Stephen C Finley, Director
Associate Professor - Religious Studies and African & African American Studies
Phone: (225) 578-7023
Fax: (225) 578-4897
E-mail: scfinley@lsu.edu
Office: 135 Howe Russell
Education
Bachelor's Degree: Pepperdine University
Master's Degree: MA Rice University, MDiv Virginia Union University
PhD: Rice University
Research & Intellectual Interests
African American Religious Traditions
African American Religious Thought
Africana Esoteric Studies (AES)
Theory and Method in the Study of Religion
Race, Religion, and Embodiment
African American Religion and Psychoanalysis
Religion in America
Publications
Books
In and Out of this World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam. (Forthcoming, 2020, Duke University Press).
[Co-editor with Biko Mandela Gray and Lori Latrice Martin]. The Religion of White Rage: White Workers, Religious Fervor, and the Myth of Racial Progress. (Forthcoming, 2020, Edinburgh University Press).
The Afro-Theosophysics of Robert T. Browne: Race, the Nature of Reality, and Theory of Religion ( Under Review).
[Co-Author with Biko Mandela Gray and Lori Latrice Martin]. Ivory Towers, Regulatory Technologies, and the (Re)Production of Anti-Black Violence in the Academy: Introducing Black Faculty Studies. ( Under Review).
[Co-Editor with Margarita S. Guillory and Hugh R. Page]. Esotericism in African American Religious Experience: 鈥淭here Is a Mystery鈥�. . . . (20 chapters + Introduction, Conclusion, Foreword, Afterword). Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill (2015).
Associate Editor, (with Anthony B. Pinn, Editor). Encyclopedia of African American Religious Cultures. 2 Volumes. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO (2009)
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
鈥溾�楳ake America Great Again鈥�: Racial Pathology, White Consolidation, and Melancholia
in Trump鈥檚 America.鈥� In The Religion of White Rage: White Workers, Religious Fervor,
and the Myth of Racial Progress. Edited by Stephen C. Finley, Biko M. Gray, and Lori
L. Martin. (Edinburgh University Press, Forthcoming).
(2nd Author with Biko M. Gray and Lori Martin). 鈥溾�楬igh Tech Lynching鈥�: White Virtual Mobs and Administrators as Policing Agents in Higher Education.鈥� (Forthcoming, Issues in Race & Society: An Interdisciplinary and Global Journal)
鈥淪ignification and Subjectivity: Reflections on Racism, Colonialism, and (Re)Authentication in Religion and Religious Studies.鈥� [Special Edition: Agency Reduction in the Experiences and Realities of Africana People]. (International Journal of Africana Studies, 19.2 (2018): 15-35. [Lead article, special issue: Agency Reduction].
(1st Author with Biko Mandela Gray and Lori L. Martin). 鈥溾�楢ffirming Our Values鈥�: African American Scholars, White Virtual Mobs, and the Complicity of White University Administrators.鈥� [Feature article, special issue: Mobilizations of Free Speech]. (Journal of Academic Freedom, 9 (2018). DOI: https://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/FinleyGrayMartin.pdf
鈥淭he Secret鈥� of Who the Devil Is鈥�: Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam, and Theological Phenomenology.鈥� In New Perspectives on the Nation of Islam. Edited by Dawn-Marie Gibson and Herbert Berg. New York: Routledge, (2017): 154-173.
鈥淭he Supernatural in the African American Experience.鈥� In Super Religion, edited by Jeffrey J. Kripal, 231-246. Vol. 9 of Religion: Sources, Perspectives, and Methodologies. Ed. Jeffrey J. Kripal. Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks, Farmington Hills, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2017.
(1st Author with Biko M. Gray). 鈥淕od Is a White Racist: Immanent Atheism as a Religious Response to Black Lives Matter and State-sanctioned Anti-black Violence.鈥� [Special Issue, Lead Article]. Journal of Africana Religions. 3.4 (October 2015): 443-53. (Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable /10.5325/jafrireli.3.4.0443).
鈥淭he Meaning of 鈥楳other鈥� in Louis Farrakhan鈥檚 鈥楳other Wheel鈥�: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Cosmology of the Nation of Islam鈥檚 UFO.鈥� Journal of the American Academy of Religion 80.2 (June 2012): 434-65, (first published online, May 15, 2012: DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/LFS027).
Presentations, Papers, and Panels
鈥淭he Deification of Royall Jenkins.鈥� Super Stories Symposia Series: Democratizing the Supernormal. The Esalen Institute Center for Theory and Research, Big Sur, California. Conveners: Lorilei Biernacki and Gregory Shaw. May 31-June 5, 2020.
鈥淭he Afro-Theosophysics of Robert T. Browne: Race, the Nature of Reality, and Theory of Religion.鈥� Super Stories Symposia Series: Perennialism: The Religion of No Religion. Conveners: Dana Sawyer and Jeffrey Kripal The Esalen Institute Center for Theory and Research, Big Sur, California., December 8-13, 2019.
鈥淏lackness as African American Religious Experience.鈥� [Invited Paper & Panelist]. African American Religious Experience Symposium. African American Studies Program, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS. September 18, 2019.
鈥淭he Afro-Theosophysics of Robert T. Browne: Race and the Paranormal in Theory of Religion.鈥� (Keynote Lecture). Religion & the Strange: Boundary Making and Crossing. Boston University Graduate Program in Religion Student Association, Boston University, Boston, MA. September 15, 2019.
鈥淭he Afro-Theosophysics of Robert T. Browne: Implications of Race, Theory, and Method for the Study of Religion.鈥� (Invited Paper). Theosophy and the Study of Religion. Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School. Co-sponsored by the Esalen Institute for Theory and Research and the Theosophical Society of America. Cambridge, MA, May 15, 2019.
鈥淐orporeal Specter: A Conversation with James H. Cone on Malcolm X, Gender, Sexuality, and Embodiment.鈥� The James Cone Lecture Series: Social Justice as a Path to Liberation in the 21st Century Church. Payne Seminary, Doctor of Ministry Intensive. Irvine, California. February 1, 2019.
鈥淎frican American UFO Traditions and the Nation of Islam.鈥� Super Stories Symposia Series 3: Cosmology, Eschatology, and UFOs. (Invited Public Lecture). The Esalen Institute Center for Theory and Research, Big Sur, California. Dianna Pasulka and Jeffrey J. Kripal, Conveners. January 23, 2019.
鈥淐osmology and Eschatology in the Nation of Islam鈥檚 UFO.鈥� Super Stories Symposia Series 3: Cosmology, Eschatology, and UFOs. The Esalen Institute Center for Theory and Research, Big Sur, California. Dianna Pasulka and Jeffrey J. Kripal, Conveners. January 22, 2019.
鈥淲heels, Wombs, & Women: Louis Farrakhan, UFOs, and the Religious Meaning of Black Women鈥檚 Embodiment in the Nation of Islam.鈥� (Invited Lecture). Amherst College, Amherst, MA, December 3, 2018