Student Highlight: Sarah Adegbite, MTS ’26

Organizing

I hadn’t intended to take the CRPL when I arrived at HDS, but when Professor Moore outlined RPL’s vision for a just world at peace and critically engaged scholarship something “lit up” in my mind. I knew I wanted to do something that connected faith with practical advocacy, and faith-based community. Organizing merges those two worlds in a way that’s deeply attentive to people’s needs at the grassroots level.

In the second half of fall term, we chose organizations as case studies and spent lots of time envisioning and power-mapping tactics. When you read about histories of organizing movements like the Civil Rights Movement, it’s easy to think that Martin Luther King, Jr. just gave a speech somewhere and policies changed. In reality, teams of volunteers were connecting with local churches, community centers, and policy makers to create an impact. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes, and I want that kind of mindset to lead me in my future work. Dean Rashid, too, has been an incredible teacher and mentor. I remember first sitting in his office to chat and feeling so cared for by his interest in my interests. I was being challenged, in a good way.

One of my main academic interests at HDS is studying Black literature and Christian theology through a decolonial lens. Our class on coloniality and race in Religious Literacy and the Professions was groundbreaking for me. It helped me to articulate why decolonial movements often make use of sacred, transcendent, and religious language. They are involved in a resignification of what it means to be human, a resignification that requires language beyond the material realm. That has helped me to make sense of what work needs to be done to reaffirm the humanity, dignity and imago dei of all.

I’m in the first year of the CRPL, so this summer I’ll be doing my internship at the Boston Faith and Justice Network. Their policy focus this year is housing justice. I’ll be building their database of housing resources, connecting with church leaders, and developing programs that equip local Christians to translate their skills and faith into action!