Larycia Hawkins facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Larycia Hawkins
Born	Larycia Alaine Hawkins (1972-08-22) August 22, 1972 (age 51) Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
Alma mater	Rice University (B.A.) 1994 University of Oklahoma (M.P.A.) 2001, (Ph.D.) 2007
Institutions	University of Virginia (current) Wheaton College (2007–Feb 10, 2016)
Main interests	American government and politics Religion and politics Policy and politics Race and welfare politics Interest groups and political advocacy Research methodology

Larycia Alaine Hawkins (born August 22, 1972) is an American scholar, author, and speaker, who in 2013, became the first female African-American tenured professor at Wheaton College, a Christian Protestant liberal arts college. There she served as an associate professor of political science. She now teaches and researches at the University of Virginia, where she is jointly appointed as assistant professor in the departments of politics and religious studies.

In December 2015, Hawkins became the center of a controversy when she made a post on her personal Facebook account for Advent affirming solidarity between Christians and Muslims. Wheaton College suspended her as a result of the negative publicity resulting from the social media post, which pictured her wearing hijab and explaining that it was an expression of solidarity with her Muslim sisters at a time when Muslims were facing rising ethnic tensions in the U.S. Hawkins was placed on paid administrative leave on December 15 as the school determined whether her statement was at odds with the school's core beliefs. On February 8, 2016, Wheaton College and Hawkins issued a joint statement that they had "reached a confidential agreement under which they will part ways." On March 3, 2016, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia announced that Hawkins would be appointed as the school's Abd el-Kader Visiting Faculty Fellow.

Early life and education

Hawkins was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and was raised in Shawnee, Oklahoma. She received her B.A. in History and Sociology from Rice University in Houston, Texas in 1994. She received an M.P.A. at the University of Oklahoma in 2001. She subsequently completed her Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma in political science in 2007. Her research is about black theology and its relationship to political rhetoric and black political agendas, like those of the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP.

Career

Hawkins's early career included working in federal programs administered by the state government such as the Social Security Disability program and the Community Development Block Grant.

Hawkins joined the faculty at Wheaton College in 2007, where she served as assistant professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations from 2007 to 2014. In 2014, she was tenured and promoted to associate professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations. Hawkins is the first African American female to have been tenured at Wheaton College since its founding in 1860.

On April 26, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities announced that Hawkins would be their 2019 commencement speaker, with the commencement address on the theme "you were made for such a time as this."