The Space for Unexpected Connections

Dr. Khalia Williams (PhD, GTU 2017) is Associate Dean of Worship and Music and Associate Professor in the Practice of Worship at Candler School of Theology at Emory University.

I chose to attend the GTU because I was looking for a program that would really allow me to focus my studies in worship. There are not a lot of liturgical studies PhD programs here in the US, so I started there. But I also wanted to have an opportunity to bring in some of the interdisciplinary work that I do. A part of my research I knew going in would be exploring dance and how embodiment intersects with religious experience. And the GTU was the perfect place because it allowed me to study at the GTU while I also focused on a concentration over at UC Berkeley in the performance studies area.

Getting the marriage of the two was ideal, and I was grateful it wasn’t a situation where I would have to be the one to figure out how to make it work. It really was a program that was so completely open to this interdisciplinary exploration. From the time I first stepped foot on GTU’s campus, I could not have found a more supportive group of faculty and scholars who worked with me on my committees. They were amazing and really worked me hard, but did it in such a loving way, a way that brought out the best of my voice as I was trying to find it. I hear stories of other places and not everyone has that kind of experience, but I the GTU cultivates this environment of support that is remarkable, or at least was remarkable for me in my own experience.

The biggest impact was sitting in a consortium that was heavily rooted in interfaith engagement that allowed me to literally walk from one ecclesial tradition to another ecclesial tradition to yet another religious expression, right within a few blocks of one another along my journey. That had a huge impact on me because now, as I’m doing the work that I do within a theological setting, my experience allows me to be completely open and sensitive to difference in religious expression, and then to figure out ways of really enhancing and engaging the interfaith dialogue. How do we create spaces for those who are on the margins? The GTU gave me this living space to figure that out and what that meant while I was studying, until it became inherent within me.

Also, because I was able to incorporate performance studies into my program, my time at the GTU has given me the ability to think creatively about how we do worship here. We bring a lot of artistic expression in, but we are intentional about it. When we have dancers in a worship service, [are we] also doing the reflective work of figuring out why are they in this service? What is the theological impact of having creative expressions in the services? That is something that I definitely got from the GTU, because those were the same questions that my committee was asking me as I was working through dance study and trying to figure out what we can learn from dance in theological education. What can we glean from the creative arts as we worship? What can we glean from the creative arts to shape our own theological mindset as we think about being religious leaders in different contexts?

My studies at the GTU showed me that the creative and the religious don’t have to be separate. They can come together in beautiful ways and can be utilized as teaching tools and as ways of bringing a whole community together.

Deepening interfaith connection, which the GTU continues to do, is what excites me. I might be biased, but I feel that the GTU has been at the forefront of recognizing the expansiveness of theological education and beginning to put communities together in close proximity, so that they can really explore what it means to exist together. The way that we are emphasizing and furthering our commitments in that work makes me excited because the world is all about learning to coexist, and that is not going to change.