Follow-Up to WATERtalk
Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at 1 PM ET
With Jennifer Rycenga
Philosophia: Women Inspiring and Encouraging One Another
The video can be accessed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EJu9Gxny3U
Access the PowerPoint here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Q4IZ3Gg1kgZkzMMPeR8J-Cta0bD0XQBuQfnBCYnn8c8/edit?usp=drive_link
Thanks to Professor Jennifer Rycenga for joining us to discuss her new book Schooling the Nation: The Success of the Canterbury Female Academy (University of Illinois Press, 2025) and how diverse coalitions—women, men, non-binary people; Blacks and whites, and others—can collaborate to make meaningful social change. Her scholarly and activist approaches combined into a powerful presentation.
Mary E. Hunt’s Introduction to Jennifer Rycenga
The warmest WATER welcome to my longtime friend and colleague Dr. Jennifer Rycenga. Dr. Rycenga is the author of Schooling the Nation: The Success of the Canterbury Female Academy (University of Illinois Press, 2025). She is Professor Emerita in the Humanities Department at San José State University. Her scholarly work has focused on the Abolitionist movement, exploring the lives and works of Black and white Abolitionists engaged in anti-racism work, and the many networks of families and friends involved in the struggles against slavery and injustice.
The book is a page turner. The story unfolds through a complex set of relationships, commitments, and, in some instances, betrayals. But the outcome is clear—despite the fact that the Canterbury Academy was short-lived, it was a remarkable and lasting success. This was due in large measure to the person and persistence of Prudence Crandall, but it could not have existed without many other players of several races and genders.
The focus today is on “Philosophia: Women Inspiring and Encouraging One Another” of which the Canterbury School is one good example.
Jennifer Rycenga is the postmodern equivalent of a Renaissance woman. Her first studies were in music with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale and the University of Toronto respectively. Then she did a masters in theology at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, the state where the Canterbury Academy for Black Women was founded.
I delight in the fact that she got her doctorate, as I did albeit ten years before her, from the Graduate Theological Union in conjunction with the University of California, Berkeley. Her PhD was in Religion and Music in 1992. My delight in her GTU connection comes from the fact that so many GTU people have gone on to creative, unique, and, in her case, amazing careers. In a recent interview in a GTU publication, Jennifer spoke with deep delight about the GTU Library, a favorite place of mine. She is sure that if there is a heaven, it will be a library! She taught at San José State University from 1995 to 2023 and is now retired.
Jennifer is a longtime bird watcher with deep dedication to the well-being of the species she spots. She is also dedicated to plant life, especially lichens, which are composite organisms made up of fungi and algae, and God knows what else, but Jennifer does.
Her expertise in the scholarly world includes published work in feminist musicology and global feminism. She coedited The Mary Daly Reader with another postmodern Renaissance woman, Linda Barufaldi. Mary Daly continues to influence contemporary thought. There is a soon-to-be released, newly found, unfinished manuscript by Mary Daly with commentaries by Daly scholars, including Jennifer.
Jennifer lives in Rochester, NY with her wonderful wife Peggy, not far from her incomparable mother Delores, the family’s moral compass, to whom Jennifer dedicated this book.
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Jennifer’s Theme
The story of the Canterbury Academy is a tale of many people. Jennifer’s work to untwist the threads and tell the story both for its historical value and for its contemporary application is summed up in the PowerPoint attached. Please see it for details.
The school was short-lived due to racism and violence. But one major take-away is that the impact of an institution is not only on its audience, but also on the successive generations who are related to it. This was indeed a case of Philosophia (hat tip: Emily Culpepper for the term) as women worked across racial, class, religious, and other lines to promote the education of Black women who in turn went on to make their own contributions to society.
We appreciate Jennifer’s generosity in sharing the PowerPoint to be used in conjunction with her brilliant and compelling talk. Conversation continued long past the usual stop time. We have taken the liberty of including that in the video as it was rich and informative.
