Assistant Professor of Religion and Africana Studies
N. Fadeke Castor is a Black Feminist ethnographer and African diaspora studies scholar, with research and teaching interests on religion, race, and the intersectional politics of decolonization. Before joining Northeastern University she taught Afro-Atlantic religions, popular culture, cultural anthropology, and social theory at Williams College, Duke University, and Texas A&M University. Her first book, Spiritual Citizenship: Transnational Pathways from Black Power to Ifá in Trinidad (Duke University Press 2017; winner of the 2018 Clifford Geertz Award for best book in Anthropology of Religion) argues that the Trinidad Ifá/Orisha religion emerges from black power as central to the development of decolonization practices and cultures in the post-colonial Caribbean. Her new project focuses on the interplay of the Black radical tradition, social justice, and African spirituality as an example of spiritual citizenship in action.
- Mutual Mentoring Advancement Program Grant, ADVANCE, Northeastern University (Spring 2020)
- Clifford Geertz Award in Anthropology of Religion, American Anthropological Association (2018)
- Black Performance Theory Working Group – Fellowship (2005-2017)
- Roots & Wings Movement! Makeda Thomas Dance & Performance Institute, Artist in Residence, Port of Spain, Trinidad. (Summer 2010)
- Clifford Geertz Prize, for best book in the Anthropology of Religion (presented by the Society for the Anthropology of Religion, American Anthropological Association).
- 2020 “Juju Justice: Policing and Black Religions” (with Aisha Beliso De-Jesús and Allison McCrary). Proceedings of the Roots, Rocks, Ring Shouts Symposium. Africana Studies Review. 6(1) Spring: 86-99.
- Spiritual Citizenship: Transnational Pathways from Black Power to Ifá in Trinidad.
(Duke University Press, 2017) - 2013 “Shifting multicultural citizenship: Trinidad Orisha opens the road” Cultural Anthropology. 28(3) August: 475-489.
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Education
PhD , University of Chicago
BA, Pomona Colege -
Contact
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Address
427 Renaissance Park
360 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115 -
Office Hours
Tuesdays 3:30-4:30pm and by appointment via Zoom
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Religion and Spirituality in the African Diaspora
AFRS 3410
Examines religious thought and rituals and the Diaspora in a comparative context. Topics include traditional religions, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism in Africa, and the Diaspora. Emphasizes the transformation of religions practiced in Africa when African captives were forced into the three slave trades affecting the continent of Africa: trans-Saharan, Indian Ocean, and transatlantic.
Introduction to Religious Studies
PHIL 1110
Examines the methods, disciplines, and theories employed in the academic study of religion. Focuses on major theories of religion employed in the discipline of religious studies, including historical, psychological, anthropological, and sociological approaches. Introduces students to the primary methods of research in the academic study of religion