Ennis Barrington Edmonds

Ennis B. Edmonds Associate Professor of Religious Studies Contact Information edmondse@kenyon.edu Currently, I teach African Diaspora religious traditions and religion and society in the United States at Kenyon College. Formerly, I taught in Sociology and Pan African Studies and directed the Pan African Studies Program at Barnard College, Columbia University. My research has focused primarily on Rastafari, leading to the publication of "Rastafari: From Outcasts to Culture Bearers" (Oxford University Press, 2003). Recently, I published my second book, "Caribbean Religious History: An Introduction." coauthored with Michelle Gonzalez from University of Miami (New York University Press, 2010). I have also published "Dread 'I' In-a-Babylon: Ideological Resistance and Cultural Revitalization," and "The Structure and Ethos of Rastafari" in Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader, edited by Nathaniel S. Murrell, et al. (Temple University Press, 1998). Furthermore, I have also authored a number of encyclopedia entries of Rastafari and other aspects of Caribbean religion and culture. Current research interests include the conversion of Rastas to Evangelical Christianity, the Jamaican religious group called Revival Zion, and religion in Afro-Caribbean and African American popular culture and literature. Areas of Expertise African diaspora religions, religion in America, sociology of religion, and religion and popular music in the African Diaspora. Education B.A., Jamaica Theological Seminary M.A., Western Evangelical [now George Fox Theological] Seminary Ph.D., Drew University