Marla Faye Frederick is an American

ethnographer Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

and scholar, with a focus on the

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

experience. Her work addresses a range of topics including race, gender, religion and media studies. She became the eighteenth Dean of

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the religious studies, academic study of religion or for leadership role ...

on January 1, 2024.

Education

Frederick earned a BA in English from

Spelman College Spelman College is a Private college, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black, Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia ...

and in 2000, earned a PhD in

cultural anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The term ...

from

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

. She was a postdoctorate fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

Career and service

Frederick was an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

at the University of Cincinnati. She has been a visiting professor at the

Interdenominational Theological Center The Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) is a consortium of five predominantly African-American denominational Christian seminaries in Atlanta, Georgia, operating together as a professional graduate school of theology. It is the largest ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

and at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

. In the early 2000s and 2010s, Frederick was Assistant Professor of Religion and

African-American Studies Black studies or Africana studies (with nationally specific terms, such as African American studies and Black Canadian studies), is an interdisciplinary academic field that primarily focuses on the study of the history, culture, and politics of ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. In 2008, she was the Joy Foundation Fellow at the

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an institute of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts ...

at Harvard. Frederick became the

Asa Griggs Candler Asa Griggs Candler Sr. (December 30, 1851 – March 12, 1929) was an American business tycoon and politician who in 1888 purchased the Coca-Cola recipe for $238.98 () from chemist John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia. Candler founded the ...

Professor of Religion and Culture at the

Candler School of Theology Candler School of Theology is one of seven graduate schools at Emory University, located in Atlanta metropolitan area, metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. A university-based school of theology, Candler educates Minister (Christi ...

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

in 2019. Frederick has served as the President of the

Association of Black Anthropologists Founded in 1975, the Association of Black Anthropologists (ABA) is an American organization that brings together Black anthropologists in an effort to better highlight the history of African Americans, especially in regard to exploitation, oppres ...

. Frederick was the president of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) in 2021. On August 24, 2023,

announced that Frederick would become Dean of

on January 1, 2024.

Research

Frederick's first book ''Between Sundays: Black Women and Everyday Struggles of Faith'' (University of California Press, 2003), an ethnography of black church women in Halifax County,

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, was praised by reviewers; the review in ''

Contemporary Sociology ''Contemporary Sociology'' is a bi-monthly peer-reviewed academic journal of sociology published by SAGE Publications in association with the American Sociological Association since 1972. Each issue of the journal publishes many in-depth as well as ...

'' described it as a work that "puts a human face on so many sociological concepts and categories." In 2007, Frederick participated in a seven-author collaborative project in which scholars embedded themselves in North Carolina communities and observed how

American democracy In the United States, politics functions within a framework of a constitutional federal democratic republic with a presidential system. The three distinct branches share powers: Congress, which forms the legislative branch, a bicameral legis ...

functioned in an "ordinary" community beyond just the act of

voting Voting is the process of choosing officials or policies by casting a ballot, a document used by people to formally express their preferences. Republics and representative democracies are governments where the population chooses representative ...

. The resulting book was ''Local Democracy Under Siege Activism, Public Interests, and Private Politics,'' which won the 2008

Society for the Anthropology of North America The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an American organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropol ...

(SANA) Book Prize. Her first book on the relationship between television and religion was ''Colored Television: American Religion Gone Global'' (Stanford University Press, 2015). In 2016, Frederick co-authored ''Televised Redemption: Black Religious Media and Racial Empowerment'' with Carolyn Moxey Rouse and John L. Jackson Jr.

References

External links

Harvard Divinity School profile
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Frederick, Marla F. 1972 births Living people 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics Spelman College alumni Harvard University faculty Emory University faculty Candler School of Theology faculty American women anthropologists Duke University alumni Anthropologists of religion 21st-century American anthropologists American cultural anthropologists