African Diaspora Religions, African Religions, Afro-American Religious History, Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society Unit, Women and Religion Unit, Women of Color Scholarship, Teaching, and Activism Unit
Engaging Diaspora Religions Through Literature, Storytelling or Archival Narratives
Our units propose a panel focused on literature, poetry, orality, and archival sources related to African, African Diaspora, or Afro-American religions. Iconic texts from authors such as Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Gloria Anzaldua, and Gloria Naylor, among others, engage with faith, spirituality, embodiment, ancestrality, mourning, fellowship, borders/border crossings, and other issues, questions, and challenges. We invite papers that explore the power dynamics reflected in such texts, the provenance of the same, and the benefits and challenges of working with these kinds of sources. Do we understand and interpret faith differently depending on whether we rely on oral history or literature? Do archives permit access to faith?