Candler School of Theology will open the 2020-2021 academic year with a virtual fall convocation service on Thursday, August 27, at 11:30 a.m. EDT. Marla F. Frederick will be officially installed as Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Religion and Culture and will give the convocation address, “The Path to Freedom.” Mary Lee Hardin Willard Dean Jan Love and new Emory University President Gregory L. Fenves will also take part in the program. The service will be available to watch live on Facebook and Instagram, and after the event on Vimeo.
Frederick joined the faculty in the fall of 2019. A leading ethnographer, she employs an interdisciplinary approach to examine the overlapping spheres of religion, race, gender, media, politics, and economics. Her teaching interests encompass the anthropology of religion and the African American religious experience, and her ongoing research interests include the study of religion and media, religion and economics, and the sustainability of Black institutions in a ‘post-racial’ world. Frederick is the author of four books and several articles. Most recently, she co-authored Televised Redemption: Black Religious Media and Racial Empowerment (NYU Press, 2016), which examines how Black Christians, Muslims, and Hebrew Israelites use media for the “redemption” of the race.