Panelist at the 3rd annual What Are You? Event at the Brooklyn Historical Society
Marcelitte l. Failla
Curriculum Vitae
Education
2023 Ph.D., Emory University, Graduate Division of Religion
Course of Study: American Religious Cultures
Additional Certificate: Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Additional Concentration: Religious Practices and Practical Theology
Dissertation: Black Witch Thought:
An Africana Feminist Religious Movement in 21st-Century America
Committee Members: Dianne Stewart, Ph.D., Gary Laderman, Ph.D., Axelle Karera, Ph.D., Margarita Guillory, Ph.D.
2014 M.F.A., The City College of New York, CUNY
Documentary Film Production
2010 Bachelor of Arts, Hunter College, CUNY
Major: Africana & Latino/Puerto Rican Studies
Teaching and research interests
African and African Diaspora Religions, Black and Women of Color Feminisms, Black Religious Nationalism, Ethnography, Queer of Color Critique.
Publications
Refereed Articles and Chapters
“Black Witchcraft: Reclaiming an Ancestral Term of Power.” In New Scholarship in the Study of African American Religious History, Edited by Vaughn A. Booker, Ahmad Greene-Hayes, Judith Weisenfeld, and Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh. The Crossroads Project, Princeton University. Forthcoming.
“You Deserve Baby! The Black Witch and Spiritual Co-Creation.” In The Witch Studies Reader, Edited by Jane Ward and Soma Chaudhuri. Duke University Press (Summer 2023). Forthcoming.
(Invited) “Assembling an Africana Religious Orientation: The Black Witch, Digital Media, and Imagining a Black World of Being.” The Black Scholar 52, no. 3, Taylor & Francis Online (2022). 30–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/00064246.2022.2079067.
(Invited) “Black Tarot: African American Women and Divine Processes of Resilience.” Liturgy 36, no. 4, Taylor & Francis Online (2021). 41-51. DOI: 10.1080/0458063X.2021.1990665
“Black Femmes, Black Gods: Magic as Justice.” Journal of Religion and Culture 28, no. 2
Montreal, QC, Concordia University (2019). 139-155. http://www.jrc-concordia.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/JRC-v28n02-FAILLA-marcelitte-1.pdf
Other Publications
“Actually, I Am Black!” Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out. Ed. Adebe DeRango-Adem, and Andrea Thompson. Toronto: Inanna Publications and Education, 2010. 207-210.
Fellowships, Honors, and Awards
2023 Award for Outstanding Scholarly Research in the Humanities, Laney Graduate School
2022-2023 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship
2022 Dean’s Teaching Fellowship, Emory University (Declined)
2020-2023 Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society, Emory University
2019 Laney Graduate School Professional Development Grant
2018 Initiative in Religious Practices Research Grant
2018 Laney Graduate School Professional Development Grant
2018 Fellow in Sustainability, Teaching, and Curriculum
2017-2022 Emory Laney Graduate Fellowship
Presentations
Invited Talks
2022 “Black Tarot: African American Women and Divine Processes of Resilience,”
Lecture for Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of World Religions series, “Gnoseologies, Transcendence, and Transformation Today,” Online.
