Luce cOHORTS

With our second round of funding from the Henry Luce Foundation, we are sponsoring 4 rounds of our three-month public scholarship training program online, for scholars focused on “race, justice, and religion” in public scholarship. These public scholars are listed alphabetically by cohort below.

summer 2024

 
 

Shaonta’ allen

dartmouth college

Shaonta’ Allen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Dartmouth College. She also holds affiliations with the African and African American Studies Department and the Consortium of Studies in Race, Migration, and Sexuality. She received her B.A in Sociology from the University of Washington, her M.A. in Sociology and a graduate certificate in Women and Gender Studies from Middle Tennessee State University, and her PhD in Sociology from the University of Cincinnati. Her scholarship draws on Race, Religion, Social Movements, and Intersectionality literatures to explore how identity markers like religion inform Black political ideology construction. Shaonta’s current book project examines the experiences of Black Christian Millennials during Black Lives Matter. Her research has been published in Sociology Compass, Humanity & Society, and Religions.

 

natalie avalos

university of colorado boulder


Natalie Avalos is an assistant professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies in the Ethnic Studies department at University of Colorado Boulder. She is an ethnographer of religion whose teaching and research examine Indigenous religious life, land-based ethics, healing historical trauma, and decolonization. She received her Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a special focus on Native American and Indigenous Religious Traditions and Tibetan Buddhism and is currently working on her manuscript titled Decolonizing Metaphysics: Transnational Indigeneities and Religious Refusal, which explores urban Indigenous and Tibetan refugee religious life as decolonial praxis. She is a Chicana of Mexican Indigenous descent, born and raised in the Bay Area.

 
 

alexis rolando chavez

university of chicago


Alexis Rolando Chavez is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. His research is situated in France and lies at the intersection of critical race theory and the anthropology of religion. Alexis is a recipient of the Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF-GRFP), and the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. At the University of Chicago, his research has been supported by the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture (CSRPC), Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality (CSGS), France-Chicago Center (FCC), and Center for International Social Science Research (CISSR).

 
 

lex dunbar

University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology

Lex Dunbar (They/Them) is a Norf-Philly native and recent transplant to Denver, CO. They are a passionate educator, avid protestor, dynamic workshop facilitator, indecent preacher, and compassionate neighbor. As a Black Non-Binary Transmasc person and first-generation academic, Lex incorporates personal narrative alongside theoretical research in which they engage within multi-methodological praxes such as Womanism, Black liberation theologies, Transhumanist Deism, Eroticism, Afro-Pessimism, and Afro-Futurism. Lex is a Ph.D. student in the Joint Doctoral Program in the Study of Religion at The University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology. Recently, Lex graduated from Iliff School of Theology with their second Master’s degree. Lex is an undergraduate adjunct professor, has worked in various non-profits, after-school programs, and universities, and has experience in program development, speaking, and writing on behalf of the organizations they’ve served. Lex is often heard before they’re seen. They desire nothing more than to see wrong things made right.

 
 

zehra imam

harvard divinity school

Zehra Imam is a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School and a Muslim Chaplain-Intern at MIT. She is the founder of Illuminated Cities, an education organization that works with communities impacted by violence and adversity, and was an international teacher. She is writing about her experiences in Palestine as a Religion, Conflict, and Peace Institute intern on Instagram @loveletterstopalestine.

 
 

suejeanne koh

university of california irvine

SueJeanne Koh is the Graduate Futures Program Director of the Humanities Center at the University of California, Irvine. She develops programming for humanities doctoral students focusing on professional development and diverse career pathways. She is also the Director of Adult Education and Resident Theologian for St. Mark and New Hope Presbyterian Churches (PC(USA)). In this capacity, she creates opportunities for both churches to collaborate on racial justice and other pressing social issues. She has written articles and book chapters on settler colonialism and theology, Asian American theology, as well as co-written a piece on contingent labor with Franklin Tanner Capps (JAAR). With Capps, she is currently working on a book project on Christian nationalism, informed by blood discourses and legal proceedings significant for Asian American racial formation.

