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Name: Meredith Coleman-Tobias

Title: Assistant Professor of Religion

Department: Religion

Areas of study: African-Atlantic religious cultures; American religious history; diaspora theory; global black feminisms/womanisms; oral history; performance studies

Research interests: I consider Caribbean and North American iterations of African-Atlantic religious cultures, specifically religious migrations, which I studied during my 2009-2010 tenure as a Fulbright grantee in Barbados. I also bring a background in community theater. Interrogations of performance, place-making, and knowledge reproduction significantly inform my understanding of religious communities. I am currently researching Sobonfu Somé, a recently-deceased Burkinabé teacher and leader based in Sacramento, California. My research project examines the West African spiritual teacher’s rise to North American prominence. Central to my ethnographic exploration is documenting how Westerners, for more than a century, have sought out indigenous teachers from North America, Asia and now Africa to supplement their mono-religious sensibilities. One of the central concerns of my research is examining how devotees leveraged Somé’s racialized indigeneity as a marker of an authentic spiritual prowess in North America.

What drew you to this field: I was drawn to the academic study of religion because of F. Douglas Powe Jr., a professor and mentor. I took an elective class with him during my first year in college. He saw the makings of a scholar in me and strongly encouraged me to keep going.

What appeals to you about being a professor at ����ɬ? My position allows me to teach the interdisciplinary area about which I am most passionate: Africana religious studies. That is quite appealing. Additionally, I am an alumna of The Spence School, a girls’ school in Manhattan, and Spelman College, a women’s college in Atlanta. Both student-facing climates made indelible marks on my development. ����ɬ offers an environment similar to these institutions and I look forward to contributing as a faculty member.

About teaching: In an ideal learning situation, students are able to connect persons, places, things and/or concepts in their life stories to the teaching moment. While it is important to me that students understand multiple theories, conceptualizations and methodologies, I am also interested in how students create narratives of their histories in conversation with a course’s content. I learn so much from students’ diverse perspectives. Working from the black feminist perspective that the personal is necessarily political, I encourage students to bring their experiences to the classroom. I particularly enjoy when my classes help students create a bridge between their individual journeys and a collectivist sense of worldmaking.

Previous work experience: I was a creative intern for Hallmark greetings cards in summer 2006. Yes, I wrote greeting cards! To this day, I am a fan of heartfelt, casually written sentiments.

The campus and region so far: I really enjoy the natural beauty of western Massachusetts. I just spent two years living in the Berkshires. The valley shares my last home’s mountainous wonder and I am grateful to carry on living in the midst of such splendor.

Favorite class as an undergraduate: A class misleadingly named “Production” that I took during a semester abroad at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. My instructor, Rekha Nathoo, transformed the class into a crash course on Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed theory and practice, a real game-changer for my activist thinking.

When you are not working: Meals with my loved ones, taking long walks, writing creatively, sending snail mail and sitting in the front row at local plays.

Music: My musical tastes are eclectic and vary with the seasons. An enduring love, however, is the African-American performance ensemble, Sweet Honey in the Rock. They are a timeless ode to a capella music, arts activism and easy harmony. I hold many of their songs as life philosophies. The group’s founder, Bernice Johnson Reagon, is also a Spelman College alumna. I had the honor of taking a class with her during my first undergraduate year. That memorable experience cemented my devotion to her music’s legacy.