The Promise and Precarity of Black Institutions

"The Promise and Precarity of Black Institutions: Historical Pasts, Ethnographic Presents, and Collective Futures"

Dr. Marla Frederick, an ethnographer whose scholarship focuses on the African American religious experience, presented Yale Divinity School’s annual Parks-King Lecture on Thursday, January 18, 2024.

The lecture this year followed an interview format, with Dr. Frederick responding to questions from YDS faculty member Todne Thomas, Associate Professor of Divinity and Religious Studies.

Marla Frederick is the Dean of Harvard Divinity School.

Dr. Frederick employs an interdisciplinary approach to examining the ways religion, race, and politics impact everyday lives. Her influential scholarship is principally focused on the study of religion and media, religion and social activism in the U.S. South, and the sustainability of Black institutions in a “post-racial” world. She is the author or co-author of four books, including Between Sundays and Colored Television: American Religion Gone Global. She is general editor of an encyclopedia of the histories of historically Black colleges and universities. She has taught courses on the anthropology of religion; religion, gender, and race; the African American experience; and American evangelicalism.

Originally from Sumter, S.C., Dr. Frederick earned her bachelor’s degree from Spelman College and her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Duke University.

Yale Divinity School’s Parks-King Lectureship commemorates two civil rights activists, Mrs. Rosa Parks and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was established in 1983 through the efforts of the Yale Black Seminarians. The lecture brings the contributions of African American scholars, social theorists, pastors, and social activists to YDS and to the larger New Haven community.