Koch Chair fall lecture at CSB to feature Brazilian Sister of Notre Dame

S. Ivone Gebara, one of Latin America’s leading theologians, presents the Koch Chair in Catholic Thought and Culture fall 2009 lecture at 7:45 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19, at Room 204, Gorecki Dining and Conference Center, College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph.

Gebara, a Brazilian Sister of Notre Dame, will speak on “Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation.” Her speech is free and open to the public.

The title of her speech is also the title of the book she wrote in 1999. Through Gebara’s experiences with the Brazilian poor women’s movement, she develops an urban ecofeminism and articulates a whole worldview. She shows how the connections between Western thought, patriarchal Christianity and environmental destruction necessitate personal conversion to a “new relationship with the earth and with the entire cosmos.”

Gebara’s theology begins with daily life among poor women of Latin America, where the interconnectedness of race, class, gender and the earth are not a theory but a concrete reality.

Gebara has a doctorate in philosophy from the Pontificia Universidade Católica de São Paulo in 1975. In 1988, she completed a second doctorate in religious sciences at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

She has taught at Universidade Católica de São Paulo, Auburn Theological Seminary, Union Theological Seminary and for many years at the Theological Institute of Recife, Brazil. She is the author of 11 books and numerous articles.

In 2001, the College of Saint Benedict received a commitment to establish its first academic chair, the Koch Chair in Catholic Thought and Culture. The gift was donated by former CSB Board of Trustee member Barbara "Babs" Gray Koch and her husband, David Koch of Long Lake, Minn.

The intention of the Koch Chair is to provide opportunities for faculty, staff and students at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, and the general public, to gain an enriched understanding of the heritage of Catholic thought that has shaped not only the faith tradition of CSB and SJU but also the pursuit of knowledge across disciplines. The Koch Chair sponsors a lecture series and other events aimed at engaging members of the campus community in dialogue on Catholic thought in relationship to a variety of current issues.