Judith Casselberry

Judith Casselberry serves as the Geoffrey Canada Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Her academic work bridges religious studies, gender, and music, with a focus on African American women's experiences. She teaches courses on African American women’s religious lives, music and spirituality in popular culture, and Black intellectual thought.

Her educational background includes:

• PhD in African American Studies and Anthropology from Yale University
• MA in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University
• BM in Music Production and Engineering from Berklee College of Music

Professor Casselberry's research centers on African American religious and cultural studies, particularly gender dynamics in Pentecostalism. Her ethnography, The Labor of Faith, examines women's spiritual and organizational work in a New York-based Pentecostal denomination. She also investigates the Pentecostal influences on Grace Jones' performance aesthetics and co-edited a volume on Black women and Pentecostalism globally.

Her publications reveal consistent focus on religion-gender-music intersections within the African diaspora. Key themes include women's roles in religious movements, cultural significance of gospel/blues music, and embodiment of faith in performance and everyday life across historical and transnational contexts.

Her scholarly achievements have been recognized with numerous awards and fellowships:

• Post-Doctoral Fellow, Center for African American Studies, Princeton University (2008-2009)
• Ford Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fellow (2005-2006)
• Louisville Institute Honorary Doctoral Dissertation Fellow (2005-2006)
• Yale University Dissertation Fellowship (2005-2006)
• David Payne-Carter Excellence in Teaching Award Nominee, NYU (2005)
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Honorary Mention (2002)
• James T. Koetting Memorial Prize (1999)

As an educator, Professor Casselberry has mentored students in Africana Studies at Bowdoin College. Her research has been supported by competitive grants from Ford Foundation, NSF, and Yale University. She maintains an active parallel career as vocalist/guitarist performing with Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely, sharing stages with Stevie Wonder, Etta James, and Elvis Costello.