 
 

michael brandon mccormack

university of louisville

Dr. Michael Brandon McCormack is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Pan-African Studies, Associate Professor of Comparative Humanities (Religious Studies), and former Director of the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research at the University of Louisville. He earned his Ph.D. in Religion in 2013 from Vanderbilt University. His research explores the intersections between Black religion, popular culture, the arts, and activism. His work has been published in Black Theology: An International Journal, the Journal of Africana Religions, the Black Scholar, and the recent volume, Moved By the Spirit: Religion and the Movement for Black Lives. His most recent research focuses on the relationships between religion and discourses of afro-pessimism, afro-futurism, “Black optimism,” and notions of “Black joy” as resistance.

 
 

robert monson
University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology

Robert is a writer, musician, and scholar that looks closely at Black and womanist theologies as well as Black disability theology. His work engages Black religious identities, Christian nationalism, disability, and more. He is currently a PhD student and is a host for two podcasts: Black Coffee and Theology and Three Black Men: Theology, Culture, and the World Around Us.

 
 

Farha Ternikar

Le Moyne College

Farha Ternikar (Ph.D., Sociology, M.A. Religious Studies) is the director of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at Le Moyne College, Syracuse. Her current manuscript “Faith and Food Networks: Muslim women’s acts of resistance and resilience in the American Diaspora” examines how in addition to race and gender, global Islamophobia continues to play an important role in how we can understand the role of food for Muslim communities both in the United States and India. She teaches courses in feminist theory, and race, gender and pop culture. She is the author of Intersectionality and the Muslim South Asian Middle Class: Beyond Hijab and Halal (2021), and several articles including “Beyond Hijab and Modest Fashion”, “Feeding the Muslim South Asian American Family”, and “Hijab and the Abrahamic Traditions”. Her piece “Muslim American Women,” co-authored with Inaash Islam, was recently published in Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures.

 
 

emma thompson

princeton university

Emma Thompson (they/them) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Islam subfield of the Department of Religion at Princeton University. They are also pursuing a graduate certificate from the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Their work focuses on Islam in South Asia along with Islam, Gender, and Sexuality. Their research draws on anthropological fieldwork and social media archives to examine how queer activists in Northern India navigate religion and secularism, especially situated within the context of rising Hindu nationalism. In addition to the dissertation project, Emma’s interests include secularism studies, religious racialization and identity, queer and trans studies in religion, and religious nationalisms.

 
 

sabah firoz uddin

bowie state university

Dr. Sabah Firoz Uddin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Language, Literature, and Cultural Studies at Bowie State University, in Bowie, Maryland. She holds a PhD in Women’s/Gender Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her scholarly interests range widely from global and postcolonial feminisms, gender in the Muslim world, South Asian diasporas, feminism and fashion, and gender, culture and the media. She was recently awarded a research grant by the Collectif Contre l'Islamophobie en Europe to be part of a research project on Muslim Youth and Islamophobia in Europe.

 
 

binu varghese

princeton theological seminary

Binu 'Ben' Varghese is a PhD student in religion and society at Princeton Theological Seminary. His research focuses on intersections of race, politics, and religion among Indian diasporas in transnational contexts. He draws his theoretical formulations from the colonial history of Dutch slavery in India and alternative readings of Indian American history and memories. In addition to his research project, Ben is also interested in religion and capitalism, and religious nationalisms in India and America. He is currently serving as the editorial assistant of the Journal of World Christianity. His upcoming research essay is titled “Liminality as Decoloniality: Decolonizing Indian American Christianity,” which will be published in The Routledge Handbook of Politics and Religion in Contemporary America.

 
 

taurean webb

depaul university

Taurea​n J. Webb, Ph.D. is the Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow in Comparative Race and Ethnicity Studies in the Social Transformation Research Collaborative and the Department of African and Black Diaspora Studies at DePaul University. A race studies scholar, religionist, and mixed-methods historian of ideas, Webb’s research and teaching interests are in Black internationalism, Afro-Arab transnationalism, African American religious history, Black Renaissance-era visual arts, and visual arts and religious metaphor within contemporary transnational social movements. As a public-facing civic leader, Webb has organized several visual arts exhibitions and as a recently-named Crossroads Fellow (through Princeton University), he is currently producing a documentary film centering Black, Lebanese, and Palestinian artists and experiences.