Final Oral Dissertation Defense - PhD Candidate, Tracy Howe

Scholar, theologian and artist-activist Tracy Howe takes five years of arts-based research and abolitionist organizing to create a framework of spirituality and explore the process of spiritual formation. For Howe, spirituality is the stories and relationships we live and practice. As someone formed in the present United States, Howe specifically examines how the stories and relationships we live and practice in the context of racial capitalism amidst an ongoing settler colonial project, move towards interdependence, solidarity, repair, healing, liberation and love. Building from decolonial and feminist abolitionist practice, theories and theologies, Howe uses arts-based research methods to both explore these questions and present her findings. Her final dissertation is a portfolio of songwriting and performance, abolitionist organizing resources and queer autohistoria.