2022 “Queer Pagan History,”
Panelist for American LGBTQ+ Museum’s event, New York Historical Society, New York, NY
2022 “Manifesting Change: Black Witch Spiritual Co-Creation and Religiopolitical Thought,”
Lecture for Black Scholars on Black Lives Series, California State University Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA
2020 “Hoodoo Manifestation: Ritual in the Classroom,”
Guest lecture for Yvonne Chireau, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
2020 “Black Witchcraft” Guest lecture for Tina Pippin, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA
2016 “Microaggression Workshop,”
Guest Facilitator, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Days at The New School for Drama, New York, NY
Conference Presentations
2022 “Cultivating Inherent Power: The Black Witch, Ontology, and African-Derived Religion,”
Presenter, American Academy of Religion, Denver, CO
2022 “Manifesting Change: The Black Witch and Spiritual Activism,”
Presenter, National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Minneapolis, MN
2022 “Reclaiming an Ancestral Term of Power,”
Presenter, African and Diasporic Religious Studies Association, Online
2019 “Knowings: African Heritage Religions and Their Underappreciated Epistemologies,”
KOSANBA Conference, Durham, NC
2018 “Sacred Spaces as Healing and Resistance,”
Co-presenter, National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Atlanta, GA
2018 “Dark Sciences: Collective Dreaming for Transformative Change,”
Co-presenter, National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Atlanta, GA
2018 “Black Femmes, Black Gods: Magic as Justice,”
Presenter, Annual Graduate Interdisciplinary Conference, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
2017 “Dark Sciences: Collective Dreaming for Transformative Change,”
Co-presenter, National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Baltimore, MD
Public Scholarship
2022 “Brain Waves” (working title),
Film consultant to ensure accuracy of Hoodoo depiction, Atlanta, GA
2022 “The Black Witch in the Digital World,” Guest on the podcast Medicine Mondays, Online
2022 “As We Heal Our Ancestors’ Trauma, We Heal Ourselves,”
Guest on the podcast Missing Witches, Online
2021 “Hoodoo Conjure Digital Storytelling Circle,”
Online three-month workshop with Story Center on preserving the Hoodoo tradition
2020 “Mirror Memoirs”
Hoodoo consultant to develop healing toolkit for survivors of child sexual abuse, Online
Teaching Experience
2023/2024 Visiting Assistant Professor
Black Feminisms
Gender in Africana Religions
Black Queer Studies
Joint Appointment in African American Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
2020 Adjunct Professor
Religions of Africa and the Diaspora
Religion Department, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA
2019 Teaching Associate
Black Love
Emory University, Atlanta, GA
2018 Teaching Associate
Introduction to African American Studies
Emory University, Atlanta, GA
2018 Teaching Assistant
African Religious Cultures in the Americas and the Caribbean
Emory University, Atlanta, GA
2016-2017 Adjunct Professor
2017 — Cellphone Cinematography
2016 — Documentary Film Production
2016 — Web Series Development
2016-2017 — Directed studies with individual students
Film Department, Empire State College, SUNY, New York, NY
2015-2017 Instructor — Youth Program
2017 — Power Identity Privilege Curriculum
2016 — Social Justice Documentary Film Production
2015-2017 — Feminism Sisterhood Curriculum
Sadie Nash Leadership Project, New York, NY
2014-2016 Instructor — Summer Youth Program
Social Justice Documentary Film Production
Downtown Community Television Center, New York, NY
2013 Teaching Associate
Graduate Seminar in Documentary Film Production
City College of New York, CUNY, New York, NY
2010-2012 Instructor — Summer Youth Program
Exploring Gentrification Through the Arts Curriculum
Harlem Children’s Zone, New York, NY
Film screenings
Toasted Marshmallows — Director, Camera, Editor
2015 (Invited) “Difference and Media Project,” Bard College, Hudson, NY
2014 (Invited) “Mixed Monday Film Series,” Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, NY
2014 (Competitive) “Mixed Roots Stories Panel,”
Critical Mixed-Race Studies Conference, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
2013 (Competitive) “Between the Door and the Street,” Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Under Durham's Sky — Director, Animator, Editor
2013 (Competitive) San Antonio Queer Fest, San Antonio, TX
Nothing to Hide — Co-Director, Editor, Camera
2012 (Competitive) The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY
Certifications
2012 EmergeNYC, Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University
New York, NY
Institutional Service
2019-2021 Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, Graduate Student Mentor,
Emory University, Atlanta, GA
2019 Graduate Division of Religion Ethics Workshop: “Decolonizing the Study of Religion,”
Presenter, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
2019 Laney Graduate School Introductory Seminar, Jones Program in Ethics,
Presenter, Emory University, Atlanta, GA