The Katie Geneva Cannon Digital Collection

Posted on by Caro Bratnober

 

We are pleased to announce the latest update in the ongoing inter-institutional endeavor to create the Katie Geneva Cannon Digital Collection. This momentous project aims to make Dr. Cannon’s archives and papers, which span from her elementary school days through her later career, publicly available online. With this digital collection nearly complete, users can search these materials by keyword, sort by date, and filter by genre (sermon, curricula, essay) as well as form (manuscript, audiocassette, photograph, article, etc).

 

Text of an interview in fine print, with photographs of Katie Cannon a smiling Black woman
“Hearing the Voice of the Most Marginalized in Theology Ethics: A Conversation with Rev. Dr. Katie Cannon” by Jennifer Wade. From the Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship: Katie G. Cannon Papers, “Katie Cannon writings, circa 1983-2006.” At the Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.

 

We at Union are thrilled that many of the archives housed here at the Burke Library are now digitized and viewable as part of the online portal. The Katie G. Cannon Papers, part of the Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship at the Burke, include some of Dr. Cannon’s sermons, teaching files, and drawings. The collections are also available by appointment for on-site research — see the Burke’s Special Collections page for access information.

 

Colorful abstract image of a standing figure holding a round object, with the word "Rememory"
“Rememory,” dated Nov. 18, 2005. From the Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship: Katie G. Cannon Papers, “Drawings and Badges, 1989-2008.” At the Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.

 

The late Professor Katie Geneva Cannon — with whose prophetic voice many at Union Theological Seminary are largely familiar — looms in our collective memory as a foundational womanist ethicist. She was profoundly impactful with her emphasis on the embodied experiences of Black women and taking what might be called an intersectional approach to weaving together experiences of race, class, and gender in society. Her major early works include God’s Fierce Whimsy: The Implications of Feminism for Theological Education (1985) and Black Womanist Ethics (1988). She won numerous awards for her pedagogy as well as her preaching, having been the first Black woman to be ordained in the United Presbyterian Church (USA).

 

Typewritten text that reads as follows -- Dissertation title: "Black women: an ethics of survival." Thesis: In one of Nikki Giovanni's poems, she states that the black woman's entire life is tied to unhappiness. Her choices are limited to being either a sex object (if she is pretty) or "no love at all" (if she is fat or unattractive). "Get back fat black woman- be a mother, grandmother, strong thing but not (a) woman." What Giovanni cryptically described in this poem is the complex world of the majority of black women in their struggle against racism, sexism and class elitism as consequences of their historical context. In this dissertation entitled "Black women: an ethics of survival," I will describe the fundamental moral and religious beliefs relative to teh particular culture of black women in the contemporary society, and analyze how the distinctive patterns of the conditions of their realization shape the radicality of their ethical values and religious principles in their daily struggle for survival.
Prospectus for Katie G. Cannon’s dissertation with the working title “Black Women: an Ethics for Survival,” as a candidate for Ph.D. at Union Theological Seminary. From the Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship: Katie G. Cannon Papers, “Prospectus for Dissertation.” At the Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.

 

We at the Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary  — in particular, Archivist Leah Edelman, and Head of the library Matthew Baker — have been collaborating for the past few years with the Presbyterian Historical Society, and Union Presbyterian Seminary in Virginia, to make this online archive a reality. The project is also part of the Presbyterian Historical Society’s African American Leaders and Congregations Collecting Initiative. -CB

 

 

 

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