Judith Weisenfeld
@judithweisenfeld.com
Scholar of African American religious history & religion and race in America.
Website: https://www.judithweisenfeld.com/
Most recent book: Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake (NYU 2025)
Website: https://www.judithweisenfeld.com/
Most recent book: Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake (NYU 2025)
Pinned
MORE EVERYTHING FOREVER is one of @sciencenews.bsky.social's 10 favorite books of the year! 🎉😭
Thrilled to be in such excellent company with @sho-walter.bsky.social @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social @judithweisenfeld.com @biologycarly.bsky.social @dhbaron.bsky.social @alicelovejoy.bsky.social & more!
Thrilled to be in such excellent company with @sho-walter.bsky.social @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social @judithweisenfeld.com @biologycarly.bsky.social @dhbaron.bsky.social @alicelovejoy.bsky.social & more!
These are Science News’ favorite books of 2025
Books about AI, Mars and infectious disease were among our top reads this year.
www.sciencenews.org
I'm honored that BLACK RELIGION IN THE MADHOUSE is on this list of @sciencenews.bsky.social's 10 favorite books of the year and among so many important works.
I look forward to this list every year. If you’re a non-tenure-track historian who has published work this year, this is a great opportunity to promote it.
Haven't received as many contributions as usual for this year's lists--could be many things, but one aspect is surely that our ability to get this in front of people is much diminished. If you know folks whose stuff should be on here, please suggest it! contingentmagazine.org/yearly-pub-l...
Publications by Non-Tenure-Track Historians
Since we began publishing in 2019, Contingent has published end-of-year lists of books and articles by non-tenure-track historians released in the past calendar year. To submit something for inclusion...
contingentmagazine.org
November 25, 2025 at 1:17 PM
I look forward to this list every year. If you’re a non-tenure-track historian who has published work this year, this is a great opportunity to promote it.
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
Honored to serve on Mayor-elect @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Transition Committee on Technology. For too long, too many New Yorkers have been left behind. NYC deserves governance that centers affordability, equity, and the public good-looking forward to the work ahead. www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news...
NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announces transition committees
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced Monday the creation of 17 transition advisory committees made up of more than 400 people.
www.cbsnews.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Honored to serve on Mayor-elect @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Transition Committee on Technology. For too long, too many New Yorkers have been left behind. NYC deserves governance that centers affordability, equity, and the public good-looking forward to the work ahead. www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news...
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican reggae singer, actor and cultural icon, dies aged 81
Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican reggae singer, actor and cultural icon, dies aged 81
Star of The Harder They Come had hits including You Can Get It If You Really Want and I Can See Clearly Now
Jimmy Cliff, the singer and actor whose mellifluous voice helped to turn reggae into a global phenomenon, has died aged 81.
A message from his wife Latifa Chambers on Instagram reads: “It’s with profound sadness that I share that my husband, Jimmy Cliff, has crossed over due to a seizure followed by pneumonia. I am thankful for his family, friends, fellow artists and coworkers who have shared his journey with him. To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career … Jimmy, my darling, may you rest in peace. I will follow your wishes.” Her message was also signed by their children, Lilty and Aken. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican reggae singer, actor and cultural icon, dies aged 81
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
Job alert! 🚨 Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Edinburgh Uni to work w/a team of historians on a new project, Voices in Slavery's Archive: Law, Place and Testimony in British Guiana, which will build a digital archive out of the recorded words of enslaved people. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPN147/p...
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Edinburgh
Discover an exciting academic career path as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at jobs.ac.uk. Don't miss out on this job opportunity - apply today!
www.jobs.ac.uk
November 24, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Job alert! 🚨 Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Edinburgh Uni to work w/a team of historians on a new project, Voices in Slavery's Archive: Law, Place and Testimony in British Guiana, which will build a digital archive out of the recorded words of enslaved people. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPN147/p...
It has already been a great #aarsbl2025 for the Crossroads Project, and I have met several fellows in person for the first time, caught up with our Luce Foundation Program Officer @vanantwerpen.bsky.social, and hung out with Media and Tech wizard @mpgphd.bsky.social (but we didn't take a photo)!
@xroadproj.bsky.social staff and fellows have been busy at this year’s annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. Project Director @judithweisenfeld.com’s book *Black Religion in the Madhouse* was the subject of a round table discussion.
