Core faculty

These professors direct dissertations in American religion:

Yaakov S. Ariel
Professor, UNC Department of Religious Studies
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1986
Specialization: contemporary Judaism; Protestant-Jewish relations

Mark Chaves
Professor of Sociology, Religion, and Divinity, Duke University
Ph.D., Harvard University, 1991
Specialization: sociology of religion; social organization of American religion

Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp
Associate Professor, UNC Department of Religious Studies
Ph.D., Yale University, 1990
Specialization: African American religions; Mormon history and practice; religion in the Pacific World

David Morgan
Coming to Duke in 2008
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1990
Specialization: history of religious visual and print culture

Todd Ramón Ochoa
Assistant Professor, UNC Department of Religious Studies
Ph.D., Columbia University, 2005
Specialization: Santería; anthropology of religion

Grant Wacker
Professor, Duke Divinity School
Ph.D., Harvard University, 1979
Specialization: evangelicalism; missions; Protestant thought

Affiliated faculty

These professors teach courses related to, and may serve on committees in, American religion:

Jason Bivins, North Carolina State University
Specialization: religion and politics since 1900

Fitzhugh Brundage, UNC Department of History
Specialization: American South since the Civil War

Jackson Carroll, Duke Divinity School (emeritus)
Specialization: sociology of religion

Curtis Freeman, Duke Divinity School
Specialization: Baptist studies

Philip F. Gura, UNC Department of English
Specialization: American literature and music

Reginald Hildebrand, UNC Department of African and AfroAmerican Studies
Specialization: African-American Methodism in U.S. history

Glenn Hinson, UNC Folklore Studies
Specialization: African American expressive culture; health and belief systems; ethnographic practice

Richard Jaffe, Duke Religion
Specialization: Buddhism in America

Lisa Keister, Duke Sociology
Specialization: religion and inequality

Wesley Kort, Duke Religion
Specialization: religion and culture; religion and literature

Michael Lienesch, UNC Department of Political Science
Specialization: politics and religion in the 20th-century United States

Timothy Marr, UNC Curriculum in American Studies
Specialization: Islamic representations in American culture

Donald Mathews, UNC Department of History (emeritus)
Specialization: religion in U.S. social history; Southern religion

Theda Purdue, UNC Department of History and Curriculum in American Studies
Specialization: American Indian history and culture

Timothy Tyson, Duke Divinity School
Specialization: American Christianity and Southern culture

Lauren Winner, Duke Divinity School
Specialization: Christian spirituality; colonial America

Scholars in other departments or programs at both Duke and UNC—including African American Studies, Anthropology, English, Folklore, History, Latin American Studies, Political Science, Sociology, and Women’s Studies—regularly offer courses and participate on examination and dissertation committees in American religion.