Haverford College

“Religion, Race, and A Prophet of Love: Remembering James Baldwin at 100 Years”

Thursday, April 11, 2024 at 4:30pm in LUT 200 (tea at 4:15pm)

Abstract:  This lecture commemorates the centenary of James Arthur Baldwin born August 2, 2024.  James Baldwin was a noted non-fiction essayist, novelist, short-story writer, playwright, poet, and Civil Rights activist whose major published works span four decades from the 1940s-1980s. Undoubtedly one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century, this lecture will explore Baldwin’s analysis of religion, insights on race, and prophetic declarations of love. 

Info about speaker:  Tracey Hucks is a nationally known and esteemed scholar of Africana Studies and American Religious History. She has served most recently as Provost and Dean of the Faculty at Colgate University where she has been James A. Storing Professor of Religion and Africana and Latin American Studies. Hucks previously taught at Davidson College, where she was the James D. Vail III Professor and chair of the Africana Studies Department, and at Haverford College. In 1995, she was a resident graduate scholar at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria. A graduate of Colgate University, she earned her AM and PhD from Harvard University in 1998. Hucks is the author of Yoruba Traditions and African American Religious Nationalism, which was published in 2012 and was a finalist for the American Academy of Religion First Book Award and the Journal of Africana Religions Albert J. Raboteau Book Prize. Hucks's most recent publication is Obeah, Orisa and Religious Identity in Trinidad: Volume One: Africans in the White Colonial Imagination, which was published in October 2022 by Duke University Press. Working with Dr. Dianne Stewart, MDiv ’93, who authored Volume Two, the two-volume study theorizes the prominent role of Africana religious cultures in the shaping of diaspora identities. Hucks has conducted research in several countries, including Brazil, Cuba, Nigeria, England, France, Trinidad, Jamaica, Kenya, and Tanzania. In addition to her numerous awards, fellowships, and distinctions, she was also an elected member of the Program Committee of the American Academy of Religion, elected member of the Executive Committee of the Society for the Study of Black Religion, and is currently a member of the Corporation of Haverford College.

Sponsored by the Department of Religion in conjunction with the Distinguished Visitors Program.