November 23, 2025 at 9:49 PM
It has already been a great #aarsbl2025 for the Crossroads Project, and I have met several fellows in person for the first time, caught up with our Luce Foundation Program Officer @vanantwerpen.bsky.social, and hung out with Media and Tech wizard @mpgphd.bsky.social (but we didn't take a photo)!
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
An outstanding special session of the American Academy of Religion @aarweb.bsky.social annual meeting here in Boston this afternoon on Judith Weisenfeld's @judithweisenfeld.com extraordinary book *Black Religion in the Madhouse*! #AARSBL25 #AARSBL
November 22, 2025 at 8:41 PM
An outstanding special session of the American Academy of Religion @aarweb.bsky.social annual meeting here in Boston this afternoon on Judith Weisenfeld's @judithweisenfeld.com extraordinary book *Black Religion in the Madhouse*! #AARSBL25 #AARSBL
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
Also, very excited to be presiding at a special AAR session on Judith Weisenfeld's @judithweisenfeld.com vitally important book *Black Religion in the Madhouse,* an extraordinary study on the intersection of Black American religious history and science and religion!
November 21, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Also, very excited to be presiding at a special AAR session on Judith Weisenfeld's @judithweisenfeld.com vitally important book *Black Religion in the Madhouse,* an extraordinary study on the intersection of Black American religious history and science and religion!
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
NEW EMERGENCY SESSION AT #AARSBL25
"Emergency Session: ICE Enforcement in Sacred Spaces"
4.00-5.00 PM ET, Hynes Convention Center 208
Join us for an emergency town hall to discuss steps to take in response to threats of increasing immigration enforcement, including on and around sacred grounds.
"Emergency Session: ICE Enforcement in Sacred Spaces"
4.00-5.00 PM ET, Hynes Convention Center 208
Join us for an emergency town hall to discuss steps to take in response to threats of increasing immigration enforcement, including on and around sacred grounds.
November 21, 2025 at 7:13 PM
NEW EMERGENCY SESSION AT #AARSBL25
"Emergency Session: ICE Enforcement in Sacred Spaces"
4.00-5.00 PM ET, Hynes Convention Center 208
Join us for an emergency town hall to discuss steps to take in response to threats of increasing immigration enforcement, including on and around sacred grounds.
"Emergency Session: ICE Enforcement in Sacred Spaces"
4.00-5.00 PM ET, Hynes Convention Center 208
Join us for an emergency town hall to discuss steps to take in response to threats of increasing immigration enforcement, including on and around sacred grounds.
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
imagine knowing literally anything about Haiti and deciding to try this
Gavin and Tanner, planned and trained for nearly a year, legal documents say, in an elaborate attempt to invade a Haitian island, kill its Black men, enslave its Black women and Black children and fulfill their "rape fantasies."
www.fox4news.com/news/haitian...
www.fox4news.com/news/haitian...
NTX men planned to murder men, enslave women on foreign island: Indictment
Two North Texas men have been indicted for an alleged scheme to sail to a foreign island, murder all the men, and enslave the women and children.
www.fox4news.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:28 PM
imagine knowing literally anything about Haiti and deciding to try this
I'm honored that BLACK RELIGION IN THE MADHOUSE is on this list of @sciencenews.bsky.social's 10 favorite books of the year and among so many important works.
MORE EVERYTHING FOREVER is one of @sciencenews.bsky.social's 10 favorite books of the year! 🎉😭
Thrilled to be in such excellent company with @sho-walter.bsky.social @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social @judithweisenfeld.com @biologycarly.bsky.social @dhbaron.bsky.social @alicelovejoy.bsky.social & more!
Thrilled to be in such excellent company with @sho-walter.bsky.social @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social @judithweisenfeld.com @biologycarly.bsky.social @dhbaron.bsky.social @alicelovejoy.bsky.social & more!
These are Science News’ favorite books of 2025
Books about AI, Mars and infectious disease were among our top reads this year.
www.sciencenews.org
November 20, 2025 at 7:00 PM
I'm honored that BLACK RELIGION IN THE MADHOUSE is on this list of @sciencenews.bsky.social's 10 favorite books of the year and among so many important works.
Postdoc at Case Western's Baker-Nord Institute for the Humanities, with Religious Studies of special interest + "speculation and the speculative, global Afrofuturism(s), and/or decolonial methods and approaches."
Deadline 12/1
apply.interfolio.com/176179
Deadline 12/1
apply.interfolio.com/176179
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Postdoc at Case Western's Baker-Nord Institute for the Humanities, with Religious Studies of special interest + "speculation and the speculative, global Afrofuturism(s), and/or decolonial methods and approaches."
