News and Announcements:

Call for papers/articles or research proposals for a project on Black Religion and the Body. We are interested in recent work that relates broadly to the following areas from religious studies and historical perspectives only: African American religions and 1) constructions of the body; 2) bodily performances; 3) clothing and/or adornment of the body. Please send proposals and queries to Yvonne Chireau, Department of Religion, Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave, Swarthmore, PA 19081, ychirea1@swarthmore.edu.

Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion
The Steering Committee of the Afro-American Religious History Group of the AAR has announced the following program for the annual meeting to be held in Atlanta, November 22-25, 2003.

Saturday, 8:30 am-11:00 am
Martin Luther King, Jr. Tour
Sponsored by the Afro-American Religious History Group, the Black Theology Group, and the Womanist Approaches to the Study of Religion Group.

Sunday, 9:00 am-11:30 am
Theme: Images and Innovations of the Black Church Prior to 1945

Debra Mubashshir, Beloit College, Presiding

Moses N. Moore, Arizona State University
A Balm in Gilead: The Social Gospel Ministry of Henry H. Proctor

Judith Weisenfeld, Vassar College
The Negro Soldier and the Sacralization of Military Service

Richard B. Turner, University of Iowa
Academic and Popular Images of African-American Islam 1920-1945

Responding:
Robert Michael Franklin, Atlanta, GA

Business Meeting:
David Daniels, McCormick Theological Seminary, Presiding

Sunday, 1:00 pm-3:00 pm
Theme: Religion and Social Transformation: The Liberating Scholarship of Vincent Harding

Rachel E. Harding, University of Denver, Presiding

Panelists:
Jennifer Graber, Duke University
Victor Anderson, Vanderbilt University
Bernice Johnson Reagon, Smithsonian Institution

Responding:
Vincent Harding, University of Denver

Monday, 9:00 am-11:30 am
Theme: Centennial Celebration of the Scholarship of W. E. B. DuBois

Co-sponsored with the Black Theology Group and the Womanist Approaches to the Study of Religion Group.

David Daniels, McCormick Theological Seminary, Presiding

Terrence Johnson, Brown University
Religion, Race, and Liberalism: DuBois and Rawls on the Issue of Justice

Arthur Sutherland, Loyola College, Maryland
The Motif of the Stranger in The Souls of Black Folk

Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Colby College
The Gift of W. E. B. DuBois: A Sociology of Vision and Spirit

Responding:
Nellie McKay, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Other Sessions of Interest:

Saturday, 1:00 pm-3:30 pm
Black Theology Group and Latina/o Religion, Culture, and Society Group
Theme: The Ties That Bind: African-American and Hispanic-American/Latino Theologies in Dialogue

Stacey Floyd-Thomas, Texas Christian University, Presiding

Panelists:
Michelle A. Gonzalez, Loyola Marymount University
Traci C. West, Drew University

Responding:
Benjamin Valentin, Drew University
Anthony B. Pinn, Macalester College

Saturday, 1:00 pm-3:30 pm
African Religions Group and Religion, Medicine, and Healing Group
Theme: Healing Practices in African Religious Traditions

Teresia Mbari Hinga, DePaul University, Presiding

Jude Aguwa, Mercy College
Emergent Issues in the Study of African Medicine

Mary Ann Clark, University of Houston
Healing Rituals in the Suburbs: African-Based Healing among Middle-Class Americans

Mei Mei Sanford, College of William and Mary
The Drop of Oil That Puts out the Fire: The Yoruba Orisa Sopanna in the New Age of Smallpox

Ina Johanna Fandrich, Louisiana State University
A Lusty and Paying Ghost: Voodoo Queen Marie Laveaux's Tomb as a National Shrine of Healing

The Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism will host a conference on Uncommon Faithfulness: The Witness of African American Catholics, March 11-14, 2003. Speakers include: Anthea Butler, M. Shawn Copeland, Cyprian Davis, O.S.B., Diane Batts Morrow, Cecilia A. Moore, Thaddeus Posey, O.F.M., Albert J. Raboteau. For additional information, contact: The Cushwa Center, (574) 631-5441 or e-mail: cushwa.1@nd.edu.

