Journal Articles
An Organic Union: Theorizing Race, Nation, and Imperialism in the Black Church
JOURNAL OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY (2021) 106, 577-600.
Included in the special issue “Reconceptualizing the History of Black Internationalism.”
Despite the many examples of Black internationalist protest against US Empire in secular society, scholars have not recorded the same degree of ambivalence amongst Black Protestant Christians at the end of the nineteenth century. Countering a singular vision of Black Christian thought, this article examines a moment in African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church history when clergy quarreled over the idea of "ecclesiastical imperialism"—the attempt to unite all people of African descent through Protestant Christian evangelization and AME Church expansion in Canada and the Caribbean.Protestantes negros en una tierra católica. La iglesia AME en la República Dominicana, 1899-1916
ESTUDIOS SOCIALES (2021) 43, 75-122.
A revised Spanish-language version of “Black Protestants in a Catholic Land” (2015), including new images.
La Iglesia episcopal metodista africana (AME, por sus siglas en inglés), iglesia negra fundada en los Estados Unidos en 1816, se estableció por primera vez en el este de Haití cuando más de 6.000 hombres libres negros emigraron de los Estados Unidos a La Española entre 1824 y 1825. Casi un siglo después, la iglesia AME creció rápidamente en la República Dominicana a medida que un grupo importante de personas provenientes de las Antillas menores inglesas se estableció en el sureste dominicano para trabajar en las plantaciones de azúcar. Este artículo examina los vínculos entre los descendientes de inmigrantes afroamericanos, las personas provenientes del Caribe inglés y los líderes de la AME con sede en EE. UU., entre los años 1899-1916. Redeeming Santo Domingo: North Atlantic Missionaries and the Racial Conversion of a Nation
CHURCH HISTORY (2020) 89, 74-100.
2020 Winner of the Sidney E. Mead Prize, American Society of Church History.
This article examines North Atlantic views of Protestant missions and race in the Dominican Republic between 1905 and 1911, a brief period of political stability in the years leading up to the U.S. Occupation (1916–1924). Although Protestant missions during this period remained small in scale on the Catholic island, the views of British and American missionaries evidence how international perceptions of Dominicans transformed in the early twentieth century.Disruptive Silences: The AME Church and Dominican Haitian Relations
JOURNAL OF AFRICANA RELIGIONS (2017) 5, 1-25.
2018 Honorable mention, Haiti-DR LASA Section Article Prize.
Often recognized for its advocacy on behalf of African descendants, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church has been silent on issues regarding anti-Haitian sentiment in the Dominican Republic. By tracing the historical connection between Black America and Haiti in the nineteenth century and recounting the twentieth-century history of the AME Church in the Dominican Republic, this article explains how an institution created in defense of racial equality could inadvertently facilitate its own silencing.Black Protestants in a Catholic Land: The AME Church in the Dominican Republic, 1899-1916
NEW WEST INDIAN GUIDE (2015) 89, 258-288.
The AME Church was first established in eastern Haiti when over 6,000 black free people emigrated from the United States to Hispaniola between 1824 and 1825. Almost a century later, the AME Church grew rapidly in the Dominican Republic as West Indians migrated to the Dominican southeast to work on sugar plantations. This article examines the links between African-American immigrant descendants, West Indians, and U.S.-based AME leaders between the years 1899–1916.Chapters & Essays
An Evangelical Occupation: The Racial and Imperial Politics of US Protestant Missions in the Dominican Republic
RELIGION AND US EMPIRE: CRITICAL NEW HISTORIES (2022).
Considering Anglo-US Protestant evangelization in Latin America at the start of the twentieth century, this chapter examines the racial hierarchy that White US missionaries purposefully constructed and vigilantly guarded in the Dominican Republic. By constructing and imposing such racial hierarchy, White US evangelicals engaged in a form of spiritual warfare diametrically opposed to Black Protestantism and an emerging Black anti-colonial activism.“What Hinders?”: African Methodist Expansion from the U.S. South to Hispaniola
RECONSTRUCTION AND EMPIRE: THE LEGACIES OF ABOLITION AND UNION VICTORY FOR AN IMPERIAL AGE (2022).
In contrast to the traditional historiographical focus on Africa, this chapter shifts the locus of scholarly attention to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola where the AME Church established churches and schools in the 1870s and 1880s prior to enacting a robust missionary program on the African continent. It argues that the AME Church’s foray into foreign missions was a direct outgrowth of the denomination’s expansion to the U.S. South during Reconstruction.Analysis of Evangelical Christianity in the Dominican Republic: Focus on Two Historical Churches
GLOBAL SOCIETY FOR DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT (2019).
English launch hosted by the United Nations, New York AND Spanish launch hosted by Funglode, Santo Domingo.
This study examines the history and current state of evangelical Christianity in the Dominican Republic. It focuses on two traditional Protestant denominations: the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Dominican Evangelical Church. Using historical documents and interviews with church leaders, this report focuses on the ways that each institution adapted to Dominican society in the twentieth century while maintaining ties to the United States.Digital History Work
2017 Digital Project Review Series
HASTAC.ORG
In 2017, I co-hosted my last Digital History series on HASTAC.org. Styled after the OAH’s “Digital History Reviews” edited by Jeffrey W. McClurken for the Journal of American History, we invited reviews of digital history projects. Check out McClurken's review of our work. Duke Brazil Initiative & Higher Ed
HASTAC.ORG
In 2015, I received a grant from the Duke Brazil Initiative to spend two weeks in Rio de Janeiro learning about higher education in Brazil. I documented my experiences in a series of blogs. Check them out on my Hastac.org webpage.Digital History Book Review Series
HASTAC.ORG
In the fall semester of 2013 and the spring semester of 2014, I co-hosted two Digital History book review series. The goal of the series was to provide reviews of academic books that address the study of history and the digital humanities.Open for Whom?: Designing for Inclusion, Navigating the Digital Divide
FIELD NOTES FOR 21ST CENTURY LITERACIES (2013).
This chapter is part of an online book on 21st century digital literacies that my classmates and I co-edited and published on HASTAC.org. The book offers foundational methods, examples, and explanatory theories for incorporating digital competencies. This chapter addresses embedded social inequalities. It asks: what inequalities are inherent in new practices of education and technology in the Digital Age?Digital History: A Two-Part Series
HASTAC.ORG
In October-December of 2012, I co-hosted a two-part series on Digital History topics. The aim was to stimulate discussion on key issues within the realm of Digital Humanities that affect historians and the practice of historical study.