Q+A/Discussion
- A Canadian colleague noted how welcome it is to move out of polite society and use the terms Black and white instead of never mentioning color but simply using it as a descriptor.
- The moderator asked about parallel cases where this kind of Black/white, female/male collaboration has had far-reaching implications. Jennifer’s
response highlighted the post-Civil War era, when Black and white men and women from the North taught in the South. Jennifer recommended The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic by Manisha Sinha, which covers Reconstruction. - A participant raised the important issue of recognizing Black women leaders and how Jennifer’s work expanded that list and acknowledged and raised them up in the process. Jennifer recommended On the Heels of Freedom: The American Missionary Association’s Bold Campaign to Educate Minds, Open Hearts, and Heal the Soul of a Divided Nation by Joyce Hollyday, that traces the lineage of strong Black women in the churches up until the present.
- The matter of lineage came up and how important it was to uncover a history of a spiritual, philosophical, and religious teaching that was passed down. It is possible to trace how it affected and influenced so many lives and turned into a movement.
- One person pointed out the importance of Jennifer’s use of the word “prism” to describe how one thought is broken open into so many perspectives. We are grateful for the education Jenifer provides, enabling us to challenge inaccurate conversations and amplify research through our understanding.
- As DEI is discredited, and the Department of Education is decimated, who are some of the heroic educators who are defying it? Columbia University just lost $400 million in federal funding with so many more such examples to follow. Jennifer Rycenga shared the example of Ireland’s Hedge schools, where Catholics and Presbyterians studied when they could not go to public schools. Similarly, African Americans taught one another.
- Teaching skills are transferable, and those among us with privilege should share their skills and education right now. Jennifer urged us not to be cowardly like intellectuals often are in critical moments, but to boldly claim and stand by what we’ve been teaching.
- One participant responded that Democrats should still attend town halls where Republicans vote. Democrats are still public servants, even if they’re not elected.
- Younger colleagues were invited to reflect on how they can continue the previous generations’ work and shared how they gather ideas and inspirations from the WATER Alliance and community.
- An Irish colleague discussed how the State University of Illinois is trying to silence voices sharing alternative histories, with people infiltrating departments to report differing opinions. She also expressed concerns about Ireland’s leader’s recent meeting with Trump in DC. Given Ireland’s anti-war stance on Israel and Palestine, which causes division between families in Ireland and their American relatives, the key question is how to use diplomacy without increasing division, stressing the need to be bold, not silent.
- Freedom of speech and getting arrested to protect it was another theme. In each nation, there are multiple perspectives. The fight for the freedom of speech is ongoing. Some people purposely get arrested (commit civil disobedience) because of the effect a public arrest will have. This might be an interesting strategy.
- Jennifer’s new research has to do with the connections between “nature, art, and justice” according to the recent GTU article. Jennifer envisions a world where human lives are freer, full of poetry, insight, and diversity. Just as bacteria cannot exist independently in nature, humanity thrives through connection. By combining nature and feminism, she imagines an inclusive society where all voices are invited, reflecting the diversity we admire in nature.
WATER thanks Jennifer Rycenga. As she advises, we will take this story, tell it, and then hope to replicate its dynamics of cooperation and success.
Jennifer Rycenga’s Substack:
https://substack.com/@jrycenga?utm_source=user-men
Additional Resources Jennifer suggests:
https://exhibits.sjsu.edu/s/burleigh/page/home
https://sjsu-library.github.io/unionist/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3la7VRBLB4
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The next WATERtalk will be on Wednesday, April 16, 2025, 1 PM ET
Co-writers and co-directors Victoria Rue and Martha Boesing will discuss their play and film, “Voices from the Silenced: Pre-Roe Abortion Stories” (https://www.voicesfromthesilenced.com/). Since Dobbs (2022), the stories of women who had abortions before Roe (1973) are painfully familiar.
Watch the 57 minute film (free) of the original play in which a number of women dramatize their stories.
