Dr. Molly Bassett co-wrote a response to a Book Discussion Forum in Indigenous Religious Traditions with Natalie Avalos (Ethnic Studies, CU Boulder), which was published in the journal’s first issue. In August, she participated in a conversation about Indigenous Religious Traditions at the United States Institute for Peace in Washington D.C. Following the publication of “Tlaquimilolli: An Object Biography,” in American Contact: Intercultural Encounters and the History of the Book, she participated on a panel book talk at Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum. Dr. Bassett presented or co-presented work in progress at the American Society for Ethnohistory in Fargo, ND, and the History of Science’s meeting in Merida, Mexico. Her reflections on continuity and rupture in Nahua religious traditions appeared in History Today. Her AAR service included hosting an Applied Religious Studies Committee session on diverse careers in writing with longstanding and new colleagues writing memoir, poetry, fiction, and journalism. She continues work on her book project with a Tenured Scholarly Support grant from GSU.
Dr. Monique Moultrie presented her research on Black childfree Christian women at Storyhouse Childless in Chester, England, and at the Scriptural Reasoning Unit of the American Academy of Religion Annual Online Meeting. She also presented on Black women’s faith activism at the Implicit Religion Conference in Stirling, Scotland. She was promoted to Professor of Religious Studies in July and accepted into Georgia State University’s Academic Leadership Development Institute (ALDI). The highlight of her fall semester was hosting a national conference for the Garden Initiative for Black Women’s Religious Activism at the Emory Conference Center, which received national media attention, including coverage by Black Enterprise. In November, her book was discussed at the Women’s Caucus panel on New Books on Gender and Religion at the American Academy of Religion’s Annual Meeting.
Dr. Ashlyn Strozier leads a Black Women’s Maternal/Reproductive Health lab focused on addressing high maternal mortality rates among Black women in Atlanta. The lab combines research, digital humanities, and storytelling, with funding from the Teagle Foundation and Interfaith America. Students are creating a docu-series pilot, launching in March, and developing a website with resources for pregnant women. The lab emphasizes student independence and collaboration, preparing students for careers in healthcare, social work, journalism, and more, while making a lasting impact on the community.
Dr. Andrew Walker-Cornetta spent the summer and fall working on several publications and research projects. These included two special issues: a forum in the Journal of Disability & Religion on Julia Watts Belser's Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole and an edition of U.S. Catholic Historian on the topic of disability. This year Walker-Cornetta also received an honorable mention from the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham University for his essay "These Are Our Saints: A Lourdes Shrine, the St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children, and the Catholic Remaking of Cognitive Disability," and was selected as a member of the "Young Scholars" cohort at the Center on Religion and American Culture at Indiana University, Indianapolis. He's excited to be teaching a Perspectives course for the first time in the spring on the theme of Religion and Attention.