# Larycia Hawkins A former Associate Professor of Political Science at [[Wheaton College]] (2007–2016) — the first Black female tenured faculty member at the institution — whose 2015–2016 case became one of the most-publicly-prominent academic-freedom-and-evangelical-orthodoxy controversies of the past decade. The proximate cause of the controversy was a December 10, 2015 Facebook post in which Hawkins announced that she would wear a hijab during the season of Advent in solidarity with Muslims experiencing post-Paris-attacks hostility, and accompanied the announcement with the theological statement that "we worship the same God" referring to Christians and Muslims. The post triggered Wheaton administration's invocation of the institution's faculty Statement of Faith — the annual doctrinal-affirmation document Wheaton faculty must sign — and an administrative-leave action followed by termination proceedings on the question of whether Hawkins's "same God" claim was compatible with Wheaton's Trinitarian-Christian doctrinal commitments. Following weeks of substantial faculty pushback, mainstream press coverage, student protests, and a public theological dispute in which Wheaton faculty colleagues explicitly defended Hawkins's claim as compatible with orthodox Christianity, Hawkins and Wheaton reached a confidential settlement in February 2016 that included her departure from the institution. Hawkins subsequently moved to the University of Virginia as a visiting scholar. For the Right Wing KB, the Hawkins case is **a case study** in how evangelical-institutional employment structures use Statement-of-Faith requirements to police theological-and-political boundaries — a structurally-informative event for understanding how [[Wheaton College]] and similar institutions navigate the line between academic freedom and doctrinal-employment requirements. The case is referenced repeatedly in subsequent academic-freedom-in-Christian-higher-education debates and is part of the institutional-history context that shapes Wheaton's contemporary positioning vis-à-vis the broader [[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]] as an establishment-evangelical institution. ## Biography **Larycia Alaina Hawkins** earned her **B.A. from Rice University** and her **Ph.D. in political science** from the **University of Oklahoma**. She joined [[Wheaton College]]'s political-science faculty in **2007** and became the **first Black female tenured faculty member** at the institution — a fact itself indicative of the racial-demographic dynamics at one of American evangelicalism's most prestigious academic institutions. ## The "Same God" Controversy (December 2015 – February 2016) On **December 10, 2015** — in the aftermath of the November 13, 2015 Paris terrorist attacks and amid rising anti-Muslim hostility in the U.S. — Hawkins posted on Facebook that she would **wear a hijab during the Advent season** as an act of solidarity with Muslim women experiencing harassment. She accompanied the announcement with the theological statement that Christians and Muslims **"worship the same God"** — invoking Yale theologian **Miroslav Volf**'s position (articulated in *Allah: A Christian Response*, 2011) that the Abrahamic monotheistic traditions share a common referent for God despite profound theological differences. Wheaton's administration placed Hawkins on **paid administrative leave** on **December 15, 2015**, citing the need to determine whether the "same God" claim was compatible with the institution's **Statement of Faith** — the doctrinal-affirmation document all Wheaton faculty must annually sign. The administration subsequently initiated **termination proceedings**, framing the issue as a question of doctrinal fidelity rather than academic freedom. **Faculty response** was substantial: more than two dozen Wheaton colleagues publicly defended Hawkins's theological position as consistent with orthodox Christianity. Students organized protests and solidarity actions on campus. The theological dispute became a national story — covered extensively by NPR, *The Atlantic*, *The Washington Post*, and religion-beat journalism — with prominent theologians weighing in on both sides. In **February 2016**, Hawkins and Wheaton reached a **confidential settlement** that included her departure from the institution. The terms have not been publicly disclosed. ## Post-Wheaton Career Hawkins moved to the **University of Virginia** as a visiting scholar and has continued her academic and public-engagement work on faith, race, and politics. A documentary film, ***Same God*** (directed by Linda Midgett, 2018), chronicled the controversy and its aftermath. ## KB Significance The Hawkins case is the **paradigmatic case study** for how evangelical-institutional employment structures use Statement-of-Faith requirements to police theological-and-political boundaries. The controversy revealed the structural mechanism by which evangelical colleges can enforce doctrinal conformity — and the tension between that mechanism and the norms of academic freedom that these institutions' accreditation and faculty-recruitment depend on. The case is part of the institutional-history context shaping [[Wheaton College]]'s contemporary positioning as an establishment-evangelical institution navigating the pressures of the broader [[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]]. ## See Also - [[Wheaton College]] - [[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]]