The Claremont Graduate University's Thornton F. Bradshaw Seminar topic in 2004 will be: "The Most Segregated Hour: Race and Religion in the American West"

February 27-28th, 2004, Albrecht Auditorium
Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California

This conference seeks to explore ways in which religion, ethnicity, and race have confronted and combined with each other in history. Because it has been a region where these categories are particularly open to the mixtures of peoples and cultures, we have chosen the American West as the site for both the conference and its subject. The Bradshaw seminar seeks to bring together participants from both the academic and religious communities in order to discuss how regional, racial, ethnic, and religious categories inform identity politics, cultural interactions, and theological concerns.

Invited speakers:

Rudy Busto, University of California, Santa Barbara
Donald Dayton, Azusa Pacific University
William Deverell, California Institute of Technology
Doug Flamming, Georgia Institute of Technology
Philip Goff, Indiana University, Purdue University
Jane Iwamura, University of Southern California
Laurie Maffly-Kipp, University of North Carolina
Armand Mauss, Emeritus, Washington State University
Randi Jones Walker, Pacific School of Religion
H. Mark Wild, California State University, Los Angeles

Those interested in attending may register via the website.

Academic Positions:

Arizona State University, Department of Religious Studies invites applications for an Assistant Professor tenure track position in the area of Religions in the Americas, including but not necessarily limited to the United States. Preference will be given to those whose teaching and research interests include Christian traditions and address sociological, political, and/or legal dimensions of religious life. The successful candidate must be prepared to teach a large undergraduate survey class in American religions, as well as more specialized courses in American religions and theoretical and thematic courses in the study of religion at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Required qualifications: 1) Ph.D. in Religious Studies in the area of Religion in the Americas, or related field at the time of hire; 2) evidence of teaching effectiveness, publication, and professional activity appropriate to rank. The initial teaching load is two courses per semester for research active faculty. Position begins August 16, 2004. Send letter of application, CV, transcript, sample syllabi, teaching evaluations, and a writing sample of no more than 25 pages to Professor Tracy Fessenden, Chair of Search Committee, Department of Religious Studies, Arizona State University, Mail Code 3104, Tempe, AZ 85287-3104. Application deadline: January 4, 2004; if not filled, then weekly thereafter until search is completed. AA/EOE. The Department of Religious Studies at Arizona State University offers B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees.

DePaul University, Department of Religious Studies, invites applications for a tenure-track, Assistant Professor in Caribbean/Latin American religions. Candidates must have an understanding of African Diaspora religions as well as Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious traditions as they adapt to and develop in the Americas from slavery to the present. The successful candidate must be able to critically evaluate evolving theological and ethical constructions in the Caribbean/Atlantic region, and assess the social-historical contexts informing them. Applicants should be prepared to teach departmental courses at beginning and advanced undergraduate levels. We also encourage the development of other courses related to the candidate’s interests and outreach to non-academic communities in the area. Ph.D. (or very near completion) required; teaching experience and record of scholarship preferred. Applications must include a cover letter, CV, a sample of scholarly work of not more than 20 pages, and three letters of recommendation. We also welcome course syllabi and evidence of teaching effectiveness (when applicable). Application deadline is December 1; applications received by November 10 will be considered for interviews at AAR/SBL. Address all communications to Chair, Caribbean and Latin American Religions Search Committee, Department of Religious Studies, DePaul University, 2320 N. Kenmore Ave., Chicago, IL 60614. The Department of Religious Studies currently has 19 full-time faculty, representing a broad range of subspecialties. DePaul is committed to recruiting a diverse faculty to complement the diversity of its student body and of the Chicago area. We encourage members of underrepresented groups to apply.

Earlham College, a Quaker liberal arts college, has an opening for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Religion Department, to begin Fall, 2004. Successful candidates will be: eager to teach courses with a focus on the African American experience as well as other courses to which they can bring African American perspectives, such as New Testament, theology, ethics, and/or contemporary religious movements; enthusiastic about and committed to teaching talented, thoughtful undergraduates about religion from multiple perspectives and traditions; ready to join in teaching interdisciplinary courses with a focus in religion for first-year students. Ph.D or ABD required. Areas of competence particularly desired: African American (including womanist) theology and Biblical interpretation; history of the African American religious experience; and the religions of Africa and the Caribbean. As a Quaker college we seek applications from people sympathetic to Quaker values, including social justice, peace, simplicity, and consensus decision-making. We especially seek applications from African Americans, other racial/ethnic minorities, and women. Send CV: Michael Birkel, Religion Department Search, Drawer 43, Earlham College, Richmond, IN 47374 (Email: airgode@earlham.edu). Applications received by October 31, 2003 can be certain of serious consideration.

