Ph.D. Harvard University

M.Div. Harvard Divinity School

B.A., Bethel College (N. Newton, KS)

Jalane Schmidt received her Ph.D. in the Study of Religion from Harvard University. She specializes in religions of the African diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean; popular Catholicism; colonialism, slavery and religion; and studies of race, religion, and politics. Her current project examines the performance of the history of slavery in the possession trance rituals of Cuban spiritist mediums. Professor Schmidt conducts field research in Cuba, and she teaches courses on Latin American festivals, pre-Columbian to 19th c. history of Latin American religions (indigenous religions, missions, etc.), African diaspora religions, witchcraft, and how religious practices formed whiteness as a racial category.

Recent Publications:

Book:

Cachita’s Streets: The Virgin of Charity, Race, and Revolution in Cuba (Duke University Press, 2015).

Book chapter:

“Cuba’s Virgin of Charity: Sanctity, Caribbean Creolization, and the Color Continuum,” in Molly Bassett & Vincent Lloyd, eds., Sainthood and Race: Marked Flesh, Holy Flesh, (Routledge, 2015), pp. 102-123.

Article:

“The ‘Antidote to Wall Street’? Cultural and Economic Mobilizations of Afro-Cuban Religions,” Latin American Perspectives (forthcoming).

LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES CLASSES:

RELA/AAS 2850: Afro-Creole Religions (3 credits)

RELA 3351: African Diaspora Religions (3 credits)

RELG/AAS 2700: Festivals of the Americas (3 credits)

RELG 3360: Conquests & Religions (3 credits)

RELA 3559: Magic & Witchcraft (3 credits)