2025 Professional Webinar: Transforming Perceptions: Anti-Racism and White Privilege Through the Evolution of Marian Iconography

This webinar offers a comprehensive exploration of Marian iconography through an anti-racist lens. Drawing from spirituality, anthropology, ecology, and Nisawia thought (womanist theology), it critically examines how religious imagery has been used to perpetuate racial hierarchies while also highlighting strategies of resistance and reimagination. Courtney Lee Hall asserts in her book entitled Black Madonna: A Womanist Look at Mary of Nazareth, "Religious imagery is never neutral. Every depiction of the divine is an act of cultural and political negotiation, revealing deeper structures of power, colonialism, and resistance." Considering this framework, we seek to explore, reimage, and decolonize iconography toward a critical consciousness that assumes spiritual embodiment as humanization and an ethical, religious ethos.

Webinar Objectives:

1. Explore anti-racsim through the evolution of Marian Iconography.
2. Decolonize iconography.
3. Reimage Mary/Maryam where spiritual embodiment creates an ethos of humanization and collective sharing.
4. Create critical consciousness that asserts an ethos of moral and ethical awareness and response.

NACC Certification Competencies Addressed in this Webinar

PIC4, PPS1, PPS3, OL4

Presenter Information

Dr. Kai Horn El-Amin is a visionary scholar, interfaith leader, and transformative educator whose groundbreaking work integrates spirituality, anthropology, ecology, interreligious thought, and Nisawia theology (Islamic womanist thought). As the CEO of THE SEED Program (Social Ethics, Equity, and Diversity), she bridges academic scholarship with profound cultural and spiritual insights.