and vocational contexts.
“The launch of the Womanist Discourse and Chaplaincy DMin tracks is a significant moment for Candler,” says Professor of Hebrew Bible Roger S. Nam, director of the DMin program. “Both new tracks align with strengths of the Candler faculty, and each has excellent core faculty members set to teach and advise our DMin students.”
The Womanist Discourse track will feature courses taught by William Ragsdale Cannon Distinguished Professor of New Testament Musa W. Dube; Bandy Professor of Preaching and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Teresa L. Fry Brown; Associate Professor in the Practice of Religion and Society Nichole R. Phillips; and Associate Dean of Worship and Spiritual Formation and Associate Professor in the Practice of Worship Khalia J. Williams.
The Chaplaincy track will include courses taught by Assistant Professor in the Practice of Ethics and Society Letitia M. Campbell, director of Candler’s Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program; Associate Pastor of Transformative Leadership and Communal Care Gregory C. Ellison II; Associate Professor of Psychology and Spiritual Care Geoffrey Goodman; Charles Howard Candler Professor of Pastoral Theology and Spiritual Care Emmanuel Y. Lartey; and Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology and Spiritual Care Danielle Tumminio Hansen, director of the school’s Chaplaincy concentration.
In addition to the scholarly powerhouses on Candler’s faculty, the new tracks will also benefit from resources beyond Candler at Emory University and in the city of Atlanta. For the track in Womanist Discourse, this includes the abundance of practitioners and scholars connected to the field of womanist discourse who work in church and higher education settings throughout the metro Atlanta area.
And, Nam says, “We expect that the Chaplaincy track will support a growing need for students to learn and embody best practices of chaplaincy—both established and emerging practices—through our excellent pastoral care faculty with support from the staff of Emory’s Compassion-Centered Spiritual Health program.”
Candler relaunched its DMin degree program in 2014 with an innovative hybrid model, years before the COVID-19 pandemic made the format a necessity. Instruction occurs primarily online, augmented by four short in-person visits to Candler’s campus throughout the three-year program—once in each of the first two years, and twice in the third. Students are arranged in cohorts and integrate their ministry contexts into final projects advised by a Candler faculty member and presented in the spring of the third year.
For more information on Candler’s Doctor of Ministry program, visit this webpage, attend an online information session on December 12 at 8:00 p.m. (EST) or January 19 at noon, or contact our Admissions Office at candleradmissions@emory.edu or 404.727.6326.