Josef Sorett

Josef Sorett is an American scholar of religion and race in the Americas. He has served as the Dean of Columbia College of Columbia University since July 2022.^[1]

Education

Josef Sorett received his BS in Health and Exercise Science from Oral Roberts University, his MDiv in Religion and Literature from Boston University, and his PhD in African American Studies from Harvard University.

Career

Sorett first taught at Columbia University in 2009, and he became Professor of Religion and African American and African Diaspora Studies, Chair of the Department of Religion, and Director of the Center on African-American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice. Effective July 2022, Sorett served as the Dean of Columbia College and Vice President of Undergraduate Education.^[2] Sorett's research focuses on how religion has shaped cultures of Black communities and movements in the United States, from a perspective that straddles history, literature, religion, art, and music.^[2]

Sorett is the editor of The Sexual Politics of Black Churches published by Columbia University Press in 2022.^[3] The book investigates the politics of sexuality within Black churches and their communities.^[2]

Books

Spirit in the Dark: A Religious History of Racial Aesthetics (Oxford University Press, 2016)^[4]
The Sexual Politics of Black Churches (Columbia University Press, 2022) editor^[5]
Black is a Church: Christianity and the Contours of African American Life (Oxford University Press, 2023)