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Remembering Constance Hall Buchanan, Faculty in History and Leading Women’s Religion Scholar
Simon’s Rock mourns the passing of former faculty member and world-renowned scholar of women’s studies in religion, Constance Hall Buchanan, who died at age 73 on September 16, 2020, of complications from Parkinson’s disease.
Buchanan joined the Simon’s Rock faculty in 1971, where she taught history and was actively involved in promoting and enhancing the quality of student life on campus. Larry Wallach, Livingston Hall Chair in Music at Simon’s Rock, remembers Buchanan as a “powerful, joyful figure whose position at the school transcended her role as a subject teacher. Her deep engagement with the well-being of students and with designing policies to promote it served as a model of how teaching at Simon’s Rock needed to be different from a standard academic career.”
In 1975, Buchanan received a Rockefeller fellowship to study at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. She joined Harvard Divinity School in 1977, where she directed the Women’s Studies in Religion Program until 1997 and was a vocal advocate for advancing women’s status and influence in the field of theology.
She also served as a special assistant to the dean of Harvard in his initiatives to enhance the quality of education at the institution.
A towering figure in the field of women and religion, Buchanan viewed gender equality in religion as a moral issue, having written that “equality means gaining full moral stature as a human being, not just for women, but for everyone.” Her work in the critical theory of sex in religion helped shape the way religious institutions and global society more broadly saw women’s role in faith. In 1996, she wrote the influential book, Choosing to Lead: Women and the Crisis of American Values, before joining the Ford Foundation as a senior program officer in 1997. She retired in 2007.
Born in Northampton, MA in 1947, Constance Hall Buchanan graduated from Barnard College with a degree in history before going on to Brown University for an MA in European history.
Survived by her niece and nephew, a virtual memorial service will be held for Buchanan on a future date to be announced.
Read more about Constance Hall Buchanan in the New York Times.