Visiting Scholars 2012-2013

Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. is currently the Chair of the Center for African American Studies and the William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African American Studies at Princeton University. He is also a Senior Fellow at The Jamestown Project at Harvard University. Widely regarded as one of the brightest young intellectuals in the US today, Glaude offers a critical and insightful view on the problems currently facing black America as well as the nation at large. He is the author of several books. His latest awarding book, In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, has been characterized as a tour de force – establishing him as “one of the most visionary thinkers of our time.” According to Cornel West, “Eddie Glaude is the towering intellectual of his generation. There is simply no one else like him emerging on the intellectual scene!”

Born on the coast of Mississippi, in a small town called Moss Point, Glaude brings to his scholarship and public service a sense of passion and vocation shaped by the tradition of African American struggle. As a graduate of Morehouse College, he was inspired by the courage and devotion of Martin Luther King, Jr., the institution’s most famous graduate. Currently, Glaude is a regular commentator on the Tavis Smiley Show From PRI. He has been a guest on radio shows ranging from The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC to Mildred Gaddis’s show, Inside Detroit. Glaude has also appeared on Hannity and Colmes as well as Tavis Smiley on PBS. With each appearance, Glaude seeks to prod and to provoke, to insist and to incite, to encourage and to embolden fellow citizens to rise to the profound challenges of our day.

Dr. Obery Hendricks has been called one of the most provocative and innovative commentators on the intersection of religion, politics and social policy in America today. A widely sought lecturer and media spokesperson, Dr. Hendricks’ media appearances include C-SPAN, PBS, National Public Radio, al-Jazeera Television, NHK Japan Television, Air-America, Radio One, Fox News, the Bloomberg Network, among others. He is a member of the Faith Advisory Council of the Democratic National Committee, a member of the National Religious Leaders Advisory Committee of the Barack Obama presidential campaign.

An Affiliated Scholar at the Center for American Progress (a Washington, DC think-tank) and a featured writer for Godspolitics.com and Faithfuldemocrats.com. He is also an editorial advisor to the award-winning Tikkun magazine, a contributing editor to The Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion, and a principal commentator in the The Oxford Annotated Bible. “Essential reading for Americans” is what The Washington Post called Dr. Hendricks’ most recent book, The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus’ Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted. Social critic Michael Eric Dyson describes it as “an instant classic” that “immediately thrusts Dr. Hendricks into the front ranks of American religious thinkers.” The Politics of Jesus was the featured subject of the C-SPAN program “Class, Politics and Christianity.” The Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation calls Hendricks’ postmodern “guerrilla” approach to biblical discourse “the boldest post-colonial writing ever seen in Western biblical studies.”

A former Wall Street investment executive and past president of Payne Theological Seminary, the oldest African American theological seminary in the United States, Dr. Hendricks is currently Professor of Biblical Interpretation at New York Theological Seminary. He holds the Master of Divinity with academic honors from Princeton Theological Seminary, and both the M.A. and Ph.D. in Religions of Late Antiquity from Princeton University.