Georgia State University invites applications for the inaugural holder of the William M. Suttles Chair of Religious Studies. Candidates should have expertise in American religions, and may have strengths in an area or areas such as new religious movements, Native American traditions, African-American religions, women and religion, and religious pluralism. The appointment will be made at the Professor or Associate Professor level and is to begin in the fall of 2004. Candidates should have a distinguished record of scholarship and teaching, and be excited about contributing to the growth of a young and flourishing program of comparative religious studies with over eighty undergraduate majors and ten Masters students. Located in the heart of downtown Atlanta, Georgia State University is near an array of cultural, artistic, athletic, and governmental institutions, with a variety of affordable residential areas nearby. Consideration of applications will begin on November 1 and continue until the position is filled. Applicants should submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae, the names and contact information of three references, and an example of their scholarship to: Search Committee Chair, William Suttles Chair of Religious Studies, Religious Studies Program, P.O. Box 4089, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302-4089. The University System of Georgia, of which Georgia State is a member, is an equal opportunity employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.

The Center for Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan invites applications for a tenure-track position, open rank, in African diaspora religions, including African American, African Caribbean, and/or Afro-Latin religions. The position will begin in September 2004. We will welcome applications from candidates working in a range of disciplines and areas of the humanities and social sciences, including history, sociology, philosophy, and quantitative social science. Applicants must have the Ph.D and demonstrated excellence in teaching and research. Send a letter of application, a curriculum vitae, a sample of written work,
and three letters of recommendation to Chair, Search Committee, The Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, 4700 Haven Hall, 505 South State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1045. Review of applications will begin on October 31, 2003, and the application deadline is November 15, 2003. The University of Michigan welcomes applications from all individuals regardless of race, color, sex, disability or national and religious origin.

University of Rochester, Department of Religion and Classics, invites applications for a tenure-track appointment as Assistant Professor of Religion. Specialization: Religion in America with an emphasis on African-American Religion. Candidates should be prepared to teach undergraduate courses at all levels and actively to participate in both the Department and the University’s Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies. Potential for scholarly achievement, demonstrated excellence in teaching, and completed Ph.D. are desirable. Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. Send full dossier, including writing samples and letters of recommendation, by November 3, 2003, to: Religion Search, Department of Religion & Classics, 430 Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627; (585) 275-5378. Interviews at American Academy of Religion meeting in Atlanta. An Equal Opportunity Employer.

University of Vermont's Department of Religion is part of a consortium of departments at the University who are inviting applications for two positions in conjunction with the University's ALANA U.S. Ethnic Studies Program. The two positions will be at the assistant professor level, though consideration may be given to exceptional senior level candidates. Both positions will begin Fall 2004. The Department of Religion seeks candidates whose field of expertise is centered on the study of African Americans, Latino/as, Asian Americans and Native Americans, or on a comparative perspective of any combination. Annual teaching responsibilities will include “Introduction to U.S. Ethnic Studies.” Applicants in Religion should have substantial preparation in the academic study of religion, including cross-cultural and theoretical aspects of the field. Successful candidates will be expected to hold the terminal degree in their scholarly fields. Send application package including letter of interest; curriculum vitae; graduate transcripts; teaching evaluation, if available; brief writing sample; and three letters of recommendation to Chair, Search Committee, ALANA U.S. Ethnic Studies, 94 University Place, Room 502A University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405-0114. Closing date: Nov. 1, 2003. The University of Vermont is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.

