Willis Jenkins Reappointed as Margaret Farley Assistant Professor

Willis Jenkins, newly reappointed as the Margaret Farley Assistant Professor of Social Ethics, focuses his research on environmental ethics, sustainable communities, global ethics and theological ethics

His appointment is through June 30, 2012.

Jenkins, who holds a secondary appointment at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, is the author of “Ecologies of Grace: Environmental Ethics and Christian Theology,” editor of “The Spirit of Sustainability” and co-editor of the forthcoming “Bonhoeffer and King: Receiving Their Legacies for Christian Social Thought,” as well as a number of book chapters, articles and reviews.

The Yale faculty member has had international experience in community development initiatives. As co-founder and associate coordinator of the Episcopal Young Adult Service Corps, he designed an international service internship for young adults and helped interview, place and mentor participants. He served on the Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on World Mission from 2000 to 2006. A former teacher at a rural campus of Uganda Christian University, he also helped assess a reforestation effort by the International Small-Group Tree-Planting Organization in Uganda and Tanzania. He facilitated micro-credit lending grants and an ongoing scholarship fund for female leadership development through the Kyogyera Village Women’s Cooperative in Uganda and was a consultant to the Episcopal Church Center for International Mission Programs.

Jenkins earned his B.A. at Wheaton College and his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Virginia, where he was the Sara Shallenberger Brown Fellow in Environmental Literature from 2004 to 2006. He joined the Yale faculty as the Margaret Farley Assistant Professor of Social Ethics in 2006. At Yale, he has served as co-director of the Initiative in Religion, Science and Technology and helped organize the 2008 Sustainability Summit and the 2007 Interfaith Climate Change Gathering.

A member of the Society of Christian Ethics, Jenkins is also a member of the International Society for Environmental Ethics and the American Academy of Religion.