CV
EDUCATION
Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2019
Religious Studies: Religion, Race, and Class
Advisor: Dr. Anthea Butler
Dissertation Title: “The Pentecostal Construction of Race: Churches of God in the American Religious
Frontier 1884-1955”
Committee: Dr. Anthea Butler, Dr. John Jackson, Dr. Sarah Gordon
Comprehensive Exams
African American Religious History 19th/20th century Dr. Barbara Savage
American Religious History (material and visual culture) Dr. Sarah Gordon
Pentecostalism, Holiness Movement, Evangelicalism Dr. Anthea Butler
M.A. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2016
Religious Studies
M.Div. Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, 2011
Thesis in History of Religion: “African Reading of an Appalachian Church: An Intentional Reconstructive
Ethnohistory of the Church of God (Cleveland, TN)” Advisor: Dr. Richard F. Young
B.A. Lee University, Cleveland, Tennessee, 2008
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2020-2021 Associate Director, Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Religion and Theology, Crawfordsville, IN.
2019 Lecturer, School of Arts and Sciences, Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
2017 Adjunct Professor, Comparative Religion, Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA.
2017 Teaching Assistant, American Jesus, University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Anthea Butler.
2016 Teaching Assistant, Gods, Ghosts, and Monsters, (Online course) University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Justin McDaniel.
2015 Teaching Assistant, Social Change through Participatory Filmmaking, University of Pennsylvania and West
Philadelphia High School, Dr. John Jackson.
2015 Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Buddhism, University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Justin McDaniel.
.
2011-2013 Visiting Professor, Cultural Anthropology, Christian History, Religious Ecologies, and Pentecostalism. Seminario
Sudamericano SEMISUD, Quito-Ecuador.
PUBLICATIONS
2019 “Material Salvation: Folklore and Synthesis in American Religious History” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive
Era 18 (2019): 147-150
2016 “Brief and Process-Oriented Filmmaking, Is It Possible? Rethinking Works on Native Filmmaking with and in an
Experimental Classroom” American Anthropology 118 (2016): 159-161.
2014 "Pentecostal History, Imagination, and Listening between the Lines: Historiographic Creativity for Writing Histories
of the Marginalized" Pneuma: Journal of the Society of Pentecostal Studies 36 (2014): 25-44.
2012 “‘Going Through With Jesus:’ Myrtle Viola Whitehead, A Case Study and Reconsideration of Pentecostal History”
Theology Today 68 (2012): 383-92.
SELECT CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
2018 "Airplanes that Preach and Monuments that Cry Out: Material Pentecostalism and the Form of
American Religion" American Academy of Religion.
2017 “The Not-white White Pentecostals of Appalachia: Rethinking Religio-racial Identities in the History of American
Pentecostalism” American Academy of Religion.
2016 “Beginning in the Middle of Nowhere: The Role of Land in Making Appalachian Religious Histories” American
Studies Association.
2016 “The Airplane is the Voice of Prophecy Even If It Doesn’t Speak English, Greek, or Hebrew” International Society for
Media, Religion, and Culture. Seoul, Republic of Korea.
2015 “To GIS or not to GIS? Critical Reflections on Digital Mapping” Penn Digital Humanities Forum, University of
Pennsylvania.
2014 “Brush Arbors: Pentecostal Space, Place, and Time” Northwestern University Graduate Student Conference.
2014 “Listening to the South: Quechua Suggestions for Understanding North American Pentecostal Hermeneutics”
Society for Pentecostal Studies.
2013 “Holiness, Pentecostal, and Cherokee: Cherokee Influences on the Early Healing Practices of the Church of God
(Cleveland,TN)” Society for Pentecostal Studies.
2012 “Pentecostal History, Imagination, and Listening in-between the Lines: Historiographic Creativity for Writing
Histories of the Marginalized” American Academy of Religion.
ACADEMIC FILMS
2017 “When Science Meets Race” (29 minutes)
A four chapter documentary concerning the scientific construction of Race, public role of race in academics, the
crania collections of Samuel Morton at the University of Pennsylvania Musuem. This academic film project was
funded by a grant from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage ($25,000) and led by CAMRA
(www.camrapenn.org).
