The Certificate in Faith, Food, and Environmental Justice is for students seeking training and preparation for engaging faithfully in environmental justice work, agricultural production, healthy food access and food systems, creation care ministries, land use issues, policy advocacy, and environmental management. The context of such work might be congregational ministry, nonprofit work, farming, or governmental agencies. It is also for students who may have a more general interest in addressing the array of urgent challenges related to the ecological crisis, rural precariousness, resource conflicts, animal suffering, climate change, environmental racism, and industrial agriculture.

The Faith, Food, and Environmental Justice certificate can be earned as part of the residential M.Div. and M.T.S. degrees.

To study food, faith and environmental justice at Duke Divinity School is to be in conversation across disciplinary divides, to investigate loyalties and commitments in a time of unprecedented change, and to ground one’s learning and growth in a dynamic environment that raises profound questions of its own.
Emma Lietz Bilecky, M.T.S., M.E.M.

Alongside access to some of the leading environmental theologians in the world, the certificate provides opportunities for learning from and engaging with the broader university and the surrounding community. Students can take courses at the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke Farm, and the World Food Policy Center at the Sanford School of Public Policy. North Carolina is an ideal location to undertake this kind of formation, as it is not only a vibrant center of the food and faith movement, with numerous farms connected to the Divinity School, it is also the birthplace of the environmental justice movement, with its roots in the rural black church.

Drawing on the resources of Duke Divinity School and Duke University, students have specific coursework requirements, internship opportunities (M.Div. only), and access to North Carolina conferences focused on agriculture and environmental justice issues.

Requirements

M.Div.

  • One core course from list of approved courses
  • One elective course in the Divinity School from list of approved courses
  • One elective course outside the Divinity School: Electives external to the Divinity School should be drawn from the Nicholas School of the Environment, Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke Campus Farm, Sanford World Food Policy Center, Cultural Anthropology or other subject areas that have a clear and identifiable focus on some aspect of environmental, food, or political-ecological theory, policy and practice and be taught at a master’s level.
  • Either independent environmental engagement/action project OR appropriate Field Education placement that involves some aspect of environmental or socio-ecological witness. In collaboration with the Office of Field Education, students will be directed to relevant field education opportunities or helped to organize independent environmental, food, or related projects. Examples of potential placements include working with Anathoth Community Garden, Resourceful Communities's Faith & Food Program, RAFI Come to the Table Program, Faithlands, Benevolence Farm, NC Interfaith Power & Light, National Farmworker Ministry, Student Action with Farmworkers, Chestnut Ridge Camp & Retreat Center, Society of St. Andrew, Southern Alamance Cooperative Parish (Garden of Concord), Warren Plains UMC (Working Landscapes), A Rocha (an international Christian Conservation organization), and NC WARN, as well as international opportunities as they arise.
  • Attendance at either the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network's annual EJ Summit or the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association’s annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference at least once over the duration of their program or an equivalent gathering to be agreed on in advance, as well as participation in at least one action organized by the NC Chapter of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee.

M.T.S.

  • 3 required courses as described above
  • Thesis on a topic related to the certificate as negotiated with faculty directors
  • Attendance at either the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network's annual EJ Summit or the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association’s annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference at least once over the duration of their program or an equivalent gathering to be agreed on in advance, as well as participation in at least one action organized by the NC Chapter of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee.

Find detailed information about requirements and courses for current students (NetID required) »

For more information about the certificate, contact:

Norbert Wilson
Professor of Food, Economics, and Community
norbert.wilson@duke.edu