Bøger af Helen T. Boursier

The handbook offers interreligious and multicultural perspectives on women's studies in religion alongside specific contextualized gender-biased justice challenges. Contributors address 25 current and trending themes from their diverse backgrounds. The handbook is practical, contemporary, and relevant as it moves theory to practical application.

Art As Witness is an invitation for professors, researchers, clergy, educators, students, and activists to creatively integrate the arts in theology and religious studies for a practical theology of arts-based research that prioritizes public witness. This methodology challenges the traditional written word as being the privileged norm, arguing that this emerging research genre is an excellent, viable, and necessary option for research that supports, promotes, and publicizes liberating theology for the marginalized, victimized, and oppressed. It includes a detailed case study of ';Art Inside Karnes,' the all-volunteer arts-based ministry of presence the author facilitated inside a for-profit immigrant family detention center that became the Power of Hope traveling art exhibit for education, advocacy, and public witness. This primer covers practical ethical, legal, and political matters; includes pedagogical examples for how to use arts-based research for student assessment in theology and religious studies; and provides an overview of arts options, including literary genres, visual arts, fabric arts, theater, filmmaking, and new media with digital content. Art as Witness features 40 illustrations, several case studies, and multiple contributing theologian-artists who engage the arts in themes that include immigration, HIV/AIDS, biblical studies, political protest, gender equity, gun law reform, racial justice, and more.

Using ethnographic research, Willful Ignorance: Overcoming the Limitations of (Christian) Love for Refugees Seeking Asylum examines the attitudes of clergy and lay leaders regarding their (in)attention to racism as it intersects with the harsh reality of U.S. immigration policies and practices. This multi-faceted work begins with a reality check on the scope of forced migration and its intersection with the historical legacy of racism in America, including testimonies from displaced migrants and immigration advocates who help to alleviate state-inflicted suffering at the U.S.-Mexico border. Helen T. Boursier examines the rationales Christian leaders use to justify the local church's nominal response, including the discursive buffers and stall tactics they use to deflect their lack of preaching, teaching, leadership and/or ministry with displaced migrants who are their near neighbors. The Christian church's firm foundation to embody love as social justice provides a historical rebuttal, while case studies of congregations that offer displaced migrants compassionate hospitality model exemplary contemporary response. Closing with practical suggestions for how to begin building bridges with migrants, Boursier argues for a philosophy of religion that embraces resistance to racism and exclusion from asylum, through a missiology of compassion that exemplifies an ecclesiology of love.

In conversation with the ethical-theological-philosophical role of love in the Abrahamic traditions and U.S. immigration, personal testimonies of refugee families seeking asylum join the witness of the interfaith community of greater San Antonio to explain the gift received when love of God is expressed as radical hospitality.

Desperately Seeking Asylum shares the heart-wrenching testimonies of refugees seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The interior design of photographers’ consultation rooms and camera rooms can affect the efficiency and profitability of studio photography businesses. This book explores the studios of 20 top professional photographers and examines the design problems each faced, and the solutions they devised. Photographers will learn that their space must be an efficient and practical environment in which to create their photography and that it must convey to prospective clients the quality and character of the work they can provide. From studios in urban high-rises to small-town corner operations and even home-based studios, this book covers all the options available to studio owners.

Polaroid SX-70 instant color film allows photographers an unexpected way to create one-of-a-kind portraits. Basic techniques such as selecting settings, composing images, working with subjects, lighting the portrait, and manipulating images for a final product are covered. Detailed advice is given on the best times to do manipulating, what tools can be used to achieve desired effects, and specific DayLab II procedures for SX-70 Time Zero film. Also discussed are marketing issues, from determining a cost-effective pricing strategy to exploring ways to package and promote this service.