Judith Weisenfeld

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Judith Weisenfeld
Alma materBarnard College
Princeton University
Occupation(s)Scholar, professor
EmployerPrinceton University
Notable workAfrican American Women and Christian Activism: New York's Black YWCA, 1905–1945.
Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929–1949
New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration
TitleAgate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion
Websitejudithweisenfeld.com

Judith Weisenfeld is an American scholar of religion. She is Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion at Princeton University, where she is also the Chair of the Department of Religion.[1] Her research primarily focuses on African-American religion in the first half of the 20th century. In 2019, Weisenfeld was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Early life and education[edit]

Weisenfeld was raised Catholic in Queens, NYC, and attended Barnard College,[2][3] where she graduated cum laude in 1986 with an A. B. degree in religion.[4] She then attended Princeton for her M.A. and Ph.D. (1992), with her dissertation focusing on the Black women's branch of the YWCA in New York in the first half of the 20th century.[5]

Career[edit]

Her dissertation became the basis for her first book, African American Women and Christian Activism: New York's Black YWCA, 1905–1945.[6][7] While in graduate school in Princeton, Weisenfeld also became interested in film,[5] which became a focus of her second book project: Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929–1949.[8][9][10][11][12]

In 2017, Weisenfeld published her third book, New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration.[13] The book develops a "comprehensive study of the formation of early 20th-century black religious movements",[14] incorporating into her analysis religious practices outside the Christian tradition that has traditionally been the focus of such scholarship.[15]

Weisenfeld taught at Barnard from 1991 until 2000,[5] then Vassar College, where she earned tenure and chaired the Religion Department and led the Pan-African Studies Program.[16]

She joined Princeton's faculty in 2007.[5] In addition to her appointment as in the Department of Religion as Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor, Weisenfeld is also affiliated with the Department of African American Studies, the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, the Program in American Studies and the Center for the Study of Religion.[17]

Awards and honors[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

  • ed. with Richard Newman. This Far by Faith: Readings in African-American Women's Autobiography (Routledge, 1996)[19]
  • African American Women and Christian Activism: New York's Black YWCA, 1905–1945 (Harvard University Press, 1997)
  • Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929–1949 (University of California Press, 2007)
  • New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration (NYU Press, 2017)

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Judith Weisenfeld". Department of Religion. 2016-08-22. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  2. ^ Booker, Vaughn A. (7 February 2017). "Religious Movements of the Great Migration: An Interview with Judith Weisenfeld". Religion & Politics. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  3. ^ Singh, Simran Jeet (2021-03-24). "Judith Weisenfeld, "Anti-Racism as a Spiritual Practice"". Religion News Service. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  4. ^ Rabinowitz, Mikaela (29 October 1998). "Barnard Professor Lectures History of Harlem YWCA". spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu. Columbia Daily Spectator. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  5. ^ a b c d Patel, Ushma (November 5, 2007). "Weisenfeld examines religious motivation in activist, artistic fields". Princeton University. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  6. ^ Moore, Cecilia A. (2009). "African American Women and Christian Activism: New York's Black YWCA, 1905–1945. By Judith Weisenfeld. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997. viii + 231 pp. $35.00 cloth". Church History. 68 (1): 220–221. doi:10.2307/3170176. ISSN 0009-6407. JSTOR 3170176. S2CID 163073625.
  7. ^ "Judith Weisenfeld. African American Women and Christian Activism: New York's Black YWCA, 1905–1945. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1997. Pp. viii, 231. $35.00". The American Historical Review. 1999. doi:10.1086/ahr/104.2.586. ISSN 1937-5239.
  8. ^ Butters, Gerald R. (2008). "Hollywood Be Thy Name and the New Wave of African American Film Scholarship". Reviews in American History. 36 (1): 89–94. doi:10.1353/rah.2008.0018. ISSN 1080-6628. S2CID 143710353.
  9. ^ Watts, J. (2008). "Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929–1949. By Judith Weisenfeld. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. xiv, 341 pp. Paper, $24.95". Journal of American History. 94 (4): 1298. doi:10.2307/25095414. ISSN 0021-8723. JSTOR 25095414. ISBN 978-0-520-22774-3
  10. ^ Johnson, Sylvester A. (2008). "Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929–1949". The American Historical Review. 113 (5): 1577–1578. doi:10.1086/ahr.113.5.1577. ISSN 0002-8762.
  11. ^ Sherrard, Brooke (2009). "Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929–1949 – By Judith Weisenfeld". Religious Studies Review. 35 (3): 203. doi:10.1111/j.1748-0922.2009.01371_21.x. ISSN 0319-485X.
  12. ^ Wright, Benjamin G. (2008). "Judith Weisenfeld, Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929–1949". The Journal of African American History. 93 (3): 454–456. doi:10.1086/JAAHv93n3p454. ISSN 1548-1867.
  13. ^ Angell, Stephen W. (2018). "Judith Weisenfeld. New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration". The American Historical Review. 123 (1): 247–248. doi:10.1093/ahr/123.1.247. ISSN 0002-8762.
  14. ^ "Nonfiction Book Review: New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity During the Great Migration by Judith Weisenfeld. New York Univ., $35 (368p)". Publishers Weekly. December 12, 2016. Retrieved 2018-02-15. ISBN 978-1-4798-8880-1
  15. ^ Moore, Julia Robinson (2017). "New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration. By Judith Weisenfeld". Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 85 (3): 853–856. doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfx034. ISSN 0002-7189.
  16. ^ Raftery, Isolde (March 27, 2013). "Faculty, Administration Examine Barnard Tenure – Columbia Daily Spectator". Columbia Spectator. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  17. ^ "Judith Weisenfeld". Department of Religion. Princeton University. 22 August 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  18. ^ "Press Release: New 2019 Members Announced". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 17 April 2019. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  19. ^ Taves, Ann (September 1997). "This Far by Faith: Readings in African-American Women's Autobiography. Edited by Weisenfeld Judith and Newman Richard. New York: Routledge, 1996. 326 pp". Church History. 66 (3): 671–672. doi:10.2307/3169555. ISSN 1755-2613. JSTOR 3169555. S2CID 161641790.

External links[edit]

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