EMPLOYMENT 

2015-               Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, College of Charleston

2014-15           Assistant Professor, Religion, African and African American Studies, Earlham College

 

EDUCATION

2014                Northwestern University

Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Religious Studies

2008                Harvard Divinity School

Master of Theological Studies, Religions of the Americas

2006                St. Bonaventure University

Bachelor of Arts in History and Theology, Summa Cum Laude

 

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

Books

2017                Authentically Black and Truly Catholic: The Rise of Black Catholicism in the Great Migration (New York University Press, 2017).

Refereed articles

2020                “Centering Black Catholic Religio-Racial Identity, Revealing White Catholicism,” in Laura McTighe ed., Roundtable: “Religio-Racial Identity” as Challenge and Critique, Journal of the American Academy of Religion (forthcoming, June 2020).

2020                “‘Real Good and Sincere Catholics’: White Catholicism and Massive Resistance to Desegregation in Chicago, 1965-1968,” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation (forthcoming, June 2020).

2014                “Black Power, Vatican II, and the Emergence of Black Catholic Liturgies,” U.S. Catholic Historian, Vol. 32 No. 4 (Fall 2014).

2014                “Black Catholic Conversion and the Burden of Black Religion,” Journal of Africana Religions, Vol. 2 No. 2 (2014): 280-287.

Non-refereed articles

2019                Editor and Introduction to “Forum: Catholic Sex Abuse and the Study of Religion,” American Catholic Studies, Vol. 130 No. 2 (Summer 2019): 1-29.

2016                Editor and Introduction to “Forum: Race, White Supremacy, and the Making of American Catholicism,” American Catholic Studies, Vol. 127 No. 3 (Fall 2016): 1-33.

2011                “Ground Zero and the ‘S-word,’” Harvard Divinity Bulletin vol. 39, nos. 1&2 (Winter/Spring 2011): 11-14.

Book reviews (selected)

2020                Desegregating Dixie: The Catholic Church in the South and Desegregation, 1945-1992, by Mark Newman, Journal of Southern Religion (forthcoming).

 2019                Faith in Black Power: Religion, Race, and Resistance in Cairo, Illinois, by Kerry Pimblott, The Journal of Religion 99, no. 2 (April 2019): 258-259.

2017                Black Women’s Christian Activism: Seeking Social Justice in a Northern Suburb, by B. Livingston Adams, Journal of American History 104 (2017). 

2015                Women of the Nation: Between Black Protest and Sunni Islam, by Dawn-Marie Gibson and Jamillah Karim, Journal of American History 102 (2015): 621.

 

PUBLIC SCHOLARSHIP

Publications 

2020                “How the fight for racial justice pushed Charleston beyond the segregated hour,” Religion News Service (24 February, 2020).

2020                “Solidarity over segregation: Faith-based coalitions organize across races, religions,” co-authored with Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service (24 February, 2020).

2019                “50 years after ‘Black Manifesto,’ religious groups take up reparations again,” co-authored with Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service (30 December, 2019).

2019                “The priest who channeled Black Power into the Catholic Church,” Religion News Service (2 December, 2019).

2018                “The ‘Black Catholic Movement’ That Reinvigorated American Catholicism,” Zocalo Public Square (7 June, 2018).  

2017                “There Are More Black Catholics in the U.S. Than Members of the A.M.E. Church,” Interview with Emma Green, The Atlantic (5 November, 2017).

2016                “What White Catholics Owe Black Americans,” Slate (2 September, 2016).

2015                “Why White Terrorists Attack Black Churches,” Slate (19 June, 2015).

2012                “The Sunday Before the Election: the Faith Community of St. Sabina,” Religion & Politics online news journal (5 November, 2012).

Presentations (selected)

2019                “Black Religion and Black Nationalism from Slave Rebellions to #BlackLivesMatter,” Faculty Lecture Series, College of Charleston (October)

2019                “The Black Gods of the Metropolis: African American Religion in the Great Migration,” Charleston Area Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (September)

2019                “The Black Catholic Revolution and Its Reverberations, Fifty Years Later,” St. Thomas More Catholic Church, Decatur, GA (February)

2018                “Widening Our Circle, Or, What Catholics Can Teach Us About Being Good Humanists,” Unitarian Church in Charleston, Charleston, SC (August) 

2018                “Chicago, 1968: Becoming Authentically Black and Truly Catholic,” St. Dorothy Catholic Church, Chicago (November)

2018                “Centering Black Catholics, Reimagining American Catholicism,” University of Notre Dame (April) 

2017                “Black Religion and Black Lives Matter in Historical Perspective,” Faculty Lecture Series, College of Charleston (March)

2015                “A Catholic Case for Reparations,” Fr. Jerome Kelley Lecture, St. Bonaventure University (October).

 

ACADEMIC PRESENTATIONS (selected)

2020                Plenary Session Panelist: “Black Religion and the Black Radical Tradition,” at the African American Intellectual History Society (March)

 2020                “Relationship and Accountability in Catholic Studies,” at the American Catholic Historical Association (January)

2019                Presider, “Africana Religious Studies, Fifty Years Since the Black Revolution on Campus,” at the American Academy of Religion (November)

2019                Presider, “Critical Terms (ACHA): American,” at the American Catholic Historical Association (January)

 2019                “Black Catholics, White Church: Catholic Chicago in the Black Power Era,” at the American Historical Association, Chicago (January)

2018                “Investing in Whiteness: Race and the Catholic Schools Crisis of the 1970s,” in Catholics and the Urban Crisis: Religion, Politics, and Race in Northern Cities at the Organization of American Historians (April).

 2017                “Black Power, Religio-racial Identity, and the Unveiling of White Catholicism,” in “Religio-racial Identity” as Challenge and Critique at the American Academy of Religion (November).

 2015                Presider, “Race, White Supremacy, and the Construction of ‘American Catholicism’” Roundtable at the American Academy of Religion, Atlanta (November).

2014                “Black and Catholic?: Debating Black Power and the Black Catholic Movement, 1968-1984,” in Catholics, Racial Justice, and Reassessing Religion in the Long Civil Rights Movement at the American Historical Association (January).

2013                “The ‘SOUL’ of Black Catholics: Imagining Africa and the Black Catholic Diaspora, 1968–1984,” in African Religions Across the Black Atlantic: Christian and Muslim Diasporas at the American Academy of Religion, Baltimore (November).

 

AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND GRANTS (selected)

2019-2020       Sacred Writes Media Partnership, funded partnership with Religion News Service and award-winning journalist Adelle M. Banks.  

 2018-2019       Young Scholars of American Religion, Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

2018                ExCEL Award for Outstanding Faculty of the Year in the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Awarded by Multicultural Student Programs and Services, College of Charleston

2016                Curriculum Development Grant, Interfaith Youth Core

2012                John Tracy Ellis Dissertation Award, American Catholic Historical Association

                       

TEACHING EXPERIENCE (selected)

Professor, College of Charleston

2020                Black Religion and Black Nationalism: Slave Rebellions to #BlackLivesMatter

2018                Religion, Race, and Empire

2018                Colonialism, Freedom, and African American Religion

2017                Not Fit For the Dinner Table: Religion, Race, and Politics in America

2017                Interfaith Atlanta Across the Color Line

2016                Religion in America

2015                African American Religion

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2019                            Social Justice committee, Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston: Served as inaugural chair (currently serve as committee member) of the group tasked with identifying and implementing ways to make redress and reparation for the legacies of slavery at the College of Charleston and in the Charleston area.  

 2019                            Black Catholic Theological Symposium, co-host: Co-organized, invited, and hosted the 41^st annual meeting of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium in Charleston, SC (October 10-13).

2018 –                          Religion in the Americas Section Editor, Religion Compass: Section editor tasked with soliciting, evaluating, editing, and facilitating the peer-review process for the peer-reviewed online journal published by Wiley.

 2015 – 2017                 Co-director for Wabash Center Grant, College of Charleston: Co-authored and co-directing departmental grant for “Developing Interfaith Encounters as High Impact Educational Practices” from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion.

 

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

American Academy of Religion

American Historical Association

American Catholic Historical Association

Black Catholic Theological Symposium (Affiliate Member)