Deadline 12/1
apply.interfolio.com/176179
Deadline 12/1
apply.interfolio.com/176179
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
Very grateful to see this roundtable of responses to my book *Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin* ( @dukepress.bsky.social ) out now in Method & Theory in the Study of Religion!
This grew out of a book session at last year's American Academy of Religion annual meeting. ->
This grew out of a book session at last year's American Academy of Religion annual meeting. ->
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Very grateful to see this roundtable of responses to my book *Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin* ( @dukepress.bsky.social ) out now in Method & Theory in the Study of Religion!
This grew out of a book session at last year's American Academy of Religion annual meeting. ->
This grew out of a book session at last year's American Academy of Religion annual meeting. ->
Check out this fascinating article about the work my Princeton Religion colleague, Garry Sparks, is coordinating focused on the Maya manuscript collection at Firestone Library.
Indigenous Scholars Unlock Princeton’s Remarkable Maya Manuscript Collection and its Crucial Research Potential
Héctor Rolando Xol Choc, one of few scholars capable of reading the native Mayan language Q’eqchi’, has discovered something among Princeton University Library’s (PUL) collection of Mesoamerican manus...
initiative.humanities.princeton.edu
November 19, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Check out this fascinating article about the work my Princeton Religion colleague, Garry Sparks, is coordinating focused on the Maya manuscript collection at Firestone Library.
Even if you're not attending #aarsbl2025 or can't make my session, you can buy the book and others in @nyupress.bsky.social's great line of religious studies book at 30% off.
nyupress.org/american-aca...
nyupress.org/american-aca...
November 19, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Even if you're not attending #aarsbl2025 or can't make my session, you can buy the book and others in @nyupress.bsky.social's great line of religious studies book at 30% off.
nyupress.org/american-aca...
nyupress.org/american-aca...
CFP: Special issue of *Southern Cultures* on religion, edited by Shari Rabin. Deadline December 15, 2025.
Call for Papers: Religion
Southern Cultures encourages submissions from scholars, writers, and artists for a special issue, Religion, to be published Fall 2026. We will accept submissions for this issue through December 15…
www.southerncultures.org
November 18, 2025 at 9:25 PM
CFP: Special issue of *Southern Cultures* on religion, edited by Shari Rabin. Deadline December 15, 2025.
We're supposed to negotiate individually with health insurance companies now or everyone on their own in concierge care? This is the concept of a plan?
Trump: "THE ONLY HEALTHCARE I'LL SUPPORT OR APPROVE IS SENDING MONEY DIRECTLY BACK TO THE PEOPLE W/ NOTHING GOING TO THE BIG, FAT, RICH INSURANCE COMPANIES, WHO HAVE RIPPED OFF AMERICA LONG ENOUGH. THE PEOPLE WILL BE ALLOWED TO NEGOTIATE & BUY THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, INSURANCE. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!"
November 18, 2025 at 2:41 PM
We're supposed to negotiate individually with health insurance companies now or everyone on their own in concierge care? This is the concept of a plan?
Visiting Assistant Professor in Religious Studies at Lake Forest College. Deadline January 5, 2026. #AcRel
www.lakeforest.edu/offices-and-...
www.lakeforest.edu/offices-and-...
Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion
www.lakeforest.edu
November 18, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Visiting Assistant Professor in Religious Studies at Lake Forest College. Deadline January 5, 2026. #AcRel
www.lakeforest.edu/offices-and-...
www.lakeforest.edu/offices-and-...
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
Really lovely defense of higher education—focused on local colleges but applicable more broadly. Higher Ed is so crucial to economies, to people, to imaginations
Opinion: How higher education now powers the Lehigh Valley
Opinion: Colleges and universities function as anchor institutions in the Lehigh Valley
www.mcall.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Really lovely defense of higher education—focused on local colleges but applicable more broadly. Higher Ed is so crucial to economies, to people, to imaginations
I have read @kellyjbaker.bsky.social's Gospel According to the Klan with students many times in courses on race and religion in America and recommend it.
If you wanna get a copy of Gospel According to the Klan or any of the other wonderful UPK books for the holidays, now's your chance.
Click here to start shopping today: kansaspress.ku.edu.
#BookSale #holidaysale #upkansas #universitypress #HolidayGiftIdeas
#BookSale #holidaysale #upkansas #universitypress #HolidayGiftIdeas
November 17, 2025 at 5:22 PM
I have read @kellyjbaker.bsky.social's Gospel According to the Klan with students many times in courses on race and religion in America and recommend it.
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
Check out this exhibit at Howard University on Black religious life in Gordon Parks' photography, curated by @xroadproj.bsky.social affiliate Dr. Melanee C. Harvey. It closes on December 1, 2025.
Temples of Hope, Rituals Of Survival: Gordon Parks and Black Religious Life - Museum Exhibitions - The Gordon Parks Foundation
The Gordon Parks Foundation permanently preserves the work of Gordon Parks, makes it available to the public through exhibitions, books, and electronic media and supports artistic and educational acti...
www.gordonparksfoundation.org
November 15, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Check out this exhibit at Howard University on Black religious life in Gordon Parks' photography, curated by @xroadproj.bsky.social affiliate Dr. Melanee C. Harvey. It closes on December 1, 2025.
The way my blood boiled when I read that they gave $30,000 to an unnamed independent scholar for a project on “Meritocracy vs. Equity: The Declaration of Independence in Tension With Critical Race Theory and D.E.I.” (and without full review).
Fired Scholars and Big Grants to Favored Projects: Inside Trump’s N.E.H.
www.nytimes.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:11 PM
The way my blood boiled when I read that they gave $30,000 to an unnamed independent scholar for a project on “Meritocracy vs. Equity: The Declaration of Independence in Tension With Critical Race Theory and D.E.I.” (and without full review).
Interesting developments in the world of congregations related to the Ethiopian Hebrews, about which I wrote in *New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration* (and a quote from me).
'Extra brain power': Hebrew Israelite rabbinical body votes to ordain women
After the Vote, Rabbis Malchah Netanyahu and Tamar Manasseh Were Swiftly Welcomed to the Movement's Board of Rabbis in the United States. 'It's a Historic Decision. I Wish It Could Be Celebrated Among...
www.haaretz.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Interesting developments in the world of congregations related to the Ethiopian Hebrews, about which I wrote in *New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration* (and a quote from me).
SAT 11/22 at 12:30pm | Hynes Convention Center Ballroom A
I'm grateful the special session on my book at the upcoming #aarsbl2025 meeting and excited to be in conversation with Danielle N. Boaz, Jamil Drake, Terence D Keel, and Wangui Muigai.
papers.aarweb.org/roundtable-s...
I'm grateful the special session on my book at the upcoming #aarsbl2025 meeting and excited to be in conversation with Danielle N. Boaz, Jamil Drake, Terence D Keel, and Wangui Muigai.
papers.aarweb.org/roundtable-s...
November 13, 2025 at 2:44 PM
SAT 11/22 at 12:30pm | Hynes Convention Center Ballroom A
I'm grateful the special session on my book at the upcoming #aarsbl2025 meeting and excited to be in conversation with Danielle N. Boaz, Jamil Drake, Terence D Keel, and Wangui Muigai.
papers.aarweb.org/roundtable-s...
I'm grateful the special session on my book at the upcoming #aarsbl2025 meeting and excited to be in conversation with Danielle N. Boaz, Jamil Drake, Terence D Keel, and Wangui Muigai.
papers.aarweb.org/roundtable-s...
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
Extremely excited to have the great Ralph Craig III @rhcraig.bsky.social coming to Penn to speak on Thursday!
Philly folks, come join us!
Philly folks, come join us!
Our next Religious Studies colloquium event!
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Moving Up the Cosmic Pole: Strategies for Legitimating Religious Authority in Buddhist Texts
RELS Colloquium
Ralph Craig (Whitman)
Nov 13, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204
--------------------
Moving Up the Cosmic Pole: Strategies for Legitimating Religious Authority in Buddhist Texts
RELS Colloquium
Ralph Craig (Whitman)
Nov 13, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204
November 11, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Extremely excited to have the great Ralph Craig III @rhcraig.bsky.social coming to Penn to speak on Thursday!
Philly folks, come join us!
Philly folks, come join us!
This has been a devastating loss for so many in the Princeton community and beyond. Alison was a wonderful scholar, teacher, mentor, colleague, and community member and it was a privilege to have known her.
Alison Isenberg, distinguished urban historian and co-founder of Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities, dies
A public memorial and celebration of Isenberg’s life will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, at the University Chapel.
www.princeton.edu
November 7, 2025 at 8:55 PM
This has been a devastating loss for so many in the Princeton community and beyond. Alison was a wonderful scholar, teacher, mentor, colleague, and community member and it was a privilege to have known her.