About Joseph Stuart

I am a scholar of African American history, particularly of the relationship between race, freedom rights, and religion in the twentieth century Black Freedom Movement. My scholarship and pedagogy are built around establishing similarities, differences, and contingencies that reveal how groups fought for liberation in myriad ways. I assume that there is no single movement or approach to Black freedom that can adequately unpack the aims and desires of all Black communities—and that we do historical actors a disservice by flattening their decisions into simplistic categories. The same can and must be recognized when broadly describing the historical construction of race, gender, or politics.

Joseph Stuart is a scholar of African American history, particularly of the relationship between race, freedom rights, and religion in the twentieth century Black Freedom Movement.

NBN Episodes hosted by Joseph:

Brent M. Rogers, "Buffalo Bill and the Mormons" (U Nebraska Press, 2024)

March 24, 2024

Buffalo Bill and the Mormons

Brent M. Rogers
Hosted by Joseph Stuart

In this never-before-told history of Buffalo Bill and the Mormons, Brent M. Rogers presents the intersections in the epic histories of William F. "Buf…

Janiece Johnson, "Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture" (UNC Press, 2023)

August 22, 2023

Convicting the Mormons

Janiece Johnson
Hosted by Joseph Stuart
Listen:

On September 11, 1857, a small band of Mormons led by John D. Lee massacred an emigrant train of men, women, and children heading west at Mountain Mea…

Stephen C. Taysom, "Like a Fiery Meteor: The Life of Joseph F. Smith" (U of Utah Press, 2023)

July 28, 2023

Like a Fiery Meteor

Stephen C. Taysom
Hosted by Joseph Stuart
Listen:

Joseph F. Smith was born in 1838 to Hyrum Smith and Mary Fielding Smith. Six years later both his father and his uncle, Joseph Smith Jr., the founding…

Lloyd Daniel Barba, "Sowing the Sacred: Mexican Pentecostal Farmworkers in California" (Oxford UP, 2022)

June 16, 2023

Sowing the Sacred

Lloyd Daniel Barba
Hosted by Joseph Stuart
Listen:

Lloyd Daniel Barba's book Sowing the Sacred: Mexican Pentecostal Farmworkers in California (Oxford UP, 2022) traces the development of Pentecostalism …

Tazeen M. Ali, "The Women’s Mosque of America: Authority and Community in US Islam" (NYU Press, 2022)

May 28, 2023

The Women’s Mosque of America

Tazeen M. Ali
Hosted by Joseph Stuart

The Women’s Mosque of America (WMA), a multiracial, women-only mosque in Los Angeles, is the first of its kind in the United States. Since 2015, the W…

Edward E. Curtis IV, "Muslims of the Heartland: How Syrian Immigrants Made a Home in the American Midwest" (NYU Press, 2022)

December 23, 2022

Muslims of the Heartland

Edward E. Curtis IV
Hosted by Joseph Stuart

The American Midwest is often thought of as uniformly white, and shaped exclusively by Christian values. However, this view of the region as an unvary…

Joseph Blankholm, "The Secular Paradox: On the Religiosity of the Not Religious" (NYU Press, 2022)

October 7, 2022

The Secular Paradox

Joseph Blankholm
Hosted by Joseph Stuart

For much of America’s rapidly growing secular population, religion is an inescapable source of skepticism and discomfort. It shows up in politics and …

Jamil W. Drake, "To Know the Soul of a People: Religion, Race, and the Making of Southern Folk" (Oxford UP, 2022)

August 22, 2022

To Know the Soul of a People

Jamil W. Drake
Hosted by Joseph Stuart

To Know the Soul of a People: Religion, Race, and the Making of Southern Folk (Oxford UP, 2022) is a history of religion and race in the agricultural …

Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh, "The Souls of Womenfolk: The Religious Cultures of Enslaved Women in the Lower South" (UNC Press, 2021)

November 15, 2021

The Souls of Womenfolk

Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh
Hosted by Joseph Stuart

Beginning on the shores of West Africa in the sixteenth century and ending in the U.S. Lower South on the eve of the Civil War, Alexis Wells-Oghoghome…

John Wigger, "PTL: The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Evangelical Empire" (Oxford UP, 2017)

October 5, 2021

PTL

John Wigger
Hosted by Joseph Stuart

In 1974 Jim and Tammy Bakker launched their television show, the "PTL Club," from a former furniture store in Charlotte, N.C. with half a dozen friend…