FEATURED EVENTS

Join Fielding Alums for “The Arc of Our Universe Bends Toward Justice” on March 6

The mental health sector is currently experiencing heightened activity. Profound existential concerns regarding safety and survival linger deeply in the human psyche, posing barriers to harmonious coexistence among individuals from diverse cultural, religious, and physical backgrounds.

You are invited to join alums Dr. Ruth D. Edwards and Dr. Loretta M. Hobbs for an Ethnography Salon 2024 event titled “The Arc of Our Universe Bends Toward Justice” on Wednesday, March 6, from 7-8:30 a.m. PT | 10-11:30 a.m. ET. This session will delve into the allegorical concepts derived from Deborah Harkness’ All Souls Trilogy, suggesting that amidst the dichotomy of love versus hate, it is love that must prevail for humanity to achieve significant advancement.

Dr. Hobbs and Dr. Edwards recently delivered a presentation at the Oxford International Roundtable Symposium on Literature. They analyzed the All Souls Trilogy authored by historian and scholar Deborah Harkness. This trilogy depicts a fantasy realm where non-human beings coexist discreetly alongside humans. Through powerful symbolism and narrative, themes of social change, power dynamics, privilege, oppression, resistance, resilience, and the treatment of ‘the other’ are explored, highlighting love as a transformative force for humanity.

Dr. Edwards and Dr. Hobbs were also featured in the Jan. 2024 issue of FOCUS Magazine, highlighting their work at the Oxford International Roundtable Symposium on Literature in July 2023. Read the article on pages 22-23 here.

Lead by Faculty member David Blake Willis, Ph.D., the Ethnography Salon is for students, alums, faculty colleagues and friends who are interested in ethnographic methodology and tools.  Discussions are focused on research, methods, challenges, and findings. The Salon helps build an understanding of the epistemological and ontological issues involved in contemporary ethnography by experiencing ethnography as a methodology, as a way of seeing, and as a way of engaging with social reality.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Ruth D. Edwards, Ph.D.

Dr. Ruth Edwards is a Critical Social Theorist and a Human Development Scholar. She studies the effect culture has on the socio-psychological development of Black women and examines human behavior to discover ‘why people do what they do.’ Her study on U.S.-born Black Women’s socialization resulted in the creation of a theory of Black Women’s socialization in the human development canon known as Internalized Collective Consciousness.

Dr. Edwards was an award-winning producer/host for WCSC-TV in Charleston, SC, and a former radio announcer for WJSU in Charlotte, NC. She holds a Master of Science in Education from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale where she was a Graduate Dean’s Fellow. Her Bachelor of Arts in Radio and TV Communications is from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C.

Dr. Edwards earned a Ph.D. in Human Development and a Master of Science in Organizational Systems at Fielding Graduate University. She has worked as an adjunct professor at Rollins, Valencia, and Seminole State Colleges in Florida. She is the author of two books: Becoming a Black Woman: A Theory of Internalized Collection Consciousness and Step Into Yourself: Spiritual Affirmations for Embracing Change.

Loretta M. Hobbs, Ph.D.

Dr. Loretta Hobbs is a Strategy and Organizational Transformation consultant. Her background in organization development and organization systems informs her work on the reciprocal effects of how human behavior impacts organizational systems and how organizations impact human/group behavior. Her work is rooted in socio-behavioral theory. In this regard, her dissertation has added to the taxonomy on nonphysical aggression by identifying a distinct behavior now labeled “pull-down aggression.” 

She has worked in 15 countries and presented papers on three continents, most recently at Oxford University in England. Professionally, she has promoted organizational effectiveness and attention to the people side of change in large-scale civilian and military health care systems, as well as public radio and television entities, community organizations, NGOs, and more. She produced a six-year public affairs major-market radio program promoting the agency of women for WHUR-FM in Washington, D.C. She was also one of the original staff members of the Sixth Pan-African Congress held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Dr. Hobbs earned a Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Systems and Master of Arts in Human Development Fielding Graduate University; Master of Science in Organization Development, from American University, Washington, D.C.; and Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, Howard University, Washington, D.C. She served as Adjunct Faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Business (1999-2005), Cornell University School of Labor and Industrial Relations (2004-2008), Marygrove College Graduate School, (2004-2008), and American University School of Public Affairs (2005-2010).