Building a Just Economy for all People and the Planet
What does it take to build a more just, equitable and cooperative economy for all peole and the planet? Check out a collection of our interviews and special events to find out!
Want to bring Wendland-Cook to your congregation or organization? Check out the form below to schedule an event with us! We’re excited to work with you.
Public Religion & Justice Forum: Labor, Faith, and Racial Justice
Date: March 1, 2021
Special Guest: Everett Kelley, AFGE National President
The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice hosts monthly Public Forum on the first Mondays of the month, featuring voices on the front lines of work at the intersections of justice and faith. The March forum featured Everett Kelley, National President of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal and D.C. government employees. In addition to his work in organized labor, Kelley has more than three decades of experience as a pastor and theological educator.
DATE: April 5, 2021
SPEAKER: Robert Chao Romero
Robert Chao Romero (PhD, University of California at Los Angeles; JD, University of California at Berkeley) is associate professor in the Departments of Chicana/o Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has authored numerous books, including Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity, the award-winning The Chinese in Mexico, 1882-1940, Jesus for Revolutionaries: An Introduction to Race, Social Justice, and Christianity, and Mixed Race Student Politics.
Date: February 1, 2021
The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice hosts monthly Public Forum on the first Mondays of the month, featuring voices on the front lines of work at the intersections of justice and faith. We kicked-off this semester with Alvina Yeh, Executive Director at the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, a national organization of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) workers dedicated to advancing worker, immigrant and civil rights. Alvina is a lifelong community organizer with experience in political, electoral, and issue-based campaigns. She is deeply passionate about building a movement where everyone has a fair shot in a thriving society.
This interview features Vonda McDaniel who talks with Rev. Francisco Garcia about the state of labor and the labor movement during the COVID-19 pandemic, the connection between faith and labor, how faith communities can promote economic justice, and more in this forum on religion, labor, and justice hosted by the Wendland-Cook Program.
This interview is with Cecilia Prado and Ashley Bachelder, co-directors of Workers' Dignity, talk about community organizing, workers' rights in Tennessee, and more in this forum on religion, labor, and justice.
This interview features Benny Overton and Rosemarie Henkel-Rieger, co-directors of the Southeast Center for Cooperative Development, who address the problems of our current economic system and how worker cooperatives can provide a solution.
Text: 2021 Mafoi Carlisle Bogitsh Lecture
Date: February 25, 2021
Event Details: Dr. Joerg Rieger, director and founder of the Wendland-Cook Program and Distinguished Professor of Theology, Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair of Wesleyan Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion
Lecture Description: In the twenty-first century, interreligious dialogue and encounter is no longer optional. But how can interreligious engagements be productive in the midst of the tensions that mark our age, where might tends to make right? New challenges and possibilities emerge when dominant notions of truth and power are reconsidered
Text: DSA Religion and Socialism National Conference
Date: April 24-25, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Joerg Rieger
Lecture Description: Dr. Joerg Rieger, Professor of Theology and Director of the Wendland-Cook Program at Vanderbilt, spoke on deep solidarity and democratic socialism at the DSA’s Building The Religious Left Conference.
We are happy to schedule someone from our leadership team to lead an adult education class,
a Bible study, or give a lecture on a topic relevant to our work. Sign us up!
For a look at our trainings we currently offer, see our Exchanges page
