Collaboratively Cultivating Subversive knowledge: Transgressing Community-Academy Boundaries

This paper explores the collaborative production of knowledge regarding how to build agency for justice-oriented social change through teaching in religious studies and theology.  It traces a six-year project of experiential research into method for teaching community organizing as a required course in theological education. The project began as a collaborative experiment between a community-based community organizing network and a university-based theological school. Pedagogy included interrogation of the whiteness historically dominant in  community-organizing training. Assessment draws on evaluations by students, faculty, and community organizers, and on three theoretical fields: community-organizing theory developed by feminist and Black women organizers, critical pedagogy, and decolonial theory. Questions arise: What are guidelines for teaching social change arts in academic curricula, and for courses with explicit political agendas? How can such courses address white supremacist undergirdings of theological/religious studies education? What are lines of accountability and reciprocity between community-based and university-based leaders in such courses?