Scholar-Practitioner Commitments 

Scholarly Achievements and Research Agenda

​My academic formation began with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Women & Gender Studies, earned at a women’s college, where I first developed an abiding interest in the intersections of gender, religion, sexuality, and power. From the earliest stages of my education, I recognized that personal identity, institutional structures, and spiritual worlds are deeply entangled—and that addressing social injustice requires moving across disciplines.

I hold advanced degrees in theology and social work. My Master of Divinity and Master of Social Work (dual degrees), and a later Master of Sacred Theology, provided me with both theological–ethical training and practice-oriented, social welfare frameworks. That dual orientation enabled me to integrate critical theory, pastoral theology, and community-based social work approaches—a foundation that now animates my doctoral research and broader scholarly trajectory.

My doctoral dissertation, titled Harm in the Hush Harbor: Exploring the Impact of Spiritual Trauma and Religious Violence on Black Millennials and Generation Z in the Black Church, uses mixed methods, narrative interviews, and ethnographic and digital ethnographic techniques to examine how religious/spiritual violence and spiritual harm are experienced, remembered, and negotiated by younger generations in African American faith communities. This project develops a culturally reflexive typology of spiritual harm, connecting individual and interpersonal experiences of trauma to larger structural forces—racial capitalism, heteropatriarchy, anti-Black religious discourse, and institutional betrayal. The findings reveal how exposure to religious violence disrupts gender and sexual identity formation, undermines trust in Black institutions, and affects mental health, communal belonging, and perceptions of care and legitimacy. This work reframes religious/spiritual violence not merely as a private or interpersonal issue, but as a form of structural and communal trauma with direct implications for social welfare, health equity, and institutional reform.

My next major project, Holy and Haunted, builds on my dissertation by examining purity culture in Black churches as a technology of racialized and gendered social control as well as a contested site of healing and resistance. Drawing on Black feminist theory, womanist theology, critical race theory, queer religious studies, and media ethnography, the project explores how purity teachings, digital religiosity, and spiritual narratives reproduce the afterlives of slavery, respectability politics, and racial capitalism in Black religious life. In its theological and sociological framing, this book bridges ethnographic storytelling, autoethnographic inquiry, and institutional analysis to illuminate how purity discourse functions as both a source of harm and a mode of communal belonging. The book uses interviews, digital content, and narrative analysis to argue that purity logics emerge as cultural responses to structural anti-Blackness, and I situate purity culture as a haunted theology—an inheritance shaped by histories of gendered surveillance, moral policing, and spiritualized violence. At the same time, Holy and Haunted seeks out the creative practices of repair emerging among Black queer and femme communities, tracing how they reimagine care, embodiment, kinship, and the Divine outside the constraints of purity logics. In this way, the project advances scholarship at the intersection of anti-Blackness, faith practices, queerness, spiritual trauma, and the politics of care

In addition to these major projects, I maintain a robust public scholarship profile, having published in academic and non-academic outlets, presented at major conferences, and engaged in community-based work addressing spiritual harm, trauma, and mental health in Black religious communities. This dual commitment—to rigorous academic research and socially engaged praxis—is at the heart of my teaching and scholarship. 

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Teaching Philosophy, Experience, and Pedagogical Approach

My teaching philosophy centers on the conviction that education must be co-creative, justice-oriented, and transformative. Across courses in religious studies, social work, leadership, critical race, and gender and sexuality studies, I strive to create learning environments where students are invited to interrogate dominant epistemologies, engage with marginalized voices, and imagine possibilities for social change and healing.

At the University of Denver, I have taught courses such as Intro to African American Religions (co-listed with Ethnic Studies), Black Liberation and Womanist Theology, Race and Sexuality, and Feminisms of Color. These courses combine historical analysis, theory, case studies, multimedia critique, and experiential learning. For example, in a course on religion and sexuality, students analyze media, digital religious practices, and cultural productions to examine how race, gender, sexuality, and spirituality intersect. In leadership- and social justice–oriented classes, I pair classic texts (e.g., Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed) with contemporary movements such as Black Lives Matter, prompting students to apply theoretical frameworks to real-world activism and community care.

I emphasize trauma-informed, inclusive, and culturally responsive pedagogy. Recognizing that many students bring histories of marginalization, oppression, or trauma, I build classrooms grounded in respect, emotional safety, and shared vulnerability. This includes setting clear engagement guidelines, integrating reflection and self-care practices, offering multiple modes of participation (discussion, projects, creative media, writing), and prioritizing marginalized epistemologies—especially Black feminist, queer, Indigenous, and diasporic frameworks. My goal is not only to facilitate knowledge acquisition, but to nurture critical consciousness, ethical imagination, and a sense of communal responsibility among students.

I view the classroom as a space of possibility, where students can become intellectual agents, communal caretakers, and social actors. I am committed to mentoring students from historically underrepresented backgrounds—supporting their academic growth, identity development, and community-engaged aspirations. Through my own positionality as a Black queer scholar, I bring lived experience, reflexivity, and empathy into teaching, inviting students to reflect upon their own perspectives and positionalities in relation to the material. I aim to link historical, theological, sociological, and cultural analyses with public policy, community-engaged practice, and activist praxis.

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Institutional, Community & Public Scholarship Engagement

Beyond the academy, I have committed myself to public and community-engaged work addressing spiritual harm, social inequity, and institutional violence. I founded and lead Sanctuary of the Seeking and IMU Consulting & Counseling Services, organizations devoted to spiritual trauma consultancy, community-based counseling, healing retreats, and leadership development rooted in Black faith traditions and social justice values. Through these initiatives, I have served dozens of individuals and communities grappling with religious trauma, identity formation, mental health, and institutional distrust—including those who have experienced intimate partner violence, houselessness, substance use, or systemic marginalization.

I view the university not as an ivory tower but as a site of community responsibility. If selected for this position, I commit to establishing community-engaged research and praxis initiatives—collaborating with local, national, and diasporic Black faith communities, social justice organizations, and health and social welfare services. I am eager to mentor students who wish to translate scholarly inquiry into public impact and to support effort to create a hub for socially engaged Black religious, feminist, and diaspora studies and scholars.