Scholarship

Speaking at the second annual Black Religion, Spirituality and Culture (BRSC) conference at Harvard Divinity School

Education:
PhD, Harvard University (African and African American Studies, primary field in  Religion)
MA, The City College of New York (History)
BA, CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies (African Diaspora Studies)

Scholarly Interest:
Ifa-Orisa religion
Lived Religion
Philosophy of Religion
Religion, Science, and Technology
Gender and Sexuality in Africana Religions

Books:

Obi: Death, Divination, and the Divine Feminine (in progress)

Selected Publications:

2023 “Wholeness by Every Means: Religiomedical Healing in the Caribbean.” Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Religions. (forthcoming)

2018 “Introduction to the Special Issue, ‘The Color of God: Faith, Race, and Interreligious Dialogue’,” The Journal of Interreligious Studies, no. 23 (May 2018): 4-9.

2018 “Bush Knowledge in the Concrete Jungle: A Day in the Life of an Urban Babalawo,” Transition, no. 125 (2018): 89-103.

2015 “Cyber Spirits, Digital Ghosts: African and Diasporic Religions in the Age of Collaborative Consumption,” CrossCurrents, Vol. 66, No. 1 (December 2015), 448-456.

2013 “Sacred Healing and Wholeness in Africa and the Americas,” Journal of Africana Religions 1.3, Vol. 1, No. 3 (2013), pp. 376-429.

Selected Invited Speaking Engagements

2023 “‘Other’ Spaces of African Spirituality: African Americans and African Spiritual Traditions.” International African American Museum (virtual), February 21

2022 “Black Goddess Revolution: African Spirituality and Women’s Empowerment in the 21st
Century.” International Black Women’s Congress, September 23 – 25

2020 “Black Goddess Revolution.” Institute for the Study of Race, Religion, and Revolution, University of California, Santa Barbara

2019 Keynote Speaker, African and diasporic Cultural Resource Center Black History Month Dinner, University of California, Santa Barbara

2019 Keynote Speaker, Afrikan Black Connection (ABC) Annual Conference, University of California, Merced

Selected Presentations:

2021 “Tying the Grand Gele: Head Wraps Activism, and Diasporic African Identity.” 15th International Conference of Africanists, Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for African Studies, May 24 – 26 

2020 “Black Goddess Revolution: African Female Divinity and the Future of Womanism.” American Academy of Religion Annual Meetings, December 7 – 15 (held online due to COVID-19)

2019 “Tingon and Gele: Headwraps and the Aesthetics of Activism in African Diasporic Religions.” Congress of Santa Barbara (KOSANBA) 13th colloquium, Duke University, September 19 – 21

2018 “Digital Divination, Internet Initiation: On the Limitations of Distance in Africana Religions.” American Academy of Religion Annual Meetings, Denver, CO, November 17 – 20

2018 “Not So Black Magic: Obeah, Agency, and Sexuality in Belize.” Caribbean Studies Association Annual Conference, Havana, Cuba, June 4 – 8

2017 “‘By This Time Next Year, I’ll Surely Be Worshiping the White Man’s God’: Children, Conversion, and Resistance in Yorubaland.” American Academy of Religion Annual Meetings, Boston, MA, November 18 – 21

2017 “Beyond the Oral: Learning the Language of African and Diasporic Religions.” Congress of Santa Barbara (KOSANBA) Twentieth Anniversary Conference, New Orleans, LA November 1-4

2016 “Glass Beads and Geles: Modes and Meanings of African American Ifa-Orisa Practitioners ‘Wearing Africa’.” American Academy of Religion Annual Meetings, San Antonio Texas, November 17 – 20

2016 “Aural Aesthetics and Kinesthetic Conversations: Examining Physical Epistemologies through Kola Nut Divination.” Ways of Knowing: Graduate Conference on Religion, Harvard Divinity School, October 27 – 29

2016 “From Kola to Coco: Diasporic Change and Continuity in Obi Divination.” Caribbean Studies Association Conference, Port au Prince, Haiti, June 5 – 11

2015 “Kinesthetic Knowing: Obi Divination and Epistemology in Yoruba Religio-culture.” The Humanities and the Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) of Africa and Africa’s Diaspora, Lagos, Nigeria, July 22 – 23

2013 “Cyber Spirits, Digital Ghosts: Diasporic Religious Identity in the Age of Collaborative Consumption.” American Academy of Religion Annual Meetings, Baltimore, MD, November 23 – 26

2012 “Spiritual Healing in a Digital World: Technology, Authority and Power in African and Diasporic Religions.” Ways of Knowing: Graduate Conference on Religion, Harvard Divinity School, October 26 – 27

2012 “Language of the Gods: Using Yoruba in Religio-Philosophical Analysis of Ifa-Orisa Religion.” Southeast African Languages and Literatures Forum, University of Florida, October 12