School Notes: Yale Divinity School
January/February 2023

YDS launches campaign for students, faculty, living-building residence hall

In October, the Divinity School launched a fundraising campaign aimed at strengthening support for students, academic programs, justice work, and construction of the first major living-building student residence hall in the college and university sector. The “We Are Called” campaign seeks to raise $130 million, of which more than $80 million is raised to date. The Divinity School’s effort is part of Yale’s “For Humanity” campaign, which is raising $7 billion for the sciences, the arts, and humanities, increased financial aid across the university, and integrated responses to the world’s greatest challenges.

“We Are Called: The Campaign for Yale Divinity School” advances the following priorities: access and affordability (student support), $35 million; academic programs and justice initiatives, $19.5 million; the Living Village student residential complex (first phase), $75 million.

Scholarship honors retired professor

A new scholarship named in honor of retired professor Peter Hawkins will support YDS students interested in studying religion and literature. The scholarship is funded by a gift from Stephen Henderson ’87MAR and his husband, James LaForce, in recognition of Hawkins’s impact on the field of literature and religion and on Henderson’s own life and faith. Hawkins, Professor of Religion and Literature Emeritus, is a Dante scholar who spent 43 years in the classroom, primarily at YDS, before his retirement in 2019. He is credited with helping turn the study of literature and theology into an international academic discipline. Henderson, a New York City resident, is a public relations professional and journalist and the author of the book The 24-Hour Soup Kitchen: Soul-Stirring Lessons in Gastrophilanthropy. James LaForce is a philanthropist and CEO of the PR firm LaForce.