University of Virginia seeks American Studies faculty. The American Studies program at the University of Virginia announces a new undergraduate program in American Cultures. We are looking to hire tenure-track assistant professors who have expertise in the fields of African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American, or Native-American Studies. Applicants may work in anthropology, art, English, history, music, politics, religious studies, or sociology. Appointments will be joint, with one of these departments and the American Studies program. We are particularly interested in applicants who can demonstrate a commitment to helping us build this new program, which aims to reach beyond disciplinary boundaries and across the College of Arts and Sciences to help our undergraduates study, discuss, and better understand ethnicity. The positions will remain open until filled, but to ensure consideration applicants should submit materials by December 1st. Send cover letter and curriculum vitae to Stephen Cushman, Director of American Studies, University of Virginia, 419 New Cabell Hall, P.O. Box 400772, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4772. The University of Virginia is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer.

 

Recent and Forthcoming Books

Joanna Brooks, American Lazarus: Religion and the Rise of African-American and Native American Literatures (Oxford, 2003)

David L. Chappell, A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow (UNC, 2003)

David Chidester, Salvation and Suicide: Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and Jonestown; Revised Edition (Indiana, 2003)

Yvonne P. Chireau, Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition (California, 2003)

Marla F. Frederick, Between Sundays: Black Women and Everyday Struggles of Faith (California, 2003)

Clarence Hardy, III, James Baldwin’s God: Sex, Hope, and Crisis in Black Holiness Culture (Tennessee, 2003)

Chanta M. Haywood, Prophesying Daughters: Black Women Preachers and the Word, 1823-1913 (Missouri, 2003)

Dorothy I. Height, Open Wide the Freedom Gates, A Memoir (Public Affairs Books, 2003)

Gary Laderman and Luis León, Eds., Religion and American Cultures: An Encyclopedia of Traditions, Diversity, and Popular Expressions (ABC-CLIO, 2003)

Stephen Lawson, Civil Rights Crossroads: Nation, Community, and the Black Freedom Struggle (Kentucky, 2003)

Armand L. Mauss, All Abraham's Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage (Illinois, 2003)

Patrick Neale Minges, Slavery in the Cherokee Nation: The Keetoowah Society and the Defining of a People, 1855-1867 (Routledge, 2003)

Nina Mjagkij, Light in the Darkness: African Americans and the YMCA, 1852-1946 (Paperback edition, Kentucky, 2003)

Rebecca Moore, Anthony B. Pinn and Mary R. Sawyer, eds., Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America (Indiana, 2003)

Anthony B. Pinn, ed., Noise and Spirit: The Religious and Spiritual Sensibilities of Rap Music (NYU, 2003)

Fredrik Sunnemark, Ring Out Freedom!: The Voice of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement (Indiana, 2003)

Richard Brent Turner, Islam in the African American Experience, Second edition (Indiana, 2003)

James Melvin Washington, Frustrated Fellowship: The Black Baptist Quest for Social Power, with a new forward by Quinton Hosford Dixie and an afterword by Cornel West (Mercer, 2003)

Jerry Zolten, Great God A'Mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music (Oxford, 2003)

Dissertations

Estrelda Y. Alexander, "Gender and Leadership in the Theology and Practice of Three Pentecostal Women Pioneers (Mary Magdalena Lewis Tate, Aimee Semple McPherson, Ida Robinson)" (Catholic University of America, 2003)

Patricia Lynn Andujo, "Gendering the Pulpit: Religious Discourse and the African-American Female Experience (Jarena Lee, Julia Foote, Maria Stewart, Sojourner Truth)," (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2002)

Susan Ridgely Bales, "Seeing and Being Seen: An Ethnographic Study of Children's Interpretations of First Communion at Two Southern churches," (UNC Chapel Hill, 2002)

Clyde Benjamin Brafford, "The Origins, Performance, and Dissemination of the African-American Spiritual: Personal Papers, Scores, and Media in Special Collections of Selected Libraries in Chapel Hill, Durham, and Salisbury, North Carolina," (UNC Greensboro, 2002)

Derek Stanley Chang, "'Breaking the Shackles of Hierarchy': Race, Religion, and Evangelical Nationalism in American Baptist Home Missions, 1865--1900 (Duke Universtiy, 2002)

Vivian E. Deno, " Holy Ghost Nation: Race, Gender, and Working-Class Pentecostalism, 1906--1926," (University of California, Irvine, 2002)

Craig Allen Forney, "W. E. B. Du Bois: The Spirituality of a Weary Rraveler," (University of Chicago, 2002)

