Laurie Maffly-Kipp, PhD, a professor in the humanities in Arts & Sciences and in the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, received the 2014 James W.C. Pennington Award for her research on African-American religion and history.
The Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) and the Faculty of Theology at Heidelberg University in Germany established the prize in 2011 to pay tribute to James W.C. Pennington, an African-American churchman and former slave, who in 1849 was the first African American to receive an honorary doctorate from Heidelberg University.
The award is given to scholars who have distinguished work on topics important to Pennington: slavery, emancipation, peace, education, reform, civil rights, religion and intercultural understanding. The award includes a month-long stay in Heidelberg to engage in research on and to discuss these topics.
Maffly-Kipp’s research and teaching focus on African-American religions, religion on the Pacific borderlands of the Americas, and issues of intercultural contact.
She is the author of numerous publications, including “Setting Down the Sacred Past: African-American Race Histories” (Harvard University Press, 2010); “American Scriptures,” an anthology of sacred texts (Penguin, 2010); and “Women’s Work,” a co-edited collection of writings by African-American women historians (Oxford University Press, 2010).
She received the award at a June 24 event at HCA. She presented the keynote address, titled “James W.C. Pennington and the Origins of African-American Historiography.”
During her month-long stay in Heidelberg, she also co-taught a graduate seminar in American religious history at the HCA, met with students and faculty, and discussed the possibility of future collaborative ventures between the Danforth Center on Religion & Politics and relevant faculty in Germany.
More information on Pennington and the award can be found here.