Mel Webb

Background

About Mel Webb

I am a theological social ethicist who seeks to facilitate relationships across social divides and envision an anti-racist, pro-liberation way of life together. My primary areas of study are sex, sexuality, and gender; Augustine and Augustinianisms; and methods and movements for healing and transformative justice. I enjoy collaborative projects and work across several disciplines: theology, philosophy, history, ethics, sociology, education, religious studies, moral psychology, political theory, critical race studies, queer and trans studies, critical carceral studies, and creative writing. I have about fifteen years of teaching experience in universities, seminaries, online classrooms, churches, and prisons. I am committed to fostering learning that is at once critical, creative, compassionate, and just. I launched and direct The UTSA Philosophy and Literature Circle at the Dominguez State Jail, which brings incarcerated scholars and undergraduates into a process of shared inquiry into what it means to be human, how to live well, and how we can best contribute to the flourishing of our communities. Based on the success of the program at the Dominguez unit, I have also been working with Trinity University to build a Philosophy and Literature Circle at the Torres Unit in Hondo, TX. As a researcher with the Humanities and Liberal Arts Assessment project based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, I studied the craft logics used by humanities instructors to achieve the suite of civic, existential, and vocational goals that mark the long-standing and indispensable contribution humanistic study makes to personal and communal well-being. I completed my Ph.D. in Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary (Princeton, NJ) in 2016. My doctoral work focused on trauma-informed pastoral and theological responses to harm, in particular sexual violence and its aftermath. Through Continuing Education at Princeton Theological Seminary, I partnered with a seminary alum who was a prison chaplain to launch a certificate program at a local prison for both incarcerated and community leaders.