Letitia Campbell

The Rev. Dr. Letitia M. Campbell joined Candler in 2015 as the director of Candler’s Contextual Education I and Clinical Pastoral Education programs and the senior program coordinator of the Laney Legacy Program in Moral Leadership. She was named assistant professor in the practice of ethics and society in 2017.

Campbell’s interests include the religion, Christian ethics, the role of religion in social movements, engaged pedagogy, and community and international development. Her current research focuses on the history of ethical debates surrounding the popular practice of Christian “mission trips.” She is also working collaboratively on a research project that explores the impact of religious activism on the movement to end human trafficking. Her 2010 article “Selling our Children,” published in Sojourners Magazine, won the Associated Church Press Award of Excellence for a Magazine News Story.

Prior to assuming her roles at Candler, Campbell worked in Emory’s Laney Graduate School Master’s in Development Practice degree program, where she taught courses in sustainable development, coordinated community and strategic partnerships, and helped to establish the Master of Divinity-Development Practice dual degree. Before coming to Emory, she served as a visiting instructor of religious studies at Manhattan College and Columbia University and was a staff member at Auburn Theological Seminary. Campbell spent several years as a journalist, and has worked with grassroots and religious groups to develop tools for faith-based anti-poverty and anti-racism organizing. She helped organize the #KellyOnMyMind campaign to grant clemency for Georgia death row inmate Kelly Gissendaner. The campaign was honored with the Emory University Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award in 2016 for building public awareness and creating a coalition to abolish the death penalty.

Her engagement in issues around religion and ethics extends to past and present service in organizations including Presbyterian Social Ethics Network, where she serves as co-Moderator, and the Society of Christian Ethics, and roles on the editorial board of Atlanta Studies and as a founding managing editor of the Practical Matters Journal at Emory University. Campbell has led workshops and presented at academic conferences on issues ranging from human trafficking to innovations in theological education. She has received numerous awards, including a Rhodes Scholarship and an Emory University Woodruff Fellowship. Campbell is a member of the American Academy of Religion, and is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Education

• PhD, Emory University, 2017
• MDiv, Union Theological Seminary, 2003
• B.A., M.A. (Oxon) Oxford University (1996 — 1998)
• B.A. Davidson College (1992 — 1996)
• Semester-in-India Program Madras Christian College (1994 — 1994)

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

CHAPTERS AND ARTICLES

“Tráfico Humano: Uma Proposta Indecente,” in Religião, Violências e Direitos Humanos, Editora UNIDA, 2019

Co-author,"Human Trafficking and Slavery," in Companion to Public Theology, Brill, February 02, 2017

Co-author,"Christian Engagement in US Anti-trafficking Activism: Precedents and Contexts (Parts 1 and 2)," in Trafficking Research Project Blog, October 17, 2014

Co-author,"Christian Ethics and Human Trafficking Activism: Progressive Christianity and Social Critique," Journal of the Society for Christian Ethics, vol. 34, no. 1, 2014; republished in Sex and Gender: Christian Ethical Reflections, Georgetown University Press, November 01, 2017

"Review of The Extended Case Method: Four Countries, Four Decades, Four Great Transformations and One Theoretical Tradition, by Michael Burawoy," in Practical Matters, Spring 2010, March 01, 2010

Co-author,"A Transdisciplinary Multimedia Journal of Religious Practices and Practical Theology: Introducing Practical Matters," in Practical Matters, Spring 2009, April 01, 2009

SELECTED AWARDS

Carr International Faculty Travel Grant, Candler School of Theology, 2018

Academic Learning Community Grant, Emory University, 2016-2017

Emory University Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award, 2016, as part of the #KellyOnMyMind Campaign

Community-Engaged Teaching Fellowship, Emory University, 2011-2013

Louisville Institute Dissertation Fellowship, 2011-2012

Social Science Research Council Religion and International Affairs Dissertation Workshop, 2011

Woodruff Fellowship, Emory University, 2005-2010

Traveling Fellowship, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, 2003

Auburn Scholarship, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, 1999-2003

Rhodes Scholarship, Alabama and Oriel College, 1996