Storytelling as Theological Method: Reflecting on “Feminist Theology in an Age of Global Migration”

Having lived in the United States for a decade with a temporary status, and currently holding legal status as a resident alien, last summer I developed an intensive course, “Feminist Theology in an Age of Global Migration.” Designing the course was a dream come true: it provided the opportunity to share not only my current research and book project with North Park Theological Seminary (NPTS) students, but also my personal and spiritual journey: that of a migrant theological educator who seeks refuge in a theological institution.

In feminist thought, there is a disputed statement: “the personal is political,”¹Carole R. McCann & Seung-kyung Kim, Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives, third edition, (Routledge: New York, 2013), 23-25, 63-64.  meaning one’s experience can be an incredible source for thought and reflection on socio-economic, cultural, political, and theological discourse. In other words, this statement challenges us to connect the “private” and “public.” As I prepared for the course last spring, amidst a challenging political climate and its impacts on higher education, I believed this connection between public and private could transform the classroom into a place where both instructor and students could take and experience a “leap of faith.” 

 To invite students into this multidisciplinary approach, I used the feminist pedagogy of  “storytelling”²Emilie M. Townes, Womanist Ethics and Cultural Production of Evil, (Palgrave Macmillan: New York, 2006), 18. by creating a course assignment called “A Story of Place.” During our first session, each student shared their story and the memory of a place that has informed and shaped their faith and identity, providing a fresh perspective to relate to a certain and/or multiple places. The storytelling method helped students understand the intersections of feminist theology, migration, and diaspora studies, in which “memory” and “history” play as “natural dance partners” rather than as competitors.³Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak,A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward A History of the Vanishing Present (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 2. In this regard, the practice of remembering is not just personal, spiritual, and political but also deeply theological.  I was thrilled to see how students theologically reflected on and integrated the Lord’s Supper, a Christian practice of remembrance, in their creative assignment projects.  

Since NPTS is located right in the heart of the city of Chicago, I took them on three immersive field trips, expanding the classroom into our urban context. The purpose of the site visits was to pay attention to others’ stories: to witness the agency, courage, and resilience of migrants, refugees, and children of the diaspora, these victims of war, displacement and violence who defy victimhood narratives. Victimization’s impact, or “grand narrative,” leads these people to internalize that they have nothing to offer, which is literally antithetical to God’s creation. I was encouraged to hear from my students that as the course progressed, they began to understand how important it is to hear these hidden stories from voices that have often been silenced.   

On our first trip, to Refugee Global Garden—only a fifteen-minute walk from the Seminary—we learned that seventy percent of the growers come from Burma/Myanmar, where I was born and raised. These refugees came through the Thai refugee camp, most of them members of Karen, Kareni, and Chin ethnic groups. It was encouraging to learn that these uprooted persons have formed a community and are learning to relate to Chicagoland via a garden plot where they can grow vegetables consistent with their Southeast Asian heritage.  

Our second trip, to the Cambodian National Museum and Killing Field Memorial (the only Cambodian museum outside of Cambodia), deepened my knowledge and understanding of Southeast Asian history, war, violence, courage, and resilience. When the tour guide shared how little she knew about the war and violence of the killing fields, the Cambodian genocide, I deeply resonated with her. Throughout my education in Burma/Myanmar, from primary school to college, I did not have the opportunity to learn or know about minoritized ethnic and indigenous groups, either my own or those of others, including Southeast Asian histories and religious histories, which are diverse and complex. The Myanmar military dictatorial regime controlled the education curriculum and system. Drawing from these experiences, I have come to realize increasingly that the goal of education, especially theological education, is to dismantle “sanctioned ignorance.”4 Often, what we do not know is not an accident, but rather systematically and structurally designed to be difficult to see.   

Finally, we visited the South Asian Institute for a special exhibition: “Of Women By Women: South Asian Feminist Art and Artists from the Hundal Collection,” to see a collection of amazing art by South Asian and Pakistani diasporic feminist artists. For me, these feminist artists’ work represent that art can be “a site of struggle and resistance” through an intersectional lens, such as race, ethnicity, class, and gender. For instance, Haya Zaidi, a Pakistani feminist artist, says, “Brown women’s portrayal has generally been very idealized, oriental and through the male gaze… I want to change that. I want to re-tell our stories as South Asian women and reinvent our representation.” On our drive back to campus, the students and I engaged in a fruitful conversation about women’s bodies, womanhood, motherhood, and how Christianity has portrayed Mary, the mother of Jesus, integrating what we saw into our ongoing theological discourse.  

Certainly, it is incredibly important for faith leaders to be locally engaged as well as globally informed and connected to participate in the work of justice, liberation, and freedom. However, from my experience teaching this course, I have realized that transformative theological education also requires immense care, especially caring for students’ emotions and feelings, when critically engaging with experiences of migration, border-crossing, and oppression. To equip and nurture faith leaders, it is important to set up the classroom to be able to integrate critical thinking, emotional and spiritual growth, and well-being together. The classroom does not only generate learning experiences but can also become “a healing space” for social and political trauma, as well as gender-based religious trauma, for those so affected. During the immersive week, I was in awe of the way students took the course seriously and showed up for each other both inside and outside class with the integrity of mutual respect and care. I am very hopeful for the future of pastoral ministry.  

Endnotes

• 1
  Carole R. McCann & Seung-kyung Kim, Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives, third edition, (Routledge: New York, 2013), 23-25, 63-64.
• 2
  Emilie M. Townes, Womanist Ethics and Cultural Production of Evil, (Palgrave Macmillan: New York, 2006), 18.
• 3
  Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak,A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward A History of the Vanishing Present (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 2.