The Rev. R. Nicholas (Nick) Peterson's research focuses on Black Faith’s response to antiblackness. As a practical theologian, he is concerned with how practices of Black Faith emerge in Black preaching and worship as Black-on-Black Care. Considering the contentions raised by afropessimists, radical Black feminists, and Black critical theorists, Nick problematizes political notions of freedom and liberation built upon and sustained by antiblack violence. Such imaginations of freedom and liberation cannot be for Black people if they are structured by the subjection of Black people. In his work, Black-on-Black Care founds a transformative relationship between God and Blackness that undermines the absence of care in an antiblack world. As practices of Black Faith, preaching, worship, and theological reflection resist antiblackness as they demonstrate care for Black people.

Before his appointment at Candler, Nick taught in the Religion and Philosophy department at Morehouse College. At Lancaster Theological Seminary, where he served as the Director of Chapel, Peterson taught courses on Christian worship, Pentecostal theology, preaching, and race and theology. He has also taught at Columbia Theological Seminary and Penn State University - Berks. These broad experiences ground his teaching in a pedagogy of care.

He is an ordained Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and an accomplished musician. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, a visitor to the North American Academy of Liturgy, and a member of the Academy of Homiletics. Through his teaching, research, preaching, and work as a public theologian, Nick aims to affirm the gift of Black faith and empower Black people inside and outside the church to embrace care as a robust practice.