Judith Weisenfeld
@judithweisenfeld.com
4.5K followers 1.1K following 540 posts
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)
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Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
erinbartram.bsky.social
If you are a supporter and reader of @contingent-mag.bsky.social one of the biggest things you can do to help us at the moment is get this CFP to the NTT folks in your life. The fracturing of social media has made it very difficult to get the word out esp. to adjuncts and VAPs.
CFP: A Time of Monsters
The monster has been here all along. It is a historical constant that manifests in wildly different ways across time, place, and culture. Whatever form it takes, the monster claws at categories; it un...
contingentmagazine.org
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
kawulf.bsky.social
“We may be past the point of no return, but at a minimum we ought to … assess where we are, and what we’re losing when we fully cashier robust support for Humanities research. The Humanities are us.” Feels like a(nother) good day to share this. scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/04/02/t...
The Humanities as Canary: Understanding this Crisis Now - The Scholarly Kitchen
The Humanities have always been the canary in the coal mine of the full knowledge industry. What information can help us understand this crisis and its implications?
scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
publicbooks.bsky.social
“Dahomey” documents the return of 26 Danxomèan treasures to Bénin from France. Much of the film focuses on the slow labor of handling the priceless artifacts & the voices of the curators. The irony, however, is the silence of the film’s “nonskilled” laborers.
Spectacles of Return: The Silent Labors of “Dahomey”
“Dahomey” narrates the Danxomèan treasures’ epic journey home. And yet, the film remains haunted by the visible and invisible human labor that made this homecoming—and its cinematic telling—possible.
www.publicbooks.org
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
themountaingoats.bsky.social
this poem is astonishing and I am so grateful to Eileen for bringing it to our attention last year & again this year.
chowleen.bsky.social
Dear friends,
As have become a habit, I mark each #autumnequinox by sharing a small poem by Xin Qiji. I also start my translation cycle of Chinese and Japanese poems and prose that mark the twenty-four lunisolar micro-seasons. Translation notes blogged here:
#everynightapoem
judithweisenfeld.com
I'm looking foward to talking about my work at Penn later this week.
upennrels.bsky.social
Happening this week in the Department of Religious Studies!
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Black Freedom and the Racialization of Religious Excitement
RELS Colloquium
Judith Weisenfeld @judithweisenfeld.com (Princeton)
Sep 25, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204
Black Freedom and the Racialization of Religious Excitement
RELS Colloquium
Judith Weisenfeld (Princeton)
Sep 25, 2025 at 3:30pm - 5:00pm | Cohen 204

As the nineteenth century drew to a close, white American psychiatrists declared that mental illness among African Americans in the South had reached alarming proportions and argued that, in a notable percentage of these cases, “religious excitement” was the key precipitating factor. This talk explores late nineteenth and early twentieth-century psychiatric theories about race, religion, and the “normal mind” and shows how the emerging specialty of psychiatry drew on works from history of religions to make racialized claims about African Americans’ “traits of character, habit, and behavior.” This history of the intersections of psychiatry and African American religions sheds light on how ideas about race, religion, and mental normalcy shaped African American experience in courts and mental hospitals and on the role the racialization of religion played more broadly in the history of medicine, legal history, and the history of disability.

Judith Weisenfeld is Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Her books include 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, and Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake.

Cosponsored by the Department of the History and Sociology of Science.
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
wnba.com
WNBA @wnba.com · 16d
HISTORY MADE 🏆

A’ja Wilson is the 2025 WNBA Kia Most Valuable Player — the first player in league history to win 4 MVPs.

#KiaMVP | #WelcometotheW
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
judithweisenfeld.com
I'm so excited about the work the Crossroads Project fellows have done and hope you will check out the new projects and teaching resource.
xroadproj.bsky.social
New projects and a teaching resources added to the Crossroads Project's online gallery at SPIRIT HOUSE! Designed by @mpgphd.bsky.social, the site features 37 original projects exploring Black religious histories, communities and cultures. 1/2

Visit the site: www.crossroads-spirithouse.org
Black and white image of a river baptism with the words SPIRIT HOUSE: A Crossroads Project added.
judithweisenfeld.com
I'm so excited about the work the Crossroads Project fellows have done and hope you will check out the new projects and teaching resource.
xroadproj.bsky.social
New projects and a teaching resources added to the Crossroads Project's online gallery at SPIRIT HOUSE! Designed by @mpgphd.bsky.social, the site features 37 original projects exploring Black religious histories, communities and cultures. 1/2

Visit the site: www.crossroads-spirithouse.org
Black and white image of a river baptism with the words SPIRIT HOUSE: A Crossroads Project added.
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
ceciliamunoz.bsky.social
Foundation Presidents speak out on political
violence and the fundamental freedom of speech: “We reject attempts to exploit political violence to mischaracterize our good work or restrict our fundamental freedoms, like freedom of speech and the freedom to give.”
medium.com/@uniteinadva...
Statement on the Fundamental Freedom of Speech
“Acts of political violence — from the recent murder of Charlie Kirk to the murder of Speaker Emeritus Melissa Hortman of Minnesota — have…
medium.com
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
sifill.bsky.social
This week 14th Amendment Center webinar series begins. Tuesday & Wednesday night will be focused on the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship.
Follow @the14thcenter.bsky.social
REGISTER NOW!
howard.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
jgarc.bsky.social
Please spread the word—The Scholars’ Workshop in Early African American Print at AAS Jan. 12-15, 2026. A writing workshop and intro to archives for junior scholars working on the dissertation or first book. Fully funded. Apply by Oct. 15 2025. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD
judithweisenfeld.com
Reminder that my department is hiring in early Christianity. Our search last year was canceled in the hiring freeze but we're happy to be able to conduct the search this year at the assistant professor level. Deadline for applications is 9/30/2025.
judithweisenfeld.com
My department at Princeton is hiring an assistant professor specializing in the study of early Christianity. First round materials are cover letter, cv, and writing sample. Letters will be requested for later stages. Deadline: September 30, 2025.
puwebp.princeton.edu
Reposted by Judith Weisenfeld
moreandagain.social
If you are at the US Open and in the audience while Trump is there:

1. Please BOO him. Boo him like you're from NY, even if you're not.

2. Record it. Record all of it.

3. Post it to every social media platform you can think of.
marisakabas.bsky.social
What the actual fuck.

US Tennis Association: “We ask all broadcasters to refrain from showcasing any disruptions or reactions in response to the President’s attendance in any capacity, including ENG [Electronic News Gathering] coverage.”
U.S. Open Orders Broadcasters to Censor Reactions to Trump
An email obtained by Bounces includes instructions from the U.S. Open on supporting Trump's planned stagecraft during the National Anthem.
www.benrothenberg.com
judithweisenfeld.com
Somehow I think Osaka would have been a better matchup.