Quick Facts
Biography
Dianne M. Stewart is an associate professor of Religion and African American Studies at Emory University. Stewart's work focuses on religion, culture and African heritage in the Caribbean and the Americas.
Personal life
Dianne M. Stewart was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and grew up in Hartford, CT, USA. In 1990, Stewart obtained her B.A. degree from Colgate University in English and African American Studies. In 1993, she obtained her Masters of Divinity in theology and culture, specializing in African American Religious Thought from the Harvard Divinity School. In 1997, she received a Ph.D. in systematic theology, specializing in African Diaspora Religious Thought & Cultures from Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
Stewart studied with scholars including Delores Williams, James Washington and her adviser James Cone.
Career
From 1998 to 2001, Stewart was an assistant professor of religious studies at College of the Holy Cross. In 2001, she joined Emory's faculty, and is currently associate professor of religion and African American studies. where she instructs undergraduate and graduate courses focused on African American religion and culture.
Publications
Stewart's first monograph was titled, "Three Eyes for the Journey: African Dimensions of the Jamaican Religious Experience" and analyzed the motif of liberation in African heritage from the 18th to 21st century. Subsequently, Stewart has published a number of books and articles:
| Year | Publication | Title | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Western Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 27, no. 3 | “Authenticity and Authority in the shaping of Trinidad Orisha Identity: Toward an African-Derived Religious Theory,” co-authored with Tracey Hucks | |
| 2005 | Oxford University Press | Three Eyes for the Journey: African Dimensions of the Jamaican Religious Experience | |
| 2005 | Encyclopedia of Religion, Volume 1, 2nd edition, edited by Lindsay Jones, 73-83. | “African American Religion: History of Study” co-authored with Tracey E. Hucks | |
| 2005 | Contours: A Journal of the African Diaspora 3:2 | “African-Derived Religions in Jamaica: Polyvalent Repertoires of Culture and Identity in the Black Atlantic” | |
| 2006 | Deeper Shades of Purple: Womanist Approaches in Religion and Society, edited by Stacey Floyd-Thomas | “Dancing Limbo: Black Passages Through the Boundaries of Place, Race, Class, and Religion" | |
| 2006 | “Indigenous Wisdom at Work in Jamaica: The Power of Kumina" | Indigenous Peoples’ Wisdom and Power: Affirming Our Knowledge Through Narratives, edited by Ivy Goduka and Julian Kunnie, 127-142. | |
| 2006 | “Women in African Caribbean Religious Traditions” | Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, edited by Rosemary Skinner Kellar and Rosemary Radford Ruether, 116-126. | |
| 2007 | International Journal of African Renaissance Studies 2:1 (July 2007): 35-57 | “Collecting on Their Investments One Woman at a Time: Economic Partnerships Among Caribbean Immigrant Women in the United States,” | |
| 2008 | The Hope of Liberation in World Religions, edited by Miguel A. De La Torre, 239-256. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2008 | “Orisha Traditions in the West" | |
| 2013 | Bulletin of Ecumenical Theology Vol. 25 (2013): 61-79 | “Matricentric Foundations of Africana Women's Religious Practices of Peacemaking, Sustainability, and Social Change,” | |
| 2013 | Journal of Africana Religions Vol. 1, no. 1 (January 2013): 28-77 | “Africana Religious Studies: Toward a Transdisciplinary Agenda in an Emerging Field,” co-authored with Tracey E. Hucks | |
| 2013 | Caribbean Cultural Thought: From Plantation to Diaspora, edited by Yanique Hume and Aaron Kamugisha, 509-553. Kingston: Ian Randle Press, 2013 (reprinted from Dianne M. Stewart, Three Eyes for the Journey, chapter four, 139-187) | “Visitation: The Legacy of African-Derived Religions in Jamaica,” | |
| 2014 | The Oxford Handbook of African American Theology, edited by Katie Cannon and Anthony Pinn, 331-350. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2014 | “Religious Pluralism and African American Theology" | |
| 2016 | Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion Vol. 7, Issue 1.4 (July 2016), 1-29 | “Rethinking Indigenous Africana Sources of Womanist-Feminist Activisms in the 21st Century” |
Awards and Fellowships
Stewart received the Emory College of Arts and Sciences' Distinguished Advising Award, the Emory University Laney Graduate School's Eleanor Main Graduate Faculty Mentor Award, and a Senior Fellowship at the Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry. Over the course of her career, her honors include:
| Year | Award |
|---|---|
| 2017 | The Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry Senior Fellowship, Emory University |
| 2016 | PERS Grant, Emory College of Arts and Sciences |
| 2016 | Eleanor Main Graduate Faculty Mentor Award, Emory University Laney Graduate School |
| 2016 | CFDE Engaged Learning Program Grant |
| 2016 | Center for Creative Arts Grant |
| 2013 | Distinguished Advising Award, Emory College of Arts and Sciences |
| 2012 | American Academy of Religion, Collaborative Research Assistance Grant (Trinidad & England) |
| 2011 | Woodruff Presidential Faculty Research & Travel Grant (DR Congo & England), Emory College |
| 2009 | Woodruff Faculty Resource Grant, Emory College |
| 2008 | ICIS Faculty International Travel Grant (England), Emory College |
| 2006 | Fulbright Scholar, Democratic Republic of Congo |
| 2006 | ICIS Faculty International Research Grant, Emory College |
| 2005 | Massee-Martin Teaching Consultation Grant (with Dr. Regine Jackson), Emory College |
| 2005 | ICIS Faculty International Travel Grant, Emory University (Jamaica & Trinidad) |
| 2003 | ICIS Faculty International Travel Grant, Emory University (Trinidad) |
| 2002 | Massee-Martin Teaching Consultation Grant (with Dr. Frances Foster), Emory College |
| 2001 | University Teaching Fund, Emory University (Collaborative Gullah Project with Dr. Tracy Rone) |
| 1999 | American Academy of Religion, Collaborative Research Assistance Grant (Jamaica) |
| 1999 | Hewlett Mellon Grant, Holy Cross College (Trinidad & Tobago) |
| 1999 | Hewlett Mellon Grant, Holy Cross College, Educational Technology Web Site SETA Program |
| 1998 | Research and Publication Faculty Fellowship, College of the Holy Cross (Trinidad & Tobago) |
| 1998 | Wallace Faculty Research Grant, Macalester College (Nigeria) |
Committees
Stewart served with the American Academy of Religion and is the founding co-editor with Dr. Jacob Olupona and Dr. Terrance Johnson of the Religious Cultures of African and African Diaspora People series at Duke University Press.
Fieldwork
The focus of her research is African religions and the practices and religious thought of African-descended people in the regions of Anglophone Caribbean and the United States. Another aspect of her research is women's studies, particularly the approaches of women to theory and method of African religious studies. Stewart has lectured and worked in African, Latin American, and Caribbean countries including, Trinidad, Jamaica, Nigeria, The Benin Republic, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Congo, and Bermuda. Her book, Local and Transnational Legacies of African Christianity in West-Central Africa and the Black Atlantic World, considers how 18th century Kongolese Catholicism, influenced the formation of Afro-Protestant institutions among African people.