Valeria Gomez Harvell, "Religion and Socio-Political Activism among African-American Women: An Empirical Investigation," (Temple University, 2002)

Sylvester Alric Johnson, "The 'Children of Ham' in America: Divine Identity and the Hamitic Idea in Nineteenth-Century American Christianity," (Union Theological Seminary, 2002)

Jimmy Wayne Jones, Jr., "Modern American Pentecostalism: The Significance of Race, Class, and Culture in Charismatic Growth," (University of Arkansas, 2002)

Shayne Linden Lee, "The Structure of Spiritual Revolutions: Black Baptists and Social Change," (Northwestern University, 2002)

Daniel J. Moos, "Asserting Americanness: Race, Religion, and Nationalism in the Turn-of-the-Century American West," (SUNY Buffalo, 2003)

Deborah Flemister Mullen, "Bound Together in Christ's Name? United Presbyterians and Racial justice: "The Angela Davis Affair" 1967 to 1972," (University of Chicago, 2003)

Eric Gerard Pearman, "'The Least of These': Ida B. Wells-Barnett's Intraracial Critique of African-American Clergy and Lay Leadership," (Iliff School of Theology, 2002)

Fabian Tah Tata, "The Blessed Mothers: African-American Missionary Women in English-speaking Colonial Africa, 1850-1950. Their history,Their Work and their Impact," (Florida State University, 2002)

Elizabeth Ann Williams, "'If I Can Help Somebody, Then my Living Will not be in Vain': Spirituality, Aid, and Action in the African American Breast Cancer Survivorship Experience," (University of Kentucky, 2002)

Jason Randolph Young, "Rituals of Resistance: The Making of an African-Atlantic Religious Complex in Kongo and Along the Sea Islands of the Slave South (Georgia, South Carolina)," (University of California, Riverside, 2002)

Articles

Stephen W. Angell, "A Black Minister Befriends the 'Unquestioned Father of Civil Rights': Henry McNeal Turner, Charles Sumner, and the African-American Quest for Freedom," Georgia Historical Society Quarterly 85 (Spring 2001): 27-58.

Edward E. Curtis, IV, "'Islamizing the Black Body': Ritual and Power in Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam," Religion and American Culture 12 (Summer 2002): 167-196.

John Fobanjong, "Local Rifts over Jewish Support for African Americans in the Pre-Civil Rights Era," Western Journal of Black Studies 26 (Fall 2002): 125-133.

Roberta Gold, "The Black Jews of Harlem: Representation, Identity, and Race, 1920-1939," American Quarterly 55 (June 2003): 179-225

Suelllen Hoy, "No Color Line at Loretto Academy: Catholic Sisters and African Americans on Chicago's East Side," Journal of Women's History 14 (Spring 2002): 8-33.

Annette Laing, "Heathens and Infidels"? African Christianization and Anglicanism in the South Carolina Low Country, 1700-1750," Religion and American Culture 12 (Summer 2002): 197-228.

Susan Nance, "Mystery of the Moorish Science Temple: Southern Blacks and American Alternative Spirituality in 1920s Chicago," Religion and American Culture 12 (Summer 2002): 123-166.

Susan Nance, ""Respectability and Representation: The Moorish Science Temple, Morocco, and Black Public Culture in 1920s Chicago," American Quarterly54 (December 2002); 623-659.

Elizabeth Pleck, "Kwanzaa: The Making of a Black Nationalist Tradition, 1966-1990," Journal of American Ethnic History 20 (Summer 2001): 3-28.

Peter Kerry Powers, "Gods of Physical Violence Stopping at Nothing: Masculinity, Religion, and Art in the Work of Zora Neale Hurston," Religion and American Culture 12 (Summer 2002): 229-247.

Gary S. Selby, "Mocking the Sacred: Frederick Douglass's 'Slaveholding Sermon' and the Antebellum Debate over Religion and Slavery," Quarterly Journal of Speech 88 (August 2002), 326-341.

Johnny E. Williams, "Linking Beliefs to Collective Action: Politicized Religious Beliefs and the Civil Rights Movement," Sociological Forum 17 (June 2002): 203-222.

 

 

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