Discovering a Collaborative Space

In a short reflection, Catharine Cummings writes about her experience at HDS as well as her future plans following her upcoming ordination in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to continue building bridges across various communities.

I entered HDS as a licensed minister continuing to ordination, and my expectation upon arriving at the Divinity School was to engage with top scholars and future world changers. Deepening my critical analysis skills and understanding broad connections with historical specificity was an important intellectual practice; however, I was surprised that Harvard graduate schools were not, at the time, openly collaborating through coursework as they are doing now. I hope the schools continue to find ways to connect with each other as they have recently done.

My intellectual focus has been in Hebrew Bible and in ethics. As I continued my academic journey, though, the passion to directly serve with people became more prominent in my life. I ended up focusing my studies around Womanist ethics, social justice, liberative theologies, and critical race theory. Still, at this point, Hebrew scripture continues to ground my intellectual inquiries to solve current societal issues, group ethos, and interlocking systems of domination.

I am grateful for being called to HDS by God. Upon accepting that calling, I have found that the unique environment here gave me space to collaborate with distinguished thinkers like Susan Abraham, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Jonathan Walton, and many others. I have amazing peers who are activists, scholars, and ministers in various faith traditions. I am glad I took the time to be personally involved with the HDS community through work as an orientation coordinator and through my field education experience as a disability services peer mentor. I have also been part of organizations such as Harambee, the Anti-Oppression Coalition, the Harvard Law School NAACP, and the HDS Standing Committee on Diversity. The Divinity School has provided a fertile environment to continue my spiritual and intellectual journey.

One challenge that I went through during my three years at HDS was discovering—through studying Biblical Hebrew—that I had undiagnosed learning disabilities. I now see challenges like this as an opportunity for personal growth and to promote communal awareness. The diagnosis helped me to be more compassionate toward others concerning learning environments, techniques, and physical disabilities. Ultimately, my internal fortitude and perseverance was strengthened through this process.

My advice to incoming students would be to find ways to get involved in the HDS community early—before class work takes over! HDS's greatest assets are its people, period. When you matriculate, you have an awesome opportunity to partner with colleagues, staff, and faculty. These connections give great personal satisfaction and challenge us to bring our best selves to HDS. Many students have acquired unique expertise and are able to help make innovative positive changes during their tenure, and it is important to speak up and ask them questions. Finally, it is key to manage one's work load effectively, but to also make time for recreation.

As far as future plans, I will be ordained with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in July. I look forward to continued ministry regarding racial reconciliation and to build bridges across various disparate communities, while producing engaged scholarship. I will continue work with WomanPreach!, Inc., VISIONS Inc., and the Department of Corrections. I am open to where God is calling me, and I'm thinking about the idea of starting a multi-ethnic progressive church in Memphis.