Sue Houchins, associate professor of African-American, American cultural and women and gender studies at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College, will speak at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 15, at 161 Wood St., as part of “Spiritual Sojourners,” a series sponsored by the Office of the Chaplain at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College. The public is invited to attend free of charge. For more information, call the chaplain’s office at 207-786-8272.

Since August Houchins has served as a special assistant to President Elaine Tuttle Hansen, taking a leading role in efforts to increase diversity at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and improve the campus climate.

Before coming to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 2003, Houchins held joint appointments in the literature and religion departments at Scripps and Pitzer colleges, and was affiliated with the intercollegiate Department of Black Studies and Women’s Studies of the Claremont Colleges as a faculty associate. She received her undergraduate and her graduate education in medieval English literature at UCLA, where she began a consuming comparative study of women who write of mystical union with a feminine divine.

Houchins continued her graduate work at the Union Institute and Graduate University in Africana, women’s, cultural and queer studies concentrated in literatures and religions. Her publications on this subject include the introduction to the volume of Spiritual Narratives in the Oxford University Press series of 19th-century black women writers.

Her research presentations have included ‘I Found God in Myself/ I Loved Her/I Loved Her Fiercely’: A Study of Suffering in the Archetypal Journey of Alice Walker’s Female Heroes, Sacred Sext: The Incarnational Theology of Bessie Head and Amazonian Dynasties and Spiritual Matriarchs: A Study of the Theology of Affiliation in Toni Morrison and Simone Schwarz-Bart.

Houchins has recently completed a book-length study of Pan African lesbian texts, some of which also explore mystical union. She delivered a portion of this larger work at the English Institute at Harvard.

In 1995, Houchins took time away from academia to enter a Carmelite monastery. In the academic year 2000-01 she was a fellow in the program for women’s studies in religion at the Harvard School of Divinity, where she researched and wrote on the representation of Sapphic women priests in religions of the black Americas.

Recently, Houchins and her ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ colleague , associate professor of Spanish, completed an annotated translation with a critical and historical introduction of the 18th-century Spanish hagiography of Sor Teresa Chicaba, an African Dominican nun who spent her years after enslavement in a cloistered monastery.

Each speaker has a story to tell, says “Spiritual Sojourners” organizer and  ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Chaplain Bill Blaine-Wallace. The speaker’s personal journeys serve as “starter dough” for conversation, Blaine-Wallace says.

Houchins’ talk, the sixth in the series, will be followed by two additional 90-minute presentations throughout the balance of the academic year. Each talk begins at 4:30 p.m.

Huda will consider the meaning of the words by Sufi poet and philosopher Jalal ad-din Rumi: “Remembrance makes people desire the journey; it makes them into travelers.” Is it possible, asks Huda, to think that remembering God in everyday activities can also bring about a hunger for self-annihilation? He believes the inner path of Islamic spirituality, commonly referred to as the Sufi way, balances these two worlds while embracing the encounter with the Holy. Huda also will explore a variety of questions linked to the wisdom of Sufism that can assist in personal liberation.

These two presentations are offered in conjunction with an exhibit of Bettenhausen’s photographs and poetry, Healthy, Holy Illness in My Head, to be displayed from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays from March 1 through April 14 in the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Chapel, College Street. The public is invited to attend all of these events free of charge.

In December 1993, Bettenhausen collapsed on a city sidewalk. Tests revealed three neuroaneurysms, all of which required immediate surgery. The collection of poems and photographs explores her experience with this “spiritual-political-social-physical” journey.

Bettenhausen has taught at the Adult Learning Program at in Dorchester, Mass., the Harriet Baldwin Elementary School in Boston, the in Boston, Boston University School of Theology, the Harvard Divinity School and the Hartford Seminary. She received her bachelor’s degree in English and a doctorate in ethics and literary criticism from the University of Iowa.

Sponsored by the Office of the Chaplain at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, the Spiritual Journeys lecture series features speakers from a variety of traditions who tell the stories of their spiritual awakening and development. Speakers are invited to explore how they experience a sense of the holy in their everyday lives, how their perspectives and disciplines have shaped that sacred experience and how they understand religion as a resource or an obstacle to the life of the soul. Speakers may also address the political and social consequences of their spirituality.

Next in the Spiritual Journeys series, Portland photojournalist Jim Daniels discusses Witnessing Spirit: A Photojournalist’s View at 4:30 p.m. Monday, March 27, in Skelton Lounge, Chase Hall.

The academic-year series features individuals who represent a variety of religious traditions, disciplines and professions such as psychology, dance, peace activism and education. Speakers lead participants through a brief encounter with a spiritual practice or experience that has been important in their own lives.

The next scheduled speaker is John McDargh, associate professor of theology at Boston College, who will discuss Living at the Margins, Living at the Center: A Gay Christian Theologian’s Journey March 18 at 4:30 p.m. in the Benjamin Mays Center.

For more information about the series, call 207-786-8272.

The academic-year series features individuals who represent a variety of religious traditions, disciplines and professions such as psychology, dance, peace activism and education. Speakers lead participants through a brief encounter with a spiritual practice or experience that has been important in their own lives.

The next scheduled speaker is John McDargh, associate professor of theology at Boston College, who will discuss Living at the Margins, Living at the Center: A Gay Christian Theologian’s Journey at 4:30 p.m. March 18 in the Benjamin Mays Center.

For more information about the series, call 207-786-8272.