James Howard Hill Jr. is the winner of the 2020 Rubem Alves Award for Theopoetics. The Award is given by ARC to acknowledge the contributions of an emerging artist, scholar, and/or activist whose work reflects a commitment to the role of imagination, art, and embodiment in faith and reflection on religion. Given in honor of the Brazilian theologian, author, and teacher, Rubem Alves, Hill is the fourth recipient of the award since it was established in 2016. He will speak and receive the Award at ARC's 2020 Theopoetics Conference in Chicago, IL March 20 - 22, 2020.
As an interdisciplinary scholar, James presses on the edges of the academy, producing work that crosses boundaries and disciplines. His current scholarship in religious studies also engages explorations of performance, disability, gender, and sexuality. His current research relates to Michael Jackson, exploring the ways his music and life left a wake of controversy and exuberance. Hill thinks profoundly about bodies and embodiment, often reflecting on his own childhood as well as what it means to be a Black father in the United States. He has significantly advanced the scholarship of theopoetics, expressly working with the idea in several articles and conference presentations. Just as importantly, James embodies Alves's theopoetic spirit as a regular voice of critique for systems of inequality and power within higher education.
Hill shares that his work has been possible because of the support of the Louisville Institute, The Wabash Center, and the Forum for Theological Exploration. These organizations have helped him to cultivate his identity as a scholar-artist. He names as central mentors Robert Orsi, Jennifer Nash, Barnor Hesse, and Sylvester Johnson. Their support has allowed him to imagine new pathways of professional and artistic possibility. His work increasingly explores how his passion for justice can meet scholarship and his creative hope for what might come next. As an emerging artist, Hill has turned to experiments of photography and mixed-media. He wants to build and work collaboratively, feeling as if many are “are tired of pretending that the old wineskins of higher academe aren't bursting in protest for something new.” He is searching for a way forward that rejects the silos that hold apart art from the academy, that divides scholars from their bodies, and that keeps each of us from one another. For all these reasons and the ways they resonate with Alves himself, ARC is proud to name James Howard Hill Jr. the 2020 recipient of our Rubem Alves Award for Theopoetics.
ARC : Arts | Religion | Culture is a non-profit organization founded in 1962. Their work is to support and connect individuals and organizations that cultivate embodied and just ways of knowing and being through artistic and spiritual practices. ARC strives toward the vision of a just world where creativity and spirituality work together to promote the flourishing of all creation. The Alves Award was created to bring particular attention to an individual whose work reflects ARC's values and the commitments that Alves championed throughout his life.