2016 “Listening to the Walls: a visual ethnography of three religions in one place” (13 minutes).
Short documentary film focusing on material culture and religion centered around Wat Preah Buddha Rangsey, a
Cambodian Buddhist Wat in South Philadelphia.
2014 “Mountains Stories Beliefs” (9 minutes)
Short film focusing on the ecological impact of mountains and forests on the religious practices, beliefs, and
cosmologies of Appalachian Pentecostals. Film highlighted the Unicoi Turnpike in Southeastern Tennessee and
Western North Carolina. Funded by University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences Dean’s New Media
Grant ($2000).
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE AND ACADEMIC SERVICE
2016/2017 Boardman Fellow, Religious Studies Department, University of Pennsylvania.
Planned and hosted panel of noted activists and scholars discussing: “Sanctuary: A Public Conversation on Religion,
Immigration, and Contested Spaces.”
2015/2016 Camra Fellows Director, CAMRA (multimodal research group) University of Pennsylvania.
Coordinated mentoring program that paired graduate student mentors with undergraduate fellows. Hosted public
showcase screening event of the fellows’ work.
2015/2016 Peer Reviewer for “Journal of Material Religion.”
2014/2015 Communications Director, CAMRA (multimodal research group) University of Pennsylvania.
Maintained and coordinated website for film showcase, blog, calendar, scholars’ profiles, advertisement of
Screening Scholarship Media Festival.
2014/2015 SSMF Fellows’ Mentor, CAMRA (multimodal research group) University of Pennsylvania.
Met weekly with fellow, guided, instructed and mentored their production of a short film on urban faith based
organizations.
2014/2015 Research Assistant to Dr. Anthea Butler, Religious Studies department University of Pennsylvania.
2014 Research Assistant to Dr. Timothy Powell, “Preserving and Revitalizing Endangered Native American Languages
Held in the American Philosophical Society Library,” Mellon Foundation, American Philosophical Society.
2014 Research Assistant to Dr. Timothy Powell, "Developing a Cultural Sensitivities Workshop at the Indian Health
Services clinic at Cass Lake Hospital on the Leech Lake Ojibwe Indian reservation," University of Pennsylvania,
Humanities Initiatives with Tribal Colleges and Universities grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
ACADEMIC HONORS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
2020 Louisville Institute Post Doctoral Fellow; resigned 2/1/2021 ($150,000)
2018 - 2019 Mellon funded UPenn Dissertation Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania ($50,240)
2018 - 2019 Louisville Institute, Dissertation Fellowship ($22,000 monies declined)
2013 -2018 Benjamin Franklin Grant, University of Pennsylvania ($250,000)
2016-2017 Boardman Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania Religious Studies Department ($5,000)
2015 Training Grant, University of Pennsylvania Digital Humanities Forum ($1,200)
2014 Dean’s New Media Grant, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania ($2,000)
2011 History Fellowship, History of Religion Thesis Prize, Princeton Seminary ($3,000)
2008-2010 Fellowship, Fund for Theological Education ($20,000)
2007-2011 George D. Voorhis Education Fund Scholarship ($2,500)
2007 Gateway Scholarship, Lee University ($2,000)
2006-2008 Martin Endowment Scholarship ($10,000)
2004-2011 Edward L. and Irma B. Williams Scholarship ($3,500)
2004-2006 Poiema Scholarship Lee University ($9,000)
2004-2005 Presidential Scholarship Lee University ($15,000)
2004 Della Arnold Scholarship Wilkesboro, NC ($500)
LANGUAGES
Modern: Spanish, French
Ancient: Biblical Greek, Biblical Hebrew
ACADEMIC SOCIETIES
Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations--Association for Computers and for Humanities (2014 – present)
American Academy of Religion (2011 – present)
American Society for Church History (2012 – present)
American Studies Association (2016 – present)
Appalachian Studies Association (2014 – present)
CAMRA at Penn (2013 – present)
Society for Pentecostal